Never Argue Again About The Pronunciation Of “OS X” (Proof Included)

Wow…

I think someone needs to take a chill pill. I for one do say Oh Es Ex. And the reason I do that, is the label is OS X. I understand that X is a Roman Numeral, and I think if asked most people can figure that part out. I mean, I don’t think that the OS decided on it’s own that it was going to stand up for the abuse it has been given and take on an intiger for it’s last name like Malcolm X did. Here’s the reason I decide to say Ex. People are dumb. If I sent 10 people to the store to buy a copy of Oh Es Ten, only those that were smart enough to ask for help would come back with the correct package. If I sent 10 to buy Oh Es Ex, perhaps 8 would come back with it, and the other two would be confused. Just my two cents…

Here’s the reason I decide to say Ex. People are dumb.

Ah, see? This is the problem. Laziness. We can’t let our language go to waste, man! I think you might be right, though, actually. I have another post that talks about how there is no such thing as a static, “true” definition. Words ultimately are what they become, and perhaps this is another example.

Doesn’t mean I can’t try, right? :)

Malcolm X wasn’t called Malcolm the tenth….give it up….it’s a lost cause.

Perhaps it is a lost cause, but I think he was using X as in x-factor, not like the number. I’m too lazy to look it up.

I for one say oh es ex, because I think it shows the change that the OS went through. Mac OS 9, for the most part, was the same as many previous versions (all of which carried the name “Macintosh”), but this new OS (which no longer carries the “Macintosh” name) was more stable, more adaptable, and much easier on the eyes. It was built for Generation X. “Mac” is the name of the machine, not the OS.

‘X’ is so much more than a roman numeral representing the number ten. It’s a change in attitude. Apple chose to think different(ly), as did the consumers.

Another bit of trivia.

Apple started working on a Unix-based operating system in 1988 named “NeXTStep”, which came from two Unix offshoots: “4.1cBSD” and “xMach”. Since then, the OS has been known as “OpenStep”, “Rhapsody”, “Mac OS X”, “Darwin”, and (currently) just plain ol’ “OS X”.

Mac OS 9 wasn’t released until October of 1999, but “Mac OS X” showed up back in May of 1999. OS X is a completely different operating system, and I think it was named after one of its early predecessors, xMach.

UNIX History Wikipedia article on Mac OS 9

Well ok. I used the infamous encyclopedia that anyone can edit, but it’s the only thing I could find that had a release date for OS 9.

Thanks, Dan. I have a hard time explaining to people that I would prefer to hear “Oh Es Ten”. Many of them refuse to believe that it is not actually “Ex”. Same problem with the Linux argument and a few other choice words and phrases. By the way, I got bored and looked up the Malcom X thing…

In 1952, after his release from prison, Malcolm went to meet Elijah Muhammad in Chicago. It was soon after this that he changed his surname to “X”. Malcolm explained the name by saying, The “X” is meant to symbolize the rejection of “slave-names” and the absence of an inherited African name to take its place. The “X” is also the brand that many slaves received on their upper arm. This rationale led many members of the Nation of Islam to change their surnames to X.

I would have had no idea. Thank you Wikipedia.

Those of you lucky enough to have a mac, have it run it’s text-to-speech engine over the phrase “OS X”. It will be pronounced as “Oh Ess Ten”.

Very enlightening. I have always said Ex as I thought they used the Roman Numeral to symbolize the change to the BSD (as indicated by Tim). I had never thought about looking up what Steve Jobs or anyone else at Apple might have called it. Note: I said that I never thought of it, not that I was to lazy… and the reason I never thought of it was I have never heard it matter. LOL! So according to every scrape I can dig up on Steve Jobs, he to is a pronunciation fanatic about it being Oh Es Ten, so Daniel is right. Not that I think it should irk anyone. But, now knowing this I will have to change my habit so that I am technically correct.

Rick

Extra detail:

Go to Preferences, Speech, Text To Speech. Tick “Speak selected text when key is pressed”, set the key to something obscure (I used command alt control shift s). Highlight the phrase “I am a fancy computer, and I run OS X”, and hit your keystroke.

Rick, I wasn’t saying it was lazy for someone not to know how to say it. That’s perfectly understandable. The laziness comes in when someone DOES know how to say it correctly, but chooses to say it their way because it’s more convenient for them.

Is this a crime against humanity? No — it’s rather petty. But it does lead to what some would argue is a decline of the language. I’m on the fence, though — I think it might just be natural progression of the language. But if I can help it I prefer to encourage the correct way — at least while it’s still correct.

One example of such an offense/evolution is the word nuclear. The word used to be, NEW CLEE ER. But if you hear it in common use it’s usually, NEW CUE LER.

Anyway, I’m about to hit you up for some VOIP schooling. I’m about to do the Asterisk thing. Prepare to be harassed.

Thank you, Zhasper. Excellent point! (I’ve updated the post with this info…)

I personally say oh es ex, even though I knew from the start that the X stood for 10. Why? Because, I feel that oh es ex has a better flow to it when spoken. No other reason. And I’m ok with that.

I always thought it was pronounced as one word, “ossix”, which implies its *NIX-ness. But that’s the beauty of tech terms, their pronunciation is open. For example, I think people should adopt my pronunciation of PHP — “fhup”

i think people who say Oh Es Ex are the people that haven’t used any other Mac OS’s except this one. Because they would see there was OS 8, OS 9, and then OS X. Then there thought process would be something like this: “wait Ex doesn’t come after 9, 10 does.” “Oh yeah! X is the roman numeral for 10.” “Ah, clever one apple. You almost had me” Apple needs to come out with OS XI that way people will have no other choice then to say OS Eleven unless they really want to sound like an idiot and say Oh Es EX Eye

According to the dictionary, the Roman Numeral “X” is pronounced ‘eks’

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/X

I’d say anyone calling it OS Ex is just fine. If they want it to be 10…then should have put 10 on the cover. If not, they invite both pronunciations. You say pohtaytoe, I say pohtahtoe.

Hi, I always say OS Ten….I never say OS Ex because it doesn’t sound right…OS Ten sounds better also :D

Tim:

Darwin isn’t another name for OS X; Darwin is a component of OS X.

Cf (of course) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_(operating_system)

For me it’s OS EKS not OS 10. And I’ve got a number of reasons for that.

The Roman numeral X is pronounced EKS not “ten”. Just like there are 10 type of people (viz, those who know binary and those who don’t) there are also those who know who to prounce the Roman numeral when they see, and there are those who don’t know how to pronounce it.

Yes, there was OS 8 and OS 9 and so the NEXT numbered version would be OS 10; otherwise the others would have been OS VIII and OS IX.

Unlike OS 9 and earlier versions, OS X is based on a UniX implementation and so calling is OS EKS reminds us of how much it relies upon UNI-X.

BTW I also pronounce Linux as Lie-nucks and that’s because it is Linus’s Unix (not Linus’s Uni-ten).

…Now are we supposed to take all of this seriously — or even ANY of it.

Valdean, you’re wrong.

You pronounce Linux lee-nux because that’s how the creator of Linux wants you to pronounce it – cf http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/

Apple/Steve Jobs have made it clear that they prefer their creation to be pronounced OS Ten.

Sure, you can go ahead and pronounce it however you like… but you’re wrong ;)

Yes, Lee-noose Torvalds pronounces it Lee-nooks. So do I (but with my American accent it comes out Len-ucks).

Now if I could only figure out how to pronounce these new SATA harddrives. I say it like Satan without the n, but my friends say Sat-uh or S-A-T-A.

Gasp! What am I to do now?

It’s a computer term. You can pronounce it any way you want. Or you can choose not to pronounce it, something apple doesn’t want. They like the fact that people are arguing about how to pronounce it over people crying out about what crap it is.

The obvious answer is to pronounce it as it is spelled and for what it really is: ossucks, since as an implimentation of BSD it sucks.

If they wanted it to be pronounced “ten”, they should have called it OS 10 or OS Ten. I will continue to pronounce it OS “EKS”.

I also correctly pronounce Brett Favre’s last name as “FAH VRUH”, and Dwyane Wade’s first name as “DWY-YANE”.

Perhaps Apple could’ve just bloody called it OS 10 and saved us the bother of arguing over another stupid marketing manoeuvre by the kings of selling cool-but-substandard tat.

X is for UNIX and 10. However, I reject the claim that Mac OS X is Mac OS 10, which implies it is the direct descendant of Mac OS 9 (as Mac OS 8 was the descendant of Mac OS 7). That is simply not the case. It is “Mac OS” (with quotes) X because it is an X (for Unix) OS and not a Mac OS.