What Does OS X Say When You Ask it to Pronounce Itself? [Video]

By Daniel Miessler on October 25th, 2007: Tagged as Apple | Geek | Language | OS X

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In the tech world it’s easy to find debates about how to pronounce things. One of those things is OS X. Most people either say “Oh Es Ex” or “Oh Es Ten“. So which is it? As it turns out, it’s not a matter of preference like most claim — that is unless you simply prefer to pronounce it incorrectly. In this case there is actually a correct way.

At the center of this issue is a simple concept: when an authority for a particular product or movement explicitly states how that thing is pronounced, that pronunciation does in fact become the correct one.

Examples of this include Linus Torvalds clearly stating that Linux is to be pronounced “linicks” ( Video ) and Ubuntu Linux’s creators giving an exact phonetic breakdown of how to pronounce their product [oo-boon-too] ( Ubuntu.com ). The point is that if the creator is still alive (and they offer an opinion on the matter) we can use them as the ultimate authority.

OS X

With OS X many people point to the fact that Steve Jobs clearly says, “Oh Es Ten” when he says the name. That’s fairly convincing, but it turns out there’s an even better illustration: we can ask the operating system itself how to pronounce its own name. OS X comes with a built-in program called say which literally “says” anything you tell it to.

[ Video Demo ]

Why debate it when we can go right to the source? The trick is that if you tell it to say the letter “X”, it says “Ex”. But if you tell it to say, “OS X“, it says “Oh Es Ten“. (See Video)

me@computer me $ say “X”

Ex.

me@computer me $ say “OS X”

Oh Es Ten.

gg.

We were just told precisely how to say “OS X” by the best possible source — the operating system itself.:





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12 Comments »

  1. I agree with you.

    Now that I’ve actually commented on the actual post, I have to ask, can I get that wallpaper?

    Comment by FSFunky — 10/25/2007 @ 5:49 pm

  2. Heh, the wallpaper is available from the macromates site. Just Google for TextMate shortcuts. If you can’t find it I’ll hook you up.

    Comment by Daniel Miessler — 10/25/2007 @ 5:51 pm

  3. Things kinda slow for you these past couple days Daniel? :P

    Comment by Marcin — 10/25/2007 @ 6:43 pm

  4. @Marcin: I agree.

    And, this is a trivial thing. (I’m saying “trivial” because “stupid” may be offensive).

    I don’t really care how Steve pronounce it, I read the name and say it like a series of normal words. And “X” is “ecks”. Period. Just because he needed to show that Mac OS X was the successor to Mac OS 9 by saying “ten” in 2001, doesn’t mean that holds any water now.

    And, by the way, who cares? If wanna say ten then say it, if you don’t, say what you want. We are all gonna die someday, why bother with this crap?

    Comment by Leo — 1/1/2008 @ 1:13 am

  5. The operating system is pronounced “O S X”, not “O S Ten”. How do I know this? Simple. It’s right there in the title.

    Sample dialog:

    Person 1: What is Apple’s new operating system?

    Person 2: Mac OS Ten.

    Person 1: Hmmm, I just went to http://apple.com/macos10 and I’m getting a “Page Not Found” error.

    Person 2: Oh, you have to go to http://apple.com/macosx.

    Person 1: Why? The operating system isn’t called OS X, is it?

    Person 2: Well, it’s spelled that way, but it’s not pronounced that way. It’s pronounced as though it’s modern fashion to use Roman style numbers in the product name. Arabic numbers have gone out of fashion, what with terrorism and all.

    Person 1: Oh I see. So it’s just some stupid marketing thing. Do you think the next OS will be called “Mac OS XI” or “Mac OS 11″?

    Person 2: I hope not. At least it’s not as screwed up as Sun’s naming scheme for Java.

    BTW why is my email address required?

    Comment by Smoochy — 1/3/2008 @ 7:18 pm

  6. OS X — the X being the Roman numeral for 10… its OS 10, saying OS ecks sounds dumb, OS ten at least has some meaning. Just accept the fact that Apple chose to go with the ancient Roman numbers this time and say OS ten and stop sounding like a doof

    Comment by AstralSin — 3/18/2008 @ 2:17 am

  7. I’m convinced… and I’ve been wrong for so long!

    OS TEN it is!

    Comment by Dan — 3/22/2008 @ 5:02 am

  8. I thought it was pronounced “Yeah! baby!”

    Comment by doug rogers — 3/29/2008 @ 1:18 am

  9. So, for all of the numbskulls that still think it’s pronounced “Oh Es Ecs”, do you people also pronounce Super Bowl XLII as “Super Bowl Ecs El Eye Eye”?

    Um no, it’s pronounced “Super Bowl Forty Two”, just like it’s intended to be pronounced and just like everyone else pronounces it.

    Wake up people, the ‘X’ in “Mac OS X” is what we call a ROMAN NUMERAL. Please use your heads

    Thx

    Comment by Meatbiscuit — 4/1/2008 @ 7:35 pm

  10. It’s neither. It is OS Crap

    Comment by Bob — 6/27/2008 @ 4:51 am

  11. Ohh shit tan

    Comment by mithan — 8/17/2008 @ 11:37 am

  12. What about O S X = Oral Sex Ten

    Comment by mithan — 8/17/2008 @ 11:38 am

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