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Why Are Operating System Version Names So Absurd?

Posted by timothy on from the bet-you-can-think-of-a-few-reasons dept.

jfruh writes "Apple's spent more than a decade on version 10 — or, rather, X — of its flagship operating system, with .x versions named after big cats (and many of them, it turns out, after the same big cats). Ubuntu Linux is scrambling to find ever more obscure animals to alliteratively name its versions after. And let's not even talk about Windows, whose current shipping OS is sold as Windows 7 but is really Windows NT 6.1. Why is this area of software marketing so ridiculous?"

3 of 460 comments (clear)

  1. Because... by ilsaloving · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Operating Systems are fundamentally boring. Once you get past the fanboi-ism, they are just software that sits there on your computer. They are there to *facilitate* your work, but they don't produce anything in and of themselves.

    So you have to jazz them up as much as you can, so people will take notice.

  2. I like Androids concept by na1led · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Pick a name in alphabetical order. That way you have an idea if you have the latest version.

    --
    -- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
  3. Re:talk about it on /.? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you type "/." in your address bar in Opera, it will take you to slashdot.