Back when Apple started using California names for macOS, starting with Mavericks, they said this be for the “next decade”. Well, they said the same thing for Lighting when it launched and Mac OS X and 10 years later they changed. So will Apple change to something else next year for names?
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Could Ventura be the last California name for macOS?
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Yes, they're naming them after backwoods Georgia cities going forward.
I bet they will drop the name entirely, which will suck, but it will happen—don't know when, but I just know it will happen soon.
They should call the last one Death Valley. That’d be metal.
Although their “most powerful OS yet” in the California naming scheme should be Tiburon. I bet one of them, if not the next, will be called that.
macOS 14 Furnace Creek and macOS 15 Badwater would be cool, but wouldn't macOS 16 Zebulon or macOS 17 Thunderbolt be cool, too? 
I could see Apple removing the California naming from macOS since no one knows which is newer. I actually have some people think Big Sur is newer than Monterey. Simplifying it to just 11 and 12 would make things a lot more simple.
There's a city in south GA named Climax!! Maybe we'll get lucky!
They did have that space theme going on with Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard. Anyway I’d prefer a more neutral naming scheme instead of random locations in a single US state.
Lion and Mountain Lion, too. The default wallpapers for Lion and Mountain Lion were both space-themed. Apple broke away completely from the space theming in Mavericks.
What if they named them after past Apple execs?
MacOS 14 Jony Ive: 3 steps back from where we are now; elegant UI that emphasizes form over function
MacOS 15 Scott Forstall: Full-on skeuomorphism.
- When the weather app is opened during a storm, it actually rains in the room you're currently in.
- When new mail is sent, an animation of a carrier pigeon appears on your screen and flies away
- When new mail is received, an animation of that same carrier pigeon appears and drops a letter into your inbox
- Photos app icon is replaced with an icon of a 1970s polaroid camera
MacOS 16 Phil Schiller: Removal of certain popular features in the name of courage
And the final iteration...
MacOS Steve Jobs: MacOS fully realized...fully-featured, intuitive, and easy-to-use
MacOS 14 Jony Ive: 3 steps back from where we are now; elegant UI that emphasizes form over function
MacOS 15 Scott Forstall: Full-on skeuomorphism.
- When the weather app is opened during a storm, it actually rains in the room you're currently in.
- When new mail is sent, an animation of a carrier pigeon appears on your screen and flies away
- When new mail is received, an animation of that same carrier pigeon appears and drops a letter into your inbox
- Photos app icon is replaced with an icon of a 1970s polaroid camera
MacOS 16 Phil Schiller: Removal of certain popular features in the name of courage
And the final iteration...
MacOS Steve Jobs: MacOS fully realized...fully-featured, intuitive, and easy-to-use
Am still trying to figure out why the Wild Cat named operating systems had space themed wallpapers and install set up screen.
I don't think they will, the origins of Apple reside in California. There was always a finite number of cat names so in 2013 they switched to selecting California locations which is easy to defend those names in calif courts. We make fun of some of the names so far chosen, but Apple's likely got hundreds of names related to California to keep them going for a long time. So many places people are fondly familiar with that visit this state.
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That would make the most sense. If they're using names, they should better plan it out so the names are alphabetically introduced.
Anthony Keidis has stopped using the word California in his lyrics for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, ( none in the new album and only once on the last one), so it's about time for Apple to do the same.
Why would they do that?
None of those systems were launched at the same time (maybe the roots of iPadOS are the same as iOS, I admit), and they are not at the same stage of development. Those are independent systems, so that would make no sense to harmonize their naming under a numerical form.
There are 16 iterations of iOS but way more versions of macOS / Mac OS X.
Because they really aren't completely separate operating systems anymore. Now that all of their devices are running on Apple's own processes they've been moving far more toward announcing features across the platform and not specific operating systems. If look at some of the discussion around the 2022 WWDC keynote there are was a lot of discussion about how awkward it was that Apple would announce a bunch of features for iOS 16 then say "and these are also available on iPadOS" and the same with macOS.