A week after astounding UK Mac users by pulling out of its own show, Apple has apparently knocked the localised version of MacOS 9 on the head.

According to UK sources cited by US newssite MacCentral, Apple UK is keeping mum on the plan, relying on the fact that most users intalling the 'International English' version won't spot the fact that it isn't 'British English'.

We'd suggest the change from Wastebasket to Trash would be a bit of a giveaway, but clearly Apple doesn't think so. Still, the change from the rugged 'Trash' to the genteel, home counties 'Wastebasket' isn't so naff an Anglicisation as AOL's pointless switch from 'You've got mail' to 'You've got post'.

The UK users cited by MacCentral clearly consider all this a Very Bad Thing. One complains about the despoilation of the purity of British English, others grumble about the lack of UK-specific plug-ins for the MacOS' Internet search technology, Sherlock.

More worrying is the effect on software, most notably QuarkXPress, which requires a localised version of the OS, though a quick solution to the problem is not beyond Quark, which, it has to be said responded very quickly to the software's requirement of a floppy drive when Apple ommitted said from its Power Mac line earlier this year.

Our take on the issue is rather more positive. Having been forced in the past to wait months for Apple to localise the MacOS for UK Macs, it will be nice for once to get the damn thing immediately. And while we're concerned about the missing 'u' in the Colors control panel, we're not entirely convinced our productivity will go down the tubes as a result. ®