[Ti] An OS X Question

[Dr Trevor J. Hutley]

On 15 Oct 2005, at 23:05, r3solve wrote:

> Do you all say "OS X" or "OS Ten"?

The answer to your good question is not achieved through majority vote !

Actually, I think this is only a question if you do not know the  
history.

The character "X" in English is pronounced ex (in Greek chi, etc etc)  
and in Latin the character X represents (is) the number ten.
The Mac operating system is system ten, written using Latin numerals,  
read only as ten.
It simply is not the English letter pronounced ex, it just looks like  
it.

I think the definitive answer is that it is OS ten.

As I heard it, the Windoze OS competitive intelligence people saw  
something about the new Mac OS, did not know the history, thought  
they saw an "ex" and quickly the new release of Windoze was (re-) 
named Windows XP.  Not ten-P, XP.  Is that apocryphal, rumour, urban  
myth status or true?

I am glad that we changed to Arabic numerals from Latin numerals,  
although the remnants of Latin numbers in the English language enable  
a touch of class from time to time (still used by the BBC to date  
their programs!).

Now, why the Arabs now use Indian numerals, I still have to fathom.

regards,  Trevor (in Saudi Arabia)