I’ve been pulled up on occasion on The Exastential Podcast for referring to Apples desktop OS, OS X, as literally O-S-X instead of “OS Ten”. The thing is that I learned the name of it when I was building Hackintoshes before I ever listened to an Apple keynote or ever walked into an Apple Store or ever talked to anyone else with a Mac. I simply got used to saying it O-S-X and like any accent or regional dialect it just stuck.

Naturally people that have followed the Mac since System 6, System 7, OS 8, OS 9 and now OS X it’s natural enough for them to say OS 10. Then again I didn’t see Apple calling their earlier operating systems OS VI, OS VII, OS VIII and OS IX respectively. Why introduce Roman Numerals for the 10th version? How long has it been since Rome fell apart?

I also note that Apple released Xcode for programming in OS X and they do not pronounce it Ten Code.

I therefore propose this: To anyone that complains that OS X must be called OS Ten, whenever they refer to Xcode I will correct them that it must be referred to it as Ten Code for consistency. What’s that you say? Apple weren’t consistent?!

Here’s another thing: why do people get so hung up on how technical jargon is pronounced. If you know what I’m talking about then simply nod don’t argue about how I said it. Do you ask a foreigner who speaks your language as their second language to repeat what they’ve said until they pronounce it right or do you just nod? Yeah, I thought so.

For those readers that say: “Well Apple pronounce it this way and the word came from them first so you have to say it their way” I therefore submit that all Americans must now start pronouncing Tomato correctly - oh, I mean as per the English custom. What’s that you say my dear American reader? Yeah, I thought so. For the record - I wouldn’t either…