1056: "Felidae"

[RealGrouchy]

Well, there's always the Bobcats.

Alternately, OSX Mittens.

- RG>

[squidsquad]

Still waiting for Serval server version.

[Pfhorrest]

They can always move on to domesticated breeds.

[hardkrash]

We have forgotten the following:
OSX Kzin
OSX Feral Tabby
OSX Ceiling Cat (NSA Approved Edition)

[RichT]

Technically neither "tyrannosaurus" or "smilodon" is a Latin name. They're both derived from Greek. The proper term is Linnean or taxonomic name, not Latin name.

[Black Dynamite]

I just watched a video about how Stygimoloch and Dracorex aren't real dinosaurs. It was cool to recognize those names.

[NotAllThere]

I guess I'm the only one bothered by him using "genuses" and not "genera."

Both are correct, according to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.

Well, it's better than Vista.

Anything is better than Vista.

OS Housecat

OS Moggy, or OS Tiddles? I can't quite decide.

[toadpipe]

Lion is cooler than Jaguar? Obviously not a gearhead...

If anything, the Apple naming thing is going backward. The final outcome, MacOSX Nibbles.

[jalohones]

There's plenty of well-known felines not covered there: Tom, Sylvester, Snagglepuss. In fact, I'm pretty sure that Apple could release OS X Sylvester and then manage to sue Warner Bros for use of the name. It's victory all round!

[jpk]

There's plenty of well-known felines not covered there: Tom, Sylvester, Snagglepuss. In fact, I'm pretty sure that Apple could release OS X Sylvester and then manage to sue Warner Bros for use of the name. It's victory all round!

Ever since And How's Yer Pubic Hair got the rights to the "Budweiser" name, I couldn't be surprised by this at all.

[Mellowed Out]

No, you are not. Just the first to - rightly - complain about it; just as I am the first to - again rightly - complain about split infinitives.

Complete myth I'm afraid, you can't split infinitives in Latin, but absolutely fine in English, they've been part of our language all the way back to Chaucer and beyond.

[JCSH]

What concerns me most is that Apple plans to take downgrade OS X about ten years into the past with the next version since mountain lion, puma and panther are just three different names for the same species.

[Eternal Density]

I don't think Lions are especially cool. Meh.


Instead of operating system, package contained Maru.
Would purchase again.

[VanI]

No, you are not. Just the first to - rightly - complain about it; just as I am the first to - again rightly - complain about split infinitives.

Complete myth I'm afraid, you can't split infinitives in Latin, but absolutely fine in English, they've been part of our language all the way back to Chaucer and beyond.

I didn't say it was wrong, just that I was going to complain about it. Infinitivi delendi sunt!

[JJ0]

Since when was panther another name for a puma? Panther is the melanistic form of the jaguar or leopard (and as the graph shows is derived from the genus containing them, and notably not pumas). Even wikipedia concedes that black pumas don't exist.

[Arancaytar]

I guess 'Cougar' is no longer an option thanks to its more recent slang meaning, but it can't just be me who thinks the word 'ocelot' is awesome. Also ocelots are awesome.

Ubuntu took that one last year (and Lynx the year before), likely on purpose to troll the marketing people at Apple.

[Muscleguy]

The coolest badass latin name has to be Vampiroteuthis infernalis, what could be badder than the vampire squid from hell?

As for OSX name they could go to Wildcat, Felis silvestris. There are lots of wildcat sub species out there to be going on with for some time to come.

[keithl]

Two words: Genetic Engineering!

[Eternal Density]

Essential research here

[mybrainhurts]

This post had objectionable content.

[drhex]

Smilodon Populator would win in a fight against Smilodon Fatalis, although the latter has a cooler name

[Wlerin]

Technically neither "tyrannosaurus" or "smilodon" is a Latin name. They're both derived from Greek. The proper term is Linnean or taxonomic name, not Latin name.

Oh? Since when is the -us ending Greek? Aye, the roots are Greek, but the words are in Latin form, hence "Latin name".

[Iranon]

Ubuntu should have made security a major focus in 10.10 and called it Masturbating Monkey.

[gambisk]

Move up the food chain. What eats cats? :]

OSX Witchdoctor?

or are you thinking more along the lines of what chases domestic cats in that case "OSX Beagle"

[hypocacculus]

Genuses may or may not be a valid plural of 'genus' but no self respecting taxonomist would use it - at least not when I was working as one and with them. A quick glance at any taxonomic literature would tell you that. I recoiled when I saw 'Genuses' on the graph, it's just.. so... wrong. And not in a good way. I imagine I would easily make the same sort of blunder if I strayed into computer geekery rather than biological geekery.

As has already been pointed out, the Linnean, or scientific names themselves are an unholy mix of Latin and Greek along with the names of places and people. A few particularly crusty taxonomists disapprove of the use of names that are not entirely descriptive of the creature concerned. Colloquially taxonimists call them 'names' as opposed to 'common names'. As in, "What is the name of that? "Oh, it's a Hypocacculus metallescens" . There are more things with a name than a common name. If you work with invertebrates, there are waaaaay more things with a name than a common name. The generic and species part of the names in print should be, by convention, written in italics if you want to do things properly, or underlined (which confuses people expecting a hyperlink). Other parts of the classification remain in normal text. Also, depending on the context, the name should include other taxonomic information such as the family, order, class etc and also the name of the person that created the species part of the name at the end (not in italics). Why? Because if you've never heard of Hypocacculus, you'd never know it was in the family Histeridae. Hell, you might not even know Histeridae were beetles, so you'd want to know that it was in order Coleopetera as well. And if you want to know which idiot/genius declared this insect belonged in this corner of beetledom, you want to know it was Erichson.

I'll get my coat.

[Seli]

The coolest badass latin name has to be Vampiroteuthis infernalis, what could be badder than the vampire squid from hell?

...

Well, there is the recently describes wasp species Nanocthulhu lovecrafti.

[RocketSurgeon]

OSX Jeff!

HTTP://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/geoffroy's_cat

[conorjh]

How do you titillate an ocelot? You oscillate its tits a lot.

So, yes, ocelot should be next.

[Xenobiologista]

Since when was panther another name for a puma? Panther is the melanistic form of the jaguar or leopard (and as the graph shows is derived from the genus containing them, and notably not pumas). Even wikipedia concedes that black pumas don't exist.

It's a "common" name for the puma apparently used in some parts of the USA. People have all kinds of different common names for stuff and they overlap lots of times. Europeans did this kind of thing all the time, going around the world and naming animals after stuff that looked familiar. That's why we have Latin binomal species names to avoid confusion. You might as well complain that both Erithacus rubecula and Turdus migratorius are both called robins even though they don't look anything like each other besides the red breasts.

[residuum]

I think, the next version will be Sea Lion. And after that OS X 10.10 Lion Lion.

[DocMesa]

I have the latest alpha version of OS X 10.9 "Bobcat".

Anyone want me to mail it to them?

[babble]

I guess I'm the only one bothered by him using "genuses" and not "genera."

No, you are not. Just the first to - rightly - complain about it; just as I am the first to - again rightly - complain about split infinitives.

There's nothing wrong with splitting infinitives, especially when it helps clarity.
edit: someone else said it first.

Smilodon is a Latin form? really?

[reegee]

OS X Tasmanian Tiger
or should that be OS X-tinct?

[despairbear]

I'm still hoping to see "OSX Lolcat".

[J L]

Since when was panther another name for a puma? Panther is the melanistic form of the jaguar or leopard (and as the graph shows is derived from the genus containing them, and notably not pumas). Even wikipedia concedes that black pumas don't exist.

Thank you. "Black panther" is such a common tautology, at least over here (and always followed by the explanation about jaguars), I also thought it was a mistake.

And "lions" are probably the uncoolest cats ever. But there's no arguing about cats.

[niky]

Well, there's one problem Android will never have. We all laughed at their decision to name their versions after desserts. Who's laughing now?

They dodge a bullet with "Quiche Lorraine", but after "Watermelon", I'm drawing a big fat blank.

[Netzach]

Why would an ocelot win against a lynx? The lynxes I've encountered were about 20 kg I'd say, but they can be almost twice that size I'm told. How large are ocelots then? I thought they were tiny.

[VectorZero]

Well, there's one problem Android will never have. We all laughed at their decision to name their versions after desserts. Who's laughing now?

They dodge a bullet with "Quiche Lorraine", but after "Watermelon", I'm drawing a big fat blank.

Ice cream flavours!
Chocolate!
Vanilla!

Errrr....


Oooh! Chocolate AND Vanilla!

Is that what Kirk used to hack the Kobayashi? Thought OS X was more secure than that...

[JCSH]

Since when was panther another name for a puma? Panther is the melanistic form of the jaguar or leopard (and as the graph shows is derived from the genus containing them, and notably not pumas). Even wikipedia concedes that black pumas don't exist.

It's a "common" name for the puma apparently used in some parts of the USA. People have all kinds of different common names for stuff and they overlap lots of times. Europeans did this kind of thing all the time, going around the world and naming animals after stuff that looked familiar. That's why we have Latin binomal species names to avoid confusion. You might as well complain that both Erithacus rubecula and Turdus migratorius are both called robins even though they don't look anything like each other besides the red breasts.

Also there's the hockey team called Florida Panthers which is named after the Florida panther which is a subspecies of the cougar which is also called a puma.
And according to Wikipedia (and Guinness Book of Records), in English there's over 40 different names for the puma concolor (a.k.a. puma, cougar, mountain lion,...)

[pelya]

Oh noez, the comic is not based on the scientific data! The "coolness" of the cat name is something entirely subjective, but you can totally measure the name popularity, using the number of Google search results:

cat - 2,900,OOO,OOO (obviously most popular)
tiger - 544,OOO,OOO
lion - 468,OOO,OOO
jaguar - 359,OOO,OOO (this feline is popular for naming cars, drinks and game consoles)
puma - 311,OOO,OOO
hello kitty - 211,OOO,OOO
leopard - 209,OOO,OOO
cougar - 154,OOO,OOO
panther - 135,OOO,OOO
tom cat - 125,OOO,OOO; tomcat - 47,900,000 (lot of results not related to felines)
garfield - 107,OOO,OOO; garfield cat - 14,500,OOO (not so common English name, so it beats Sylvester cat)
sylvester cat - 104,OOO,OOO
wild cat - 96,100,OOO; wildcat - 33,200,000
bob cat - 68,700,000; bobcat - 44,OOO,OOO
lynx - 68,100,OOO
ceiling cat - 60,100,OOO
cheetah - 59,8OO,OOO
snow leopard - 57,400,OOO
mountain lion - 50,200,OOO
puss in boots - 27,500,OOO
tigger - 19,300,OOO
まる 猫 - 18,000,000; maru cat - 8,250,000; maru - 48,400,OOO (common Japanese name)
colocolo - 16,500,OOO (lot of results not related to felines)
ocelot - 11,700,OOO
caracal - 9,57O,OOO
cheshire cat - 7,970,OOO
mittens cat - 6,8OO,OOO
housecat - 6,130,OOO; house cat - 297,000,000 ("house cat" query returns lot of unrelated results)
simon's cat - 5,710,000
serval - 5,310,OOO
lolcat - 3,890,OOO

And the tiger beats the lion. Stripes for the win!