Snow Leopard is a terrible name | Hacker News Reader

Snow Leopard is a terrible name

trueslant.com

Naming Leopard's successor Snow Leopard implies that optimization and refinement, not reinvention, has taken place. That's exactly what happened. The OS was not "stripped-down" as much as improved; there are plenty of enhancements under the hood, one of which is better facility for network installation of OS components (hence the smaller footprint). So I consider Snow Leopard a good name.

A pedantic tech writer who fancies himself a feline biologist might disagree.

This is a terrible blog post.

This my friends, is the definition of "pedantic."

Actually, the definition of "pedantic" is "marked by a narrow focus on or display of learning, especially its trivial aspects".

Your user name is aptly chosen.

Well played.

Well 10.0 was called Cheetah -the fastest cat- yet paradoxically it was well and truly the slowest OS X ever (early adopters will cringe as they recall). So there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the naming scheme besides that they're all cats, or German tanks depending on who you ask.

Not only that, but I can predict a whole lot of anti-Apple people calling it "Slow Leopard". Is the reality distortion field that strong, to the point of making people miss such an obvious pun?

If it had any truth to it, it might stick. But from what I've read so far (not tried it), it just isn't slow.

[sic]So if a snow leopard is less developed - not to mention weaker roaring - than the regular leopard then Mac’s decision to use the name to describe a more developed OS does not make sense.[/sic]

This explains it - everyone who didn't buy it did so because they knew/discovered the true nature of a snow leopard and realised Apple ( or 'Mac') was telling them it is actually an inferior system.

I wonder what 10.7 will be called - we're running out of cats with acceptable names (Andean Mountain Cat won't do).

What's left: Lynx, Cougar, Puma, and of course, Lion.

Apparently, a panther is not a species, but refers to a cougar, a puma or a leopard, depending on the country.

Puma's already been used (10.1), Lion is unlikely (there's a bit too much mystique behind it).

They could probably expand their "big cat" selection to e.g. leopardus (Ocelot, Margay), the Serval, the Caracal, the Jaguarundi (a cousin of the cougar), …

Puma was 10.1 no? Also, Clouded Leopard and Bornean Clouded Leopard ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_cat

I vote for Bornean Clouded Leopard for 10.7

If they name one Lion, it'd have to be one hell of an upgrade me thinks.

Given the preference for big cats (since Cheetah/Puma as you mention), I guess Lion is the most likely.

Ocelot would also be a good name.

"cattus domesticus"

I always thought apple was naming their OS releases by the names of German WWII tanks, until now. ;)

Well thats official, 10.7 will be called 'Panzer'.

Panzer don't mean panther, it means shell. Schildkrötenpanzer is a turtle's shell.

"Armour" is a better translation I think.

More detail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzer#Etymology

Uh? Apart from the Panther and the Tiger, none of the OSX releases matches a WWII panzer name. The Leopard I was introduced in '65 (and the Leopard II in '79), the Jaguars are either tank destroyers (introduced in '78) or fast attack boats (introduced in '58), the Puma is a not-yet-released infantry-fighting vehicle, and I haven't found any german war machine named "cheetah". That's 2 out of 6…

cheetah = Gepard

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flugabwehrkanonenpanzer_Gepard

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gepard-Klasse

It's no worse than Mac OS X 10.6. For a company that gets big props for marketing that's an awkward name.

Having 10 in the name twice would be crazy even if you used the same numeral system for both.

To be fair, you definitely don't pronounce it twice. Then you'd just sound crazy.

Well, you could pronunce the first one as "Ecks" which I think is the obvious, yet officially incorrect, response to someone unaware of the background.

Even though we're supposed to say 'ten', I'd wager that they plucked the most iconic glyph from the word "NeXT" as a subtle nod to the preceding brand.

I always figured since the last one was "Lepord" this one was called "Snow" + "Lepord" to say it's the same cat, with some minor changes. Thus near-same name.

If you look at it from the perspective of G5 owners, who cannot get this upgrade, it kinda makes sense.

"Dude, what are you running on this? Snow Leopard?" "Naw, just Leopard."

They don't have to be the fool with the outdated cat. "Dude, you're still running Panther on this thing?"

And yes, I'm aware this is probably equally retarded logic, but it's the only decent reason I've heard for not hyping this as the best thing since sliced bread, like they usually do.

The biggest problem is actually that it's harder than it should have been to Google stuff related to 10.6 and not 10.5.

I wonder what they're going to do when they run out of recognizable big cat names.

OS X '14

Definitely - the thicker fur on the actual snow leopard is what makes the naming decision really, really bad. I told Steve they should go with Shaven Leopard, but he just wouldn't listen.

Hm I always thought it's a bad name - now I know why!

OSX 10.6: Hairless Hypoallergenic Domestic House Cat. Just doesn't have the same zeal to it.

I think the name is very appropriate. Snow Leopard is a "feature freeze" Leopard.

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