Apple’s Next Big Cat to Make WWDC Debut?
It seems just like yesterday that we were celebrating Leopard’s release. But if rumors hold true, we could be celebrating another big cat’s release come January 2009. According to a rumor first spotted over at TUAW, Apple may be planning to unveil Mac OS X 10.6 at next week’s WWDC in San Francisco, with a planned ship date in January 2009.
There have been some rumblings of 10.6 lately; some intrepid souls found references to 10.6 in the iPhone SDK installer, as well as in WebKit, the engine powering Safari. If this rumor is true, 10.6 would be released a mere 15 months after 10.5. While Apple has released major Mac OS X versions that close (and closer) together before, it’s been a while since we’ve seen a new version so soon.
Since we have a few days until Lord Jobs’ WWDC keynote, let’s play a quick game of Name That Kitty! My money’s on “Cougar.” I like the sound of it and have hoped Apple would go with it for a while now. What sayeth thou? Post a comment!





Eric on June 4th, 2008 at 7:11 am
I think it’s time for a change of naming convention. Big cats are a bit old hat now.
Jason on June 4th, 2008 at 7:16 am
“LoLCat”
rich on June 4th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Liger, innit.
Galley on June 4th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Lynx
bertrand on June 4th, 2008 at 7:48 am
minou
2Shae on June 4th, 2008 at 8:03 am
I wonder if it will get a visually update or perhaps multiple themes available.
If they don’t then I don’t really consider it as a “new” OS, but more like a Service Pack.
Craig on June 4th, 2008 at 8:10 am
The only big cat name as yet unused (since Puma and Cougar are the same species) is Lion, but that seems pretty boring (if not even cowardly), although as king of beasts it might be the final Cat name.
So we have to go to smaller cats like Lynx, Ocelot, Wildcat, Bobcat for a truly different species, and it makes little sense to move out of the family of big cats.
I’m at a loss, but I think Siamese is unlikely.
Lee on June 4th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Wait did I miss “Cheetah”? Was that before or after Jaguar…so confused. How ’bout “Patience” named after Catwoman?
Patrick Wynne on June 4th, 2008 at 8:51 am
I vote for a smaller cat: Chartreux
Toni on June 4th, 2008 at 8:59 am
I say Ocelot; I don’t care how big or small it is
Lee on June 4th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Looks like “Lion” is it…I do like Ocelot…unless we start going back and call it Sabretooth or Sabre? But that whole extinct thing might work against the marketing. I don’t care what they call it, I’m sure it’ll be the “Cat’s Meow”…just puuuuuurrrrfect!
Shearn on June 4th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Lnyx – it just sounds cooler
Uncle on June 4th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Sabertooth- the original big cat
or maybe Andres Gallaraga
Craig on June 4th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Sabretooth is freaking awesome.
But in order of coolness and likelihood of actually being used, I agree both Ocelot and Lynx sound cooler than Lion.
Even though it’s the last and king of the big cats (but not the biggest), something tells me that Steven Jobs is not going to go for Mac OS X Lion.
And Cougar is, I think, still possible.
Nick Mediati on June 4th, 2008 at 10:14 am
@ #13:
Andrés Gallaraga…I like that! :P
AndyS on June 4th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Man, I hope apple delivers. I just bought 16K of their stock yesterday @ 187. I wrote more about it here -
http://www.savingtoinvest.com/2008/06/oh-noi-just-bought-16k-worth-of-apple.html -
and am hoping they over deliver as usual. Hoping the new OS is better recieved than Vista (the last big software launch by Microsoft)
Andy
Craig on June 4th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Snow Leopard
millions on June 4th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Lynx or Cheetah. Lynx is by far the coolest cat name.
jobs on June 5th, 2008 at 3:18 am
Pussy Galore
Grey on June 5th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Cheetah’s aren’t big cats, but I suppose that Apple could ignore that…
My vote goes to Ocelot, mostly because it puts a smile on my face!
Lee on June 11th, 2008 at 6:02 am
Guess Craig is right…”Snow Leopard” is next. What about after that?….
Ken Klein on January 1st, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Cheetah was code name for Mac OS X 10.0 as it says on the web page it is Snow Leopard, but I think it might change, hopefully c`mon snow-leopard what is with that, I hope it has more features, but you never know, lets wait and steve will tell us.