Is "Mac OS" an incorrect term?

[MacNut]

If they wanted people to call it ten they would have said ten. I thought they wanted people to call it by the cat names anyways. "Lion" "Tiger"

The "Mac OS" is still the proper term to distinguish from Windows. Maybe you youngins who never heard of classic call it OS 10.

 

[phrehdd]

Might consider it relative vs absolute -

relative Mac OS vs Windows OS or Linux OS etc.

OSX is an absolute reference to a specific OS within the Mac family.

 

[maflynn]

Well, we can settle the discussion about what's right or wrong right here.

Apple calls it OS Ten, so there.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA22541

-t

I know, I already stated this. So what. I and a bunch of people know call it "OS ex" I don't lose sleep over it.

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How would you call OS XI?

No idea but then I'll burn that bridge when apple releases OS XI. Odds are we'll be seeing OS X for the foreseeable future.

 

[Eric5h5]

.

Not anymore.

--Eric

 

[penplotter]

Call it a giraffe for all I care. "Mac OS" is the name, "X" is the current numeric revision.


Does it really matter? Is there an official "Macintosh software pronunciation society"?

 

[MacNut]

Not anymore.

--Eric

See that looks stupid.

 

[Eric5h5]

Call it a giraffe for all I care. "Mac OS" is the name, "X" is the current numeric revision.

Nope, "OS X" is the name, 10.9.2 is the current numeric revision. Which is perhaps a bit silly considering that versions 1-9 of OS X never existed, but hey, there's no law that says you have to start with 1....

--Eric

 

[pdjudd]

Which is perhaps a bit silly considering that versions 1-9 of OS X never existed, but hey, there's no law that says you have to start with 1....

--Eric

Well there is a version 1-9 of Mac OS. The X is supposed to refer to Unix. It still is the 10’th version of the OS - well kinda. OSX is a whole new series of Mac OS in of itself, but it’s version of 10.X is intended to show it as a successor to the original Mac OS.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Well there is a version 1-9 of Mac OS. The X is supposed to refer to Unix. It still is the 10’th version of the OS - well kinda. OSX is a whole new series of Mac OS in of itself, but it’s version of 10.X is intended to show it as a successor to the original Mac OS.

Yep.

The "Classic" OS of the Mac was named "System x" (where "x" is a numeral, i.e. System 6, System 7, etc.) until System 7.5.3 went to Mac OS 7.6.

IIRC, the name-change (from System 7.x to Mac OS 7.x) was due to the fact that Apple infamously allowed clones, which could use Mac OS 7.6 and later.

Luckily Steve killed that disastrous episode when he came back. But the OS-naming scheme had remained: Mac OS 8, Mac OS 9, and later of course, the UNIX-based Mac OS X (10)

Apple kept the "brand" name of Mac OS X, and kind of started over with counting: 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 etc.

Later Apple "ditched" the "Mac" and now it's only called "OS X". Probably to make it sound more in line with "iOS".

 

[iamMacPerson]

The way I look at it, "Mac OS" is short for the "Macintosh Operating System" which it is. When I say "Mac OS" I'm usually talking about the general eco-system for the Mac and the OS itself.

Now I do have some older PPC machines and some 68k machines, most of which are running pre-OS 8 for their software. Usually, I refer to anything 7 or earlier (7.6 included) as "System Software" or "System". I also sometimes call OS 8.0 System 8, but only when I have been talking about earlier versions of the SS.

When I started using Mac OS X, it was only obvious to me that it would be "Mac OS Ten" since it was called "Mac OS Nine" before. When it comes up in conversation, per-say someone asks me what OS I'm running, I respond "Mac OS Ten version 10.9.2" because nowadays the official OS name does have the X in it. The "X" is the roman numeral, you wouldn't look at VIIII and say "v, i, i, i, i". You would say "nine" right?

Also now that I think about, Steve and Tim have always called it "Mac OS Ten".

So, no "Mac OS" is not an incorrect term. Just because Apple dropped the Mac from the OS's name, doesn't mean its an incorrect term. People have said Mac OS since the beginning so they didn't have to sit there and say the whole thing, "Macintosh Operating System" even back into the System Software era.