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SubscribeWill Apple's OS X be stopping at 10.6?
Being a bit of a Mac fan, I casually mentioned to my wife the upcoming (and generally eagerly awaited) Macworld conference. I then went on to mention that I'll be buying Leopard when it comes out.
Julie's response: Didn't you buy it last year?
Me: No, that was Tiger.
Julie: How many big cats are there?
Good point!
Leopard is due out this spring, so I popped over to Wikipedia to see what big cats had been used by Apple so far:
- Mac OS X 10.0 - Cheetah
- Mac OS X 10.1 - Puma
- Mac OS X 10.2 - Jaguar
- Mac OS X 10.3 - Panther
- Mac OS X 10.4 - Tiger
- Mac OS X 10.5 - Leopard
By my reckoning (and little more Wikipedia browsing), the only big cat left is the Lion.
There are others: the Snow Leopard and Clouded Leopard - but I ruled them out because, well, we're going have Leopard this year...and we don't want to repeat do we?
There's also an Onza, but a) I'm not sure very many people will realise this is (supposed to be) classed as a big cat, and b)
Texas Tech University researchers concluded that the onza is most likely a genetic variant of puma, but not a distinct cat species
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onza
So, all in all it sounds like Lion should be next, and then...what? The end of OS X? The end of big kitty codenames?
I think some cat loving Apple employee might just be foregoing his next Christmas bonus! I can here them now...[cue fantasy sequence]...
What do you mean there's no more big cats left? What did you think we would do a "Microsoft Word" and just make the numbers up? †
† i.e. MS Word 1, 2, 6, 7, 8...etc.
Either way - I'm looking forward to what Apple can pull out of the bag.
Oh, and just to cover myself here, obviously this is all a bit tongue in cheek! 
How about the Liger? Or the Tigon? Both very reasonable options!
I think Apple should have considered using names from The Thundercats, but then I guess they would be faced with both running out of names, and having to call one of them 'Snarf'!
What about the ferocious Ocelot?!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Ocelotkitten.jpg
How about Lynx?
Anyone heard of a COUGAR?
10.7 Lion
10.8 Oscelot
10.9 Lynx
11.0 Siamese
11.1 Tabby
11.2 Sphynx
11.3 Garfield
11.4 Felix
11.5 Sylvester
11.6 Toonces
We're set for another 10 years!
or gasp... they may stop using cat names... :p
Let's hope that Garfield gets a shot. Watch out Microsoft, the fat cat is in town and ready for pouncing.
[...] Will Apple’s OS X be stopping at 10.6? at remy sharp’s b:log (tags: apple mac osx software) [...]
A cougar is actually another name for a Puma.
As a member of staff at Cats Protection (http://www.cats.org.uk) I think I may propose a partnership with Apple where a % of sales from '11.4 Felix' is donated to such a worthy cause
Hi:
Apple has trademarked at least two more big cat names after Leopard -- Puma and, I think, Cougar. We may be paying for upgrades for several more iterations.
Having said that, I recently had to go back and use a Panther (OS 10.3) Mac. The improvements for Tiger (OS 10.4) in terms of ease of use were pretty startling. I had forgotten.
Whoops! Sorry about that. Of course it's not "Puma" for the Leopard follow-on. The 2 names Apple has trademarked are LYNX and Cougar. They were trademarked a couple of years ago.
How abour Mac OS X 10.9 Sphinx. I reckon that would be a pretty cool code name for the last Mac OS X. You never know
Also Mac OSX Fritz The Cat
Another possibility is Cougar
Jamiroquai = the cat with the hat = Dr Suess
An excellent set of connections, although I accept that Dr Suess is not actually a cat but the creator.
Either way we can all agree that Jamiroquai is a big cat.
Unfortuantly for me ........... the following don't creally cut the ice;
Lynx = bad deoderent
couger = bad car made by ford
Also what about just changing species ......... to sharks or whales etc.....
you could have "Wolf", "Husskie", "Cobera", "Dolphin", "White", "Bull", "Bison", "Eagle" .... or even better "seagull" - Which just s**ts at will on the competition.
i'd guess after the "big wild cat" names some fish names... like:... shark.. tuna, salmon will follow
or maybe birds: phoenix, eagle, chicken 
there is still guepard for the list =)
did i hear PUSSYcat?
seems to me that it would make the most sence to go from weakest big cat to strongest. it this is true, then lion would be the last os ten version. im trying to go over the past cats in my head and it seems like thats how it could have been going alltho i would have put tiger after leopard, unless we are talking about speed.. im pretty sure the leopard is faster than the tiger, but the lion is the king..
Or maybe they could switch over to food! I mean, cats are on their way out. The whole animal theme...on it's way out. Plus, their name is apple. So we could have like 11.0 Cheesecake, 11.1 Latte, 11.2 Chicken Vindaloo....
I sure hope they get more creative...
I was thinking they could use Lynx. Sounds pretty cool.
How about snake names, such as VIPER, MAMBA, RACER, DIAMONDBACK, COPPERHEAD, etc.
I think Bobcat! or Domestic.
Or maybe they'll change to types of Domestic cats.
Siamese, Bengal.
I think lion is maybe the only ''big cat'' left so probably its gonna be the next os x
but for os 11 they could make a ''big dogs'' series with names like (pitbull,rotvailer,wolfdog,Labrador)and stuff like that
Or maybe they will start calling it FreeBSD and stop pretending they wrote the kernel AND stop forgetting to properly backport useful changes - troll troll troll.
caracal too?
i really hate cats, so i wish they would seriously stop.
I heard a rumor that Apple and VW are working on a vehicle together, co-designing. I know that an upcoming model name is the "Tiguan" a cross between Tiger and Iguana (thank the UK market for naming this US-export small SUV). I can see it now. Apple's Mac OS X 10.6 Tiguan FREE with any Volkswagen Tiguan purchase, works on ANY Computer! OR you can get the special Apple Limited Edition VW Tiguan in gunmetal with pinstriped seats with a Mac Mini as the ECU for the whole vehicle....
the possibilities are endless, really.
Cougars and Pumas are virtually the same species, so I doubt that Cougar would be used for 10.6 - it would be like recycling. Probably Lion or Lynx
Hey, also Garfield is a "big" cat...
Actually cougars, pumas, and panthers are all pretty much the same. Not to mention in south America panther is used in reference to jaguars, which is a reference to leopards. Out of the four classic "big cats" they used all and reused at least one. So yeah they don't seem to care about reusing species.
They could also move to another genus - like birds. Imagine OS X 10.7 Eagle. Or maybe by then it'll be time for OS XI
Sphinx reminds me of sphincter...
For 11 I think it might be kinda cool to choose the gods of greek mythology... like OS XI Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, etc.
It's possible after naming a few cats like Lynx, Cougar, and/or Lion, that they would go back into bears. I mean, take a look at Mac OS X Public Beta, that was nicknamed after the Brown Bear "Kodiak". Maybe they'll go with Brown Bears like Grizzly, Marsican, Bergman, etc. But then again, those are weird names for OS's. So are Big Cat's I suppose.
They should go with Cultural Movements like Mac OS X1 - "Graeco, Nominalism, Renaissance. Baroque, Realism, Nouveau, etc."
I don't know... Steve will figure something out.
personally,
i hope and trust that there will be a 'huge leap forward' with the years directly following 'leopard, cougar, and (last, of course), lion...doubtless apple intends to deliver an iphone sized mac within a couple of years, so things will change a lot. think about machines where you're using the multitouch when you're mobile, you're gonna want the same capabilties when it's docked to its monitor, keyboard, whatever... so that's probably what they're thinking for OS XI.
Don't use Lynx. It looks it a glance like Linux and Mac already has enough hints that they're copying off Linux.
Apple has registered the trademarks Lynx and Cougar, so it's probably going to be one of them. But they never registered Cheetah, Puma or Jaguar.
I would like to see sabertooth and kzin for future OS X updates. As for OS 11, that is very unlikely to happen, at least not for a long time. Unix is a stable operating system. The changes that Apple are making are incremental, not evolutionary. It is very unlikely that Apple has something beyond unix sitting in their development labs.
I think Lion is a very good target.
Maybe...
Mac OS X 10.6 Lion
Mac OS X 10.7 Bobcat
Lion might make a fine finale, because that's what everyone expects. Meanwhile we have Cougar and Bengal. Don't worry about species repetition though, Apple is already guilty of it. Leopards, lions, tigers and jaguars are all species of panther.
Remember, it's all about marketing, not zoological correctness!
Im happy to see you're all into the debate and being so creative coming up with lots of great ideas. Who knows, Steve Jobs might just come across this page and adapt one of your suggestions.
Why dont we use something else, like fruits, or colors. even those would be better than "XP" or "Vista" what the hell do they even mean?'
Or, since some pretty ridiculous suggestions are coming out...switch to classic computer game characters!
10.6 - QBert
10.7 - Sonic
10.8 - Megaman
10.9 - Mario
10.10 - Samus
10.11 - Robotnik
The possibilities are endless! (And more seriously, some people seem to have the impression that 10.9 must be the last OS X. However, it is perfectly acceptable for software subversions to carry on past 9 - the use of a . isn't actually a decimal point.)
i think lynx would be a cool one but a lot of people would probably get it confused with linux.
O.S. 10.6 Lynx
O.S. 10.7 Bobcat
O.S. 10.8 Ocelot
O.S. 10.9 Black Panther
and the grand finale
O.S. 10.10 Lion
Is there any reason why Apple won't continue the version numbers beyond 10.10.
They could carry on to 10.99!!
Youre right dave the numbers are endless
snow leopard is 10.6
i really think that the final OS X 10.6 should be Cougar. It just sounds like something Apple would use. But i heard a rumor that Leopard is the last OS X.
OS 11 or OS XI or whatever, i've heard they will be bear names, already heard that Sun and Grizzly are on the cards.
Should they continue with OS X, it will likely use impressive sounding cats. Unfortunately, "Lynx" and "Ocelot" don't have the same ring as Panther, Tiger, etc.
I predict that the las OS X they produce (IF they produce any more) will be called Lion. Simply because Ions are almost always seen as the 'king of the jungle.'
I would also not be surprised if Apple simply stopped OS X at V5. Knowing them, they've been up to building a new Mac OS ever since 10.1 came out.
If we're talking about cats, then how about OS X (10.xx) Pussy Galore ( a James Bond 007, female character of long ago.)
what about ostrich - they are supposed to be pretty fast
God! Just searched the 'net looking for what version of the Mac OS is on my wife's machine (I'm a programmer, she's a designer - me=PC). Anyway, what a stoopid idea using cat names for OS versions! Cost me a load of time. Hopefully they'll name the last one Sabre Tooth in the hope that this idea will also become well and truly extinct! Thanks for the listing anyhow.
How about mac os Kitten? It could be like a light version for an iphone or something lol
Maybee Windows should be called window ferral lol always seems to loose things for me!
Okay, so now it sounds like they might make is past Mac OSX 10.6 with Snow Leopard and then end on Mac OSX 10.7 - Lion! Surely they're going to run out!
You thought it was about spots, about stripes, about cats. But really, it was about the whiskers. Mac Os 10.6 Walrus coming soon.
Guys, Apple had legal issues long ago, the can only go up to 10.6, after that they have to go to 11.0
Steve's already announced that 10.6 is going to be Snow Leopard. I don't see why it can't go beyond 10.6, what kind of legal issues could have caused that?
the reason they use cat names is because their (almost) the fastest living creatures in the world, in this way they wonna say their OS is really fast.
if u say having cats as names denote that they're fastest,
then why they have named them in decreasing order.
Cheetah is the fastest and Leopard is the slowest big cat.
The new Mac OS: Mac OS 10.6 PolarBear! :O
I think because LEOPARD is REALLY the slowest system of all... above all after a PERFECT-10.4.11-TIGER-BUILD, i think.
I've had only trouble from the first day, with ONLY THIS big cat... oh, I know why, man!
All the Apple engineer were... on the iPhone SO!!!! -.- ...really bad... here a pussycat, there a LION in a cell... uhmmm... ok ok, i'm gettin' noisy... excuse moi! ^^