Apple Officially Drops 'Mac' Name from OS X Mountain Lion

[MacRumors]

With the launch of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion in the middle of last year, Apple was clearly trending towards dropping the 'Mac' From 'Mac OS X', which has been the name of the Macintosh operating system for more than 10 years.

Though it still used the 'Mac OS X' naming scheme in press releases, Apple called the new system 'OS X Lion' on both the main product webpage and the Mac App Store product page [Direct Link].

As The Verge points out, Apple has completed the transition to 'OS X' across both the Mountain Lion product pages, and the press release announcing the developer preview.

We confirmed the official name change with Apple, who told us that the preferred full name is "OS X Mountain Lion".

The Macintosh (as Tim Cook prefers to call it) brand is still alive and well, though Apple seems to be focusing that term on hardware, instead of software.

Lion was the beginning of a unification of sorts between the Mac OS and iOS. It was, as Steve Jobs put it, what would happen if a MacBook Air and an iPad "hooked up". iOS is based on Mac OS X and, at a fundamental level, there are more similarities than differences between the two operating systems. Dropping 'Mac' completely from the name of the OS solidifies the subtle, but important, distinction between hardware and software.

OS X Mountain Lion is expected to be released later this year.

Article Link: Apple Officially Drops 'Mac' Name from OS X Mountain Lion

 

[orangebluedevil]

Can yall do a collection of "more info" type things like:

- iCal is now Calendar
- Address Book is now Contacts
- Mac OS X is now OS X
- Safari now has omni search
- etc

 

[bad03xtreme]

Not a fan of dropping the Mac.


So what will it say under the  about this OS...

 

[Can't Stop]

Now it's really the end.

 

[URFloorMatt]

In before all the handwringing and bitching about how Apple's lost its way.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

This concerns me.

 

[Liquinn]

Did Jobs leave a 3 year old roadmap?

 

[pgiguere1]

This is exactly like when "iPhone OS" was renamed to "iOS".
Something's coming.

 

[ValSalva]

Not a fan of dropping the Mac.

Yeah, why drop "Mac" if the products Mountain Lion will run on are still Macs? MacBook Air, iMac, MacBook Pro, etc...

 

[kemo]

Well, and the next release will be just "i" added so it gonna be iOS X.

 

[cwwilson]

oooooh boy, better get hunkered down, there's a storm a brewin'.

 

[chrono1081]

I bet they did it because they were sick of people typing MAC instead of Mac

 

[alex00100]

ios, osx... i like this style! but will take time to get used to it.

 

[LimeiBook86]

I can't see them just dropping the Mac name for no reason. They must have something planned. I don't know if I'd go as far to say OS X support on non-Apple hardware, but this is interesting...

 

[kemo]

Yeah, why drop "Mac" if the products Mountain Lion will run on are still Macs? MacBook Air, iMac, MacBook Pro, etc...

I hope they just leave Macbook a Macbook and it wont be iSomething

 

[studio¹³¹]

maybe fix the extreme bugginess of Lion first?!

 

[knewsom]

All I gotta say is Ubuntu better finish getting its crap together and get Adobe Creative Suite and Netflix developed for them, because I'm seriously headed in their direction.

 

[3282868]

ios, osx... i like this style!

Wouldn't it be "xOS"? Then, that may be confusing, as some might use "XOs"

 

[Jeayese]

Hey guys, Loving OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion preview.. but there is a couple of things bugging me,

1. How can I mirror my iPhone to my macbook?
2. Does anyone know how to disable gestures in safari? seems like they went all out with the trackpad gestures this time.. and it's completely stopped my better touch tool tweaks.
3. Still no HDPI for higher resolutions?

 

[obafgkm]

Operating System 11

will be written as XiOS (11 in Roman numerals)...

*Maybe* XIOS, but I'm betting on XiOS.

 

[Dr McKay]

Break out the tinfoil hats boys. Here comes the "OS X is becoming iOS" Brigade.

 

[0007776]

I can't see them just dropping the Mac name for no reason. They must have something planned. I don't know if I'd go as far to say OS X support on non-Apple hardware, but this is interesting...

That would be a possibility, but I don't think it's too likely. I think this is more of Apple trying to slowly merge iOS and OS X.

 

[kemo]

will be written as XiOS (11 in Roman numerals)...

*Maybe* XIOS, but I'm betting on XiOS.

It sounds too rubbish to me.

 

[Kid A]

In before all the handwringing and bitching about how Apple's lost its way.

and you contributed nothing....?

 

[Peace]

Can yall do a collection of "more info" type things like:

- iCal is now Calendar
- Address Book is now Contacts
- Mac OS X is now OS X
- Safari now has omni search
- etc

iCal is now Calendar

Address book is now Contacts

Safari does not have omni search ( that was a joke I'm guessing )