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I think someone needs to take a chill pill. I for one do say Oh Es Ex. And the reason I do that, is the label is OS X. I understand that X is a Roman Numeral, and I think if asked most people can figure that part out. I mean, I don't think that the OS decided on it's own that it was going to stand up for the abuse it has been given and take on an intiger for it's last name like Malcolm X did. Here's the reason I decide to say Ex. People are dumb. If I sent 10 people to the store to buy a copy of Oh Es Ten, only those that were smart enough to ask for help would come back with the correct package. If I sent 10 to buy Oh Es Ex, perhaps 8 would come back with it, and the other two would be confused. Just my two cents...
Ah, see? This is the problem. Laziness. We can't let our language go to waste, man! I think you might be right, though, actually. I have another post that talks about how there is no such thing as a static, "true" definition. Words ultimately are what they become, and perhaps this is another example.
Doesn't mean I can't try, right? :)
Perhaps it is a lost cause, but I think he was using X as in x-factor, not like the number. I'm too lazy to look it up.
'X' is so much more than a roman numeral representing the number ten. It's a change in attitude. Apple chose to think different(ly), as did the consumers.
Apple started working on a Unix-based operating system in 1988 named "NeXTStep", which came from two Unix offshoots: "4.1cBSD" and "xMach". Since then, the OS has been known as "OpenStep", "Rhapsody", "Mac OS X", "Darwin", and (currently) just plain ol' "OS X".
Mac OS 9 wasn't released until October of 1999, but "Mac OS X" showed up back in May of 1999. OS X is a completely different operating system, and I think it was named after one of its early predecessors, xMach.
UNIX History
Wikipedia article on Mac OS 9
Well ok. I used the infamous encyclopedia that anyone can edit, but it's the only thing I could find that had a release date for OS 9.
In 1952, after his release from prison, Malcolm went to meet Elijah Muhammad in Chicago. It was soon after this that he changed his surname to "X". Malcolm explained the name by saying, The "X" is meant to symbolize the rejection of "slave-names" and the absence of an inherited African name to take its place. The "X" is also the brand that many slaves received on their upper arm. This rationale led many members of the Nation of Islam to change their surnames to X.
I would have had no idea. Thank you Wikipedia.
So according to every scrape I can dig up on Steve Jobs, he to is a pronunciation fanatic about it being Oh Es Ten, so Daniel is right. Not that I think it should irk anyone. But, now knowing this I will have to change my habit so that I am technically correct.
Rick
Go to Preferences, Speech, Text To Speech. Tick "Speak selected text when key is pressed", set the key to something obscure (I used command alt control shift s). Highlight the phrase "I am a fancy computer, and I run OS X", and hit your keystroke.
Is this a crime against humanity? No -- it's rather petty. But it does lead to what some would argue is a decline of the language. I'm on the fence, though -- I think it might just be natural progression of the language. But if I can help it I prefer to encourage the correct way -- at least while it's still correct.
One example of such an offense/evolution is the word nuclear. The word used to be, NEW CLEE ER. But if you hear it in common use it's usually, NEW CUE LER.
Anyway, I'm about to hit you up for some VOIP schooling. I'm about to do the Asterisk thing. Prepare to be harassed.
"wait Ex doesn't come after 9, 10 does."
"Oh yeah! X is the roman numeral for 10."
"Ah, clever one apple. You almost had me"
Apple needs to come out with OS XI that way people will have no other choice then to say OS Eleven unless they really want to sound like an idiot and say Oh Es EX Eye
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/X
I'd say anyone calling it OS Ex is just fine. If they want it to be 10...then should have put 10 on the cover. If not, they invite both pronunciations. You say pohtaytoe, I say pohtahtoe.
Darwin isn't another name for OS X; Darwin is a component of OS X.
Cf (of course) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_(operating_...)
The Roman numeral X is pronounced EKS not "ten". Just like there are 10 type of people (viz, those who know binary and those who don't) there are also those who know who to prounce the Roman numeral when they see, and there are those who don't know how to pronounce it.
Yes, there was OS 8 and OS 9 and so the NEXT numbered version would be OS 10; otherwise the others would have been OS VIII and OS IX.
Unlike OS 9 and earlier versions, OS X is based on a UniX implementation and so calling is OS EKS reminds us of how much it relies upon UNI-X.
BTW I also pronounce Linux as Lie-nucks and that's because it is Linus's Unix (not Linus's Uni-ten).
...Now are we supposed to take all of this seriously -- or even ANY of it.
You pronounce Linux lee-nux because that's how the creator of Linux wants you to pronounce it - cf http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/
Apple/Steve Jobs have made it clear that they prefer their creation to be pronounced OS Ten.
Sure, you can go ahead and pronounce it however you like... but you're wrong ;)
Now if I could only figure out how to pronounce these new SATA harddrives. I say it like Satan without the n, but my friends say Sat-uh or S-A-T-A.
Gasp! What am I to do now?
The obvious answer is to pronounce it as it is spelled and for what it really is: ossucks, since as an implimentation of BSD it sucks.
I also correctly pronounce Brett Favre's last name as "FAH VRUH", and Dwyane Wade's first name as "DWY-YANE".
Perhaps Apple could've just bloody called it OS 10 and saved us the bother of arguing over another stupid marketing manoeuvre by the kings of selling cool-but-substandard tat.
X is for UNIX and 10. However, I reject the claim that Mac OS X is Mac OS 10, which implies it is the direct descendant of Mac OS 9 (as Mac OS 8 was the descendant of Mac OS 7). That is simply not the case. It is "Mac OS" (with quotes) X because it is an X (for Unix) OS and not a Mac OS.
Higgidy higgidy who gives a fuck.
So the Apple products Xserve and Xsan are pronounced "ten-serve" and "ten-san" respectively then.
so i guess i was wrong all those years playing megaman eks, not megaman ten....
This argument is ridiculous. No matter how you may want to pronounce it, the fact is Apple has an operating system called OS X, which THEY chose to pronounce OS Ten. THAT is the correct way to pronounce it. It's really not up for discussion since THEY made it up and THEY decide how it should be pronounced. The fact that they chose to use an X is purely a marketing issue and has nothing to do with anything based in linguistics. The fact is, seeing "OS 10" or "OS Ten" is simply not as cool as seeing "OS X". Yes, the X has all the references to the roman numeral, NeXT, and UNIX, but that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that it is pronounced "OS Ten".
The same goes for Linux. Just because you grew up with a Peanuts character named Linus, doesn't mean that Linux is pronounced with a long "i".
There are still people out there that don't pronounce the "-ee" at the end of Nike because they are trying to follow English grammatical rules. Referring to OS X as OS eks, is just as wrong.
Have you ever seen signs at a railroad crossing? It's usually Railroad X-ing or Xing. You wouldn't pronounce that eks-ing or zing, would you? The X represents "cross", just as the X in "OS X" represents the number 10, not the letter X.
I guess if you pronounce Xmas the way it is written instead of Christmas, you'll never understand.
"Mac OS X" is pronounced "Mac o' sex". That is how the early developers referred to it. The first time I heard "OS ten" was in a presentation from Jobs. the "ex" sound was banned for marketing reasons, to avoid indecent connotations.
Bugsy Malone
It can be pronounced both ways you blogging douche. It is both the 10th generation of the mac OS, and as well as an OS that behaves like X-windows (that is, a gui that runs on top of a unix kernel.. in this case BSD running the bourne again shell).