1056: "Felidae"

[Muscleguy]

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.

Except that as a Dumbo Squid I'm much more likely to bump into a Vampiroteuthis infernalis in some dark canyon than have to be worried about a tiny wasp. I'm not sure we know exactly how badly I might come off against one, but I wouldn't bet on me and I'm too cute to die

[Patedoz]

In the future, when Mac and Microsoft form an alliance, they'll call it "OS Schrödinger's"... (Windows Will be the "dead" state)

[Maxintech]

Steve completely miss Clouded Leopard instead of the lazy king.

[rainspeaker]

Damn. Ninja'd.

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...

[Dr. Gamera]

Kodkod? Colocolo? Margay? Caracal?

[jonadab]

Well, it's better than Vista.

Anything is better than Vista.

Based on this statement, I assume you must have been born some time after the release of Windows XP Service Pack 1. Just for example, Windows For Workgroups 3.11 was so horrific, it makes Vista look like LCARS. (On many fora I would feel obliged to explain what LCARS is, but in a venue as geeky as this I will refrain.) The much-maligned Windows Me was not as bad as the press it got, but I would hesitate to call it better than Vista, given that it didn't have a proper privilege system or memory protection, much less Vista's mostly-working sudo. (Microsoft calls it UAC, but it's basically just gksudo for Windows.)

Or did you mean that any name for software is better than "Windows Vista"? Because if so I'll raise you one Windows 95 OSR2 and follow it up with Microsoft Office Word 2007.

As for the big cats, yeah, Apple's going to need a new naming scheme in about five years. Logically, that would be a good time to bump the major version number up to eleven.

[imantodes]

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.

Technically, neither Tyrannosaurus nor Smilodon are Linnaean names. These genera were published by H. F. Osborn and P. H. Lund, respectively, not by Linnaeus.

[jonadab]

Smilodon is a Latin form? really?

Superficially, that one looks like it could be a Greek form (second declension neuter, omicron stem vowel with the -n ending in the nominative singular). However, I don't think it's that simple. There's a larger -odon pattern also seen e.g. in "mastodon" and "iguanodon". I don't know the etymology behind that, but it's probably a second root, not just an ending. Whether it's a Greek root or a Latin root, I don't know.

[GameboyHippo]

Uh, Sabor Tooth cat would most certainly not win at a fight. That's why it's extinct. It should be at the bottom of this list.

[OP Tipping]

So ... OS X is still around? Wow.

[rhhardin]

I'd go with copycat.

[eric02138]

Other, lesser-well-known, awesome cats:

Uzitoothed Cat
Sabertoothed Cat (with actual sabers for teeth)
Honeybadgertoothed Cat (its teeth don't give a s--t)
Piratetoothed Cat
Velociraptortoothed Cat (pandering to Randall)

[ViperFUD]

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!

At the risk of being seen as crude, "pussy" returns 793,000,000 results. However I don't think many of them relate to cats.

[Jackpot777]

Just start using cute cat names.

You. I like you.

[Shamino]

I think Apple should use names of small cats for iOS.

Back when they introduced tabbed browsing (I think in OS X 10.2), I said they should've named it "tabby". They didn't use my suggestion.

I think the next release should be Clouded Leopard - especially if they're going to thoroughly integrate iCloud into it. But maybe it's considered bad form to go back to a leopard variant at this point.

Ocelot would be really cool too. I've seen one (at the Desert Museum, in Tucson AZ). They're big and look great.

[SerMufasa]

Uh, Sabor Tooth cat would most certainly not win at a fight. That's why it's extinct. It should be at the bottom of this list.

I'm sorry, I must have missed the biology lesson wherein we learned the saber-tooth cat went extinct because it was beat up by a gang of cheetahs and tigers.

...

I always thought "jaguar" sounded cool. Did the automotive connotation drop it on the list?

[bmonk]

Hmmm. Maybe the next version should be vaporware, allowing them to adopt "Sphinx," opening up a segue into all sorts of mythological beasties? Operating system Wyvern, or Manitcore anyone?

[Sprocket]

Argh. Too slow on my first opportunity for the first post!

Am I the only one who thinks that "mountain lion" is pretty lame in comparison to ALL of "panther", "puma", and "cougar"?

Puma is the best name for a cougar or mountain lion, yes.
Also Ocelot is a WAY cooler word that Cheetah.

I have no idea what any of this has to do with OS X.

Ice Cream Sandwich
Froyo
Eclair
Donut
Cupcake

[Coowhipp]

Argh. Too slow on my first opportunity for the first post!

Am I the only one who thinks that "mountain lion" is pretty lame in comparison to ALL of "panther", "puma", and "cougar"?

I made this account just to post about that. How does Jaguar get no love either? Lions are generally bad ass, be they mountain or African. But I think we can all agree that the name lion is just played out. People these days are interested in exotic sounding felidae not their grand daddies kitties.

Just saying

[Coowhipp]

awwwww, beaten again. Where's the polecat?

Polecat is a term used for some larger members of the weasel family.

[San Fran Sam]

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?

You mean there's an Android Boston Cream Pie? Yumm!

[San Fran Sam]

Just start using cute cat names.

MAC OSX Nyan!

Mac OS X Fluffy!

[Qopzeep]

In the competition for most badass Latin name, I'd say Varroa Destructor ranks pretty high https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varroa_destructor

[Fire Brns]

Just start using cute cat names.

MAC OSX Nyan!

Mac OS X Fluffy!

Mac OS X Hitler

Oh, wait...

[Ehsanit]

I vote for OS ΔΙ Chimera.

[SEE]

OS X Pussy.

Or should that be OS NC-17 Pussy?

[jbrecken]

If you swapped out leopard and snow leopard for lynx and wildcat, this could be a diagram of Thundercat names.

[eran_rathan]

If you swapped out leopard and snow leopard for lynx and wildcat, this could be a diagram of Thundercat names.

HOOOOOO!!!!

[blueshadow]

I agree with "Clouded Leopard". Apple should give a billion dollars for animal conservation of each of these species. You can call it "intellectual property" use. They don't own the species, and have too much money on hand.

[riddler]

OS Bigglesworth

'How much will it cost to develop?'
Pinky to corner of mouth, 'One BILLION dollars. Hahahahahahahaha.'

[Pfhorrest]

As for the big cats, yeah, Apple's going to need a new naming scheme in about five years. Logically, that would be a good time to bump the major version number up to eleven.

Mac OS This One Goes Up To Eleven?

Aha! A meme-based naming scheme!

I can't wait until Mac OS All Your Base Are Belong To Us (when the walled garden "feature" is finally completed).

[fardmuhammad]

Apple should have learned from Atari when they were making their video game systems. They made the jump from Lynx to Jaguar (skipping Panther entirely) before they had to shut down.

[darthdavid]

So I didn't know this until a few weeks ago when my 2nd grader did a report on snow leopards...but they are much smaller than other leopards, and only weigh 35-55 pounds. I'm thinking that might screw up the graph a bit. Because it's pretty unlikely a snow leopard could beat a cougar in a fight. Even a good-sized bobcat could give a smallish snow leopard a run for its money. A cougar could mop the floor with one.

Actually snow leopards tend to mass between 30 and 55 kilograms with occasional large males approaching ~75 kg. So yeah, slightly smaller than other leopards, but no where near as small as you were thinking.

[cream wobbly]

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

Not in the slightest. In fact as the first word my eyes happened upon, I misread it as "geniuses", and thought it should read "genii".

But Apple has an opportunity, given that "ocelot" and "lynx" were stupid names for Ubuntus, to switch its stupid name collection: name the next one "Sabre", then go to swords. There have been plenty of different types of sharpened instruments made for killing other people and yourself. It would be nice if they'd switch to something graceful and exotic instead of cats....

Or maybe just go with types of snark; i.e., "Doesn't suck", "Awesomely great", "Your mom", etc.

[cream wobbly]

Hmmm. Maybe the next version should be vaporware, allowing them to adopt "Sphinx," opening up a

"...ter".

[soren121]

OS X 10.10: Domesticated Cat.

[dmm]

Why does it have to be predators? When they picked Cheetah, I presumed they were bragging about the speed. If so, that was a tactical mistake by Apple. Any other land animal is a throw-back, and actually not many birds are faster in steady level flight. (And two are types of duck and goose. Not very inspiring.)
After saber-tooth, Apple should switch to constellations. ("Reach for the stars!") Some of those are cool; others not so much. (Cancer OS anybody? [Crab OS is no better.] And Crater OS is a no-go. But how about Bootes OS?)
If they use named stars as well, that's a lot of names, even tossing out the dorky ones.

[bob]

Seems as if Apple might have a problem with catfights...

[Lazy Tommy]

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.

Xmas Pudding, Yogurt, Zuppa Inglese.

[shpoffo]

Apple needs to Think Different....

Displacer Beast
Sabertooth
Bakeneko

..but really, go big / go home:

OS X : Wolverine