Apple accidentally refers to OS X as MacOS in new document
WatchOS, iOS, tvOS, OS X. Which one of these is the odd one out?
That's right: It makes perfect sense for Apple to rename its desktop operating system to MacOS (or macOS), and now we have a strong clue the Cupertino company is at least considering it.
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In the FAQ section of Apple's revamped Environment page, a paragraph of text, first spotted by 9to5Mac, refers to OS X as MacOS -- or at least it did until Apple quickly changed it to OS X. But we have proof, both in form of a screenshot (below) and on Wayback Machine's archive, which shows that on Thursday, the text on the page still referred to MacOS instead of OS X.
Disregarding for a moment the slight possibility that this blunder might be purely accidental, it actually makes a lot of sense. Not only would it bring the name of Apple's desktop platform in line with its other operating systems, but MacOS would actually make a lot more sense than OS X.
The X in OS X -- not a letter, but a roman numeral for number 10 -- was introduced in 2001, signifying two things: The OS' connection to UNIX, which at the time was a strong brand in the sense of offering better stability and security than the competing Windows products, and the fact that Mac OS X came after Mac OS 9.
Now that we're at version OS X 10.11 or El Capitan, the UNIX roots are far less of a draw for most users, and "X" as 10 makes far less sense. MacOS, on the other hand, makes perfect sense, with one caveat: Apple, at least in that one accidental usage, spelled it with the Mac portion capitalized, which makes it inconsistent with iOS, watchOS and tvOS, all of which start with a lowercase letter.
We'll likely know more about the possible name change at Apple's WWDC conference, which hasn't been formally announced for 2016 yet but typically takes place in June.
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Topics Apple
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
