Opinion: Apple and the Cats
The release this past Friday of the newest Mac operating system—codenamed “Snow Leopard”—added one more to a slowly increasing list of big cats that Apple has used to name its software. And this got me to wondering—why are all of the systems named after these animals? It doesn’t seem like computers have too much in common with man-eating, furry giants. But then I thought about it some more, and realized that perhaps the choice isn’t as peculiar as it might seem.
First of all, you have to hand it to Apple that it is, indeed, thinking different. Instead of a simple, confusable, numerical system, there is something that is easier to take a hold of and understand. Especially compared to its main competitor, who—at least up to Vista—pretty much just named their operating systems after the years they came out. Even Linux, with even more separate versions of its OS, does not have any particular system for naming them. I have had, in the past, some confusion between Jaguar, Tiger, and so on, but it’s easier than thinking “Oh, was that 10.3 or 10.4?”
A comparison can also be drawn between the ideal features of an operating system and these cats that are their namesakes. A computer should be fast, sleek, and powerful, just like a jaguar, or a tiger. Maybe a computer could do without the meat-eating nature, or the jaws and claws, but the basic features should be pretty much the same. This was probably one of the big aspects of the cats that led Apple to use them for marketing. But the system also raises some questions. Is Apple alienating some of the cat-lovers of the world by designating a strict hierarchy? Are leopards from this point on consistently better than tigers? Are snow leopards better than normal leopards? (I agree wholeheartedly with the latter, but the former I’m not so sure about…)
Snow Leopard itself seems to be milking the system for all it’s worth, more so than its predecessors. It comes preloaded with many desktop wallpapers including some lovely pictures of snow leopards in nature (including the one shown above). At least for Leopard, and I believe the other earlier systems, the only cat connection they had was the name, not any images. There is also the fact, which I think is remarkably clever, that the new update is just significant tweaks to the OS, not a whole different animal. Therefore, it’s just another kind of leopard, rather than a different family of cat.
The system seems to be good for Apple, or at least not bad. It gives people easily remembered titles, and a lot of brand recognition. 
It differentiates Apple from its competitors, and the names show the ideal traits of the systems themselves. But I do sort of wonder how far this is going to go. Lynx and Cougar are the two predators that are supposedly already trademarked by Apple, but that would only get us up to 10.8. In theory, there would be at least one more model, if they’re using a full decimal system. As much as I love Apple, and am always happy to buy their new systems—Snow Leopard is on order as we speak—I still think I would hesitate at least for a few minutes when presented with Mac OS X 10.9: Snagglepuss, even!
The king of the forest, Lion would make a great finale.
If that ain’t enough Caracal, Serval, Bobcat, Ocelot, Kodkod, Margay are other wild cats..
Rest easy
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And let´s not forget, the all time allmighty, yet exctint, Toothsabre
I think we are on a run with Leopard variations. I am sure the next upgrade will be 10.7 Def Leppard.
cheetah? its the fastest after all?
My vote is for Cheetah as the finale.
@pato… I’m assuming you meant Sabre Tooth Tiger?
This naming scheme also enables them to capitalize on the success of lolcats: http://cheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=5082080
**** Cheetah was Mac OS X 10.0 ****
Cheetah 10.0
Puma 10.1
Jaguar 10.2
Panther 10.3
Tiger 10.4
Leopard 10.5
and now Snow Leopard 10.6
Saber Tooth is a bad choice sinces it’s extinct and prehistoric, two things Apple wouldn’t want to associate with its OS.
So I’m guessing it will be
10.7 Lynx
10.8 Cougar
10.9 Tabby
This makes me wonder what naming scheme they’ll use for the eventually inevitable Mac OS XI…
I have an issue with lions being the king of the jungle.
The male doesn’t do the hunting, the hunting is always sneak attacks never in your face, and the attack is an ankle tap causing the animal to fall.
Tigers are way more powerful, way bigger, and fearless. I’ve seen a video where a tiger took out the people sitting atop of an elephant.
Lions wouldn’t even go near an elephant and they stay well away from giraffes. Nope, lions are the king of the wusses.
@Loweded Wookie
I’m with you on this one, but you’re gonna have to take it up with Disney.
@Loweded: However, in ancient Rome, when lions were pitted again tigers, the lions always won. They’re not exactly sissies.
That was a reference to the Colosseum games, and I meant “against tigers,” not “again tigers.”
“Especially compared to its main competitor, who—at least up to Vista—pretty much just named their operating systems after the years they came out. Even Linux, with even more separate versions of its OS, does not have any particular system for naming them.”
Daniel, I get that this piece is only a fun Opinion piece and not meant to carry a lot of facts in it, but the statement above is pretty far off from reality.
Microsoft:
DOS 1.0, DOS 2.0, DOS 2.1x, DOS 3.0, DOS 3.1x (end of DOS product line)
Windows 1.0, Windows 2.0, Windows/286 2.10, Windows/386 2.10, Windows 3.0, Windows 3.1*, Windows 95, Windows 98 (followed by Windows 98 Second Edition in May 1999), Windows ME**
* (Product line split here with the business line as follows) Windows for Workgroups 3.1, Windows NT 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Windows NT 3.5, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 (various versions)**, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008
** (The two lines, consumer and business, converged again here, except for mid-release updates to the server version) Windows XP (various versions), Windows Vista (various version), Windows 7 (various versions).
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Microsoft_Windows_versions
You can see that Microsoft hasn't always named their OSs after the approximate year they were released.
As far as Linux ... you've got to know that there are many many distros of Linux. Not sure how you're going to knock Linux as an entire group since it can't be considered a single Mac OS competitor, but if you're wondering if there are any distros which have animal naming systems I suggest looking at Ubuntu (a fork of the Debian distribution). I love the Animal Alliteration.
Ubuntu:
4.10 Warty Warthog, 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog, 5.10 Breezy Badger, 6.06 Dapper Drake, 6.10 Edgy Eft, 7.04 Feisty Fawn, 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon, 8.04 Hardy Heron, 8.10 Intrepid Ibex, 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope, 9.10 Karmic Koala (not yet released)
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(operating_system)
If you want to try to wrap your head around the complexity of Linux distros, just take a gander at this distro timeline:
http://bit.ly/linux_distro_timeline
Finally, if you're going to knock Microsoft for the three or so releases that used a year to designate their OS name, you should consider looking at the long history of Apple using decimal names for their OS releases prior to Mac OS X (insert cat breed here).
Apple:
Mac System Software 1.x, 2.x, 3.x, 4.x, System 5, System 6, System 7, Mac OS 7.6, Mac OS 8, Mac OS 9.
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mac_OS
Then again, all these facts don't really make for a very easy-to-read opinion piece, so I can understand glossing over them.
[Wow, this message reads a lot more snarky than was intended.]
As a cat lover with two 17-20 lb beasts in the house I can appreciate naming OS’s after felines.
Cats do not suffer fools! Period! Hopefully neither do Mac users.
Cats cut through the B*** Sh**! So do Mac OS’s.
Cats are independent and go their own way. So does the Mac OS.
Cats are very economical in their movements. Only the minimum exertion is used to accomplish a goal. So does the Mac OS.
Cats move without disturbing anything… they just do their job. Like the Mac OS.
Contrast this with Windows being a big stupid dog blundering into everything and getting nothing done.
Windows Rotwieler
Windows German Shepherd
Windows Bichon Friese
Windows Mutt … maybe the best bet?
Not only are cats super refined creatures and highly adaptable, they are also ech loaded with certain specific behavior.
The OS names on cats has followed a hierarchy. Each of the cat has certain advantage over the previous one. Like leopard can climb trees and tigers cant. and snow leopard is more adaptable to its environment and this more ‘refined’ than the leopard as it can survive even harsher conditions.
The Lion is the only big cat which is social giving it the ultimate edge over all other cats…even the Largest of them all, the Tiger. Thats what makes it the King of wilderness. It shouldn’t be a surprise if the last of the OS X series is a Lion or Leo.
@ WetcoastBob. Dogs are more adaptable and sucessfull that cats. they bonded with the best in the evolutionary race, Humans, and guaranteed their success as a species way beyond the cats. And btw, who is going extinct?
Apple should go with dragons from now on. They are switching over to the LLVM compiler vs GCC. Check out the LLVM Dragon: http://llvm.org/Logo.html
I’m all for the Liger or Tigon.
Ligers are, after all, the most powerful magical beasts.
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