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The Correct Pronounciation of Mac OS X

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I have to admit that I am slightly put off by the pronunciation "OS EX." But then I think even this is better than the pronunciation of "XP" or "VISTA."
 
yeah, seven years later I am still annoyed when I hear someone say "are you on OS ex?"
 
I must be around too many mac users (I can't decide actually after this post) but I have never heard it called "eks" until reading this post.

Oh, and I think the computer pronunciation is biased -- I mean it was being said in OSX, what would it say in XP or Vista???:eek:
 
What's wrong with saying 'X' instead of 10? What about Mac OS 9? Seems to make sense that people say the letter x. Also, there is also the issue about the X windowing system used by *nix machines in order to provide a window outside the command prompt.

So...given that X followed 9, OS X is built on Unix, and we're about to see Leopard(10.5) and we still say OS X, can't we just say that both are correct? That's how I look at it.
 
hawaiian said:
What's wrong with saying 'X' instead of 10? What about Mac OS 9? Seems to make sense that people say the letter x. Also, there is also the issue about the X windowing system used by *nix machines in order to provide a window outside the command prompt.

So...given that X followed 9, OS X is built on Unix, and we're about to see Leopard(10.5) and we still say OS X, can't we just say that both are correct? That's how I look at it.
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N:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:!





See what you made me do? :p
 
dontwalkhand said:
Here is my video on The Correct Pronounciation of Mac OS X http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU43md18D9o
AHh it is my pet peeve with mac users! :) Say it right people, TEN TEN TEN!!!! :) :)
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Somewhere out there... there's someone freaking out because you're trying to correct people on how to pronounce something, and you've spelled "pronunciation" incorrectly, which is a much more common and glaring mistake than saying OS "Ex". :D

Back when System 7 was a huge, with its awesome "System 7 sounds" and startup folders, I remember when the OS numbers felt more of a big deal. IBM went from OS/2 to OS Warp, and then proceeded to fizzle out. When Mac OS 9 came out, followed by Mac OS X... the switch to "X" seemed odd but graphically appealling. As more and more started happening with OS X's extensibility and multi-processor support (now running on PowerPC, Intel and ARM), I began looking at the "X" in "OS X" as something of an "X-factor"... kind of like... oh, I don't know... "Chemical X" or "Racer X" of pop-culture cartoon fame. I keep imagining OS X running in a variety of consumer products in the future, and no matter what version number it ACTUALLY has, that it will now simply be "OS X" (whether Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, or Lion), just like Windows (having is ME,XP, or Vista).

At some point, many many years from now, I imagine we'll encounter OS XI. Apple will be forced to consider using "11" looking like "2", "ll", "][" or "11"... and "XI" looking illegible to the average joe who still sees "X" as "Ex". I'll be laughing at the inevitable Spinal Tap-inspired campaign though. "Apple has decided to turn the dial to 11. Take your OS to the next level." :D No one will remember the reference by then though...

~ CB
 
I usually say 10, but x comes out faster when I'm in a hurry.

Does it matter if people get what you're saying? :p

I just hate the people who say "os ex ten point four" or something..how redundant. I know Apple does it "Mac OS X v10.5" or whatever, but still.
 
No, it's 10 but it's written X because it's a play on Unix, besides the marketing reasons that it looks cool written that way and it marks a radical change.

Your way of spelling gets confused with "Mac OS's X", meaning OSX's implementation of the X Window System.

It's not cool saying "OS ex". Just ask anybody here what they think when the guy from the BBC says that.
 
janey said:
I just hate the people who say "os ex ten point four" or something..how redundant. I know Apple does it "Mac OS X v10.5" or whatever, but still.
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Well, if Apple does it ... they're the ones who decide what to call their operating system, right?
 
sushi said:
Because of it's Unix underpinnings I prefer to say Ex in recognition of Unix.
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If you really recognized Unix, you wouldn't be calling like that a variant whose GUI is not even based on X Window.
 
cube said:
If you really recognized Unix, you wouldn't be calling like that a variant whose GUI is not even based on X Window.
Click to expand...

Why can't X be an overloaded term as it apparently looks to be. We've covered the fact that X is a windowing system used by Unix which the OS is based on, X refers to 10 in the roman numeric system, and the use of the letter 'X' is a marketing tool known to encourage product sales. Does it matter whether we say X or 10 based on how we see it being used? Why can't it be both? If somebody says OS X or OS 10, is there a misunderstanding?

I can't believe we're spending this much time on this topic...
 
There's ONE piece of software called "X": the X Window System.
Apple behaved badly when they called the operating system OS X, as one is continually forced in these forums to call X Window by its current protocol version, X11, instead of just X.
 
just for your curiosity, i'm a portuguese guy and here in portugal, we pronounce it translated. while translating the X, we say MAC OS "Xis", but if we translate the 10, we would say MAC OS "Dez". but more often we use the "xis".

with MAC OS 9, we say "Sistema Nove", which translated to english is "The Nineth System" or "System Nine".

so for me, this discussion about the pronunciation os "X" sounds a bit awkward and funny at the same time. :)
 
cube said:
If you really recognized Unix, you wouldn't be calling like that a variant whose GUI is not even based on X Window.
Click to expand...
Uh, I am not talking about Mac OS X being an X Window copy/variant.

I am talking under the hood.

Mac OS X could loosely be described as Unix with a shell.

Unix --> X makes sense to me.
 
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