Apple said to have let the name of the next OS X cat out of the bag

It's not Garfield, Felix, Bill, nor 'in-the-Hat'

By Rik Myslewski, 19th November 2012

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Apple is said to have chosen the feline nomenclature for its next iteration of OS X, and according to the customary "reliable source," that name is to be "Lynx".

We suggest, however, that you take this rumor with more than the traditional grain of salt. As AppleScoop reports, their source is not a Cupertinian per se, but rather a worthy "who claims to have talked to someone from inside the walls of Apple."

That said, Lynx would fit in well with the gaggle of kitties that have been used to name Apple's OS X – changed from Mac OS X with the release of Mountain Lion – since it came out of public beta in March 2001.

That beta, by the way, was named after Ursus arctos middendorffi – aka Kodiak – a rather large, nasty North American brown bear.

After OS X's developer preview released in March 1999, an exceptionally problematic public beta was made available in September 2000. The first shipping version that was graced with a version number was released in March 2001, but even the most fervent fanbois reluctantly agree that Mac OS X wasn't fully baked until version 10.2, Jaguar, in August 2002.

Here's a chronology of the various iterations of ~~Mac~~ OS X, beginning with the aforementioned public beta – which, by the way, wasn't a free beta, but rather one which charged the faithful $29.95 for the privilege of buggy endurance:

Public Beta: Kodiak - September 2000
10.0: Cheetah – March 2001
10.1: Puma – September 2001
10.2: Jaguar – August 2002
10.3: Panther – October 2003
10.4: Tiger – April 2005
10.5: Leopard – October 2007
10.6: Snow Leopard – August 2009
10.7: Lion – July 2011
10.8: Mountain Lion – July 2012

We may learn whether AppleScoop's "reliable source" is correct about Lynx during the opening keynote at Apple's as-yet-unscheduled 2013 Worldwide Developers Conference, likely to be held in June or thereabouts, a common venue for OS X announcements.

What remains both unknown and unrumored, however, is what Apple plans to do after OS X 10.9 – OS X 10.10? Perhaps by then, however, Cupertino will have merged OS X and iOS into "One OS to Rule Them All", as Microsoft chairman Bill Gates says is the future of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. ®

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