German armored vehicles and Apple Mac OS X
I started using OSX this summer, and there has been some strange familiarity to the naming policies of that operating system. It suddenly struck me while watching Discovery Channel the other day: Both OSX and the german military’s armored vehicles are named after big cats. Just watch:
Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah shares it’s name with the German tank destroyer (armoured self-propelled anti-tank cannon) named Gepard, which is German for “cheetah”. The OS is like the tank quite slow and has very few applications. The main application of the tank is to kill other tanks, while the OS Cheetah was designed to kill off OS9. Quite appropriate.
The next incarnation of OSX was 10.1 Puma, with it’s German armoured fighting vehicle sibling – the, well, Puma. Which is not a real tank since it does not have belts, but then again OSX 10.1 was not an real OS either, it was just an upgrade to Cheetah.
Enter Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar. Like the German multiple missile-armed tank destroyers Jaguar 1 and Jaguar 2 OSX Jaguar features the possibility to accomplish many goals in one go, OSX Jaguar being a very feature-packed release.
As it’s German namesake the OSX 10.3 Panther was quite an upgrade. Both featured huge improvements in performance, firepower and had an updated, modernized look and feel. However, while OSX Panther came with FileVault protecting the user, the tank had a flawed design where a shot-trap made it easy to blow up the driver compartment.. Not unlike the OS, the tank was bugfixed and the G version resolved the previous problems.
And now on to the big guns. The Tiger I and the Tiger II does, exactly like OSX 10.4 Tiger, pretty much sweeps its competitive peers off the battlefield. Being the strongest and slickest of the bunch helps a lot against attackers, be it Shermans, M-26 Pershings, IS-2s, Linux or Windows XP. The Tiger revisions are also quite versatile, the tank served as both main battle tank, tank destroyer and self-propelled machine gun – while the OS runs both on PPC and Intel-powered machines.
All great designs eventually turn old enough to be reused and made subject to added features. So is the case with both OSX 10.5 Leopard and the modern-day German tank Leopard. The main features remain the same, but there is more weight, more advanced operation modes and more stability to be it gun turrets or the need for incremental backups.
But why does Mac OS X and german tank models share the same naming convention and other similarities? Could it be something having to do with the shared, well deserved, feeling of beeing the best in engineering on the respective fields? Maybe the tendency of both parties to respond well to strong leadership? The desire for total control over the different territories and the need to enforce this with great tanks, well organized armies, DRM and operating systems locked to run on specific hardware? I am not really sure, and there may be no connection at all. But like the naming of the Grundig stereo amplifiers V1, V2 and V3 compares easilly to the WWII rockets V1 and V2, the OSX and tank names may of course just be twisted coincidences 
Guess it’s true enough to believe it’s not coincidental.
Interessant! Wusste nicht, dass die deutsche Panzer und Apple Betriebsysteme aehnliche Namen haetten!
First, if Apple probably doesn’t create codenames after features have been determined, so the idea that the codename would be chosen because of similar tank characteristics is bogus.
Second, just because two entirely unrelated groups of people come up with using the same category of common names, it shouldn’t be assumed that they’re related. If Apple were taking German tank names as codenames, perhaps the next two releases should be “Bear” and “Elephant”… It shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that names of dominant vicious cats would be used to describe either war vehicles or operating systems thought of as ahead of their time.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s interesting; but I’ll note it for what it is, a coincidence.
BEDrock: Of course my comparison is bogus and coincidental. It’s total bullshit from one end to the other – I just had fun writing it. Anyone that thinks different needs to perform a little reality check
The Puma you listed is an Italian AFV. I suspect you intended to list the German armored car SdKfz. 234/2, also known as “Puma.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwerer_Panzerspähwagen
ola, you have to know that people are going to run with this. The internet is stupid.
Well, Apple is invading the PC market the same way the germans wanted to invade the world. Lets hop that apple actually succeeds and in a more peaceful way. Maybe it is not a coincidence afterall.
god, you people are retarded.
i think it would be : “Various editions originally have with World War II’S German armed force tank many common place”, these words were translated by dictionary.reference.com hehe
I thought Steve named them after high school football teams.
“The main application of the tank is to kill other tanks, ”
The Gepard is an anti-aircraft weapon, it is not designed to kill tanks.
Apple sucks, Linux ftw
[â¦] Ok seriously I think Lynx would be the next one. Back to July 2003 Apple has trademarked âLynxâ, âCougarâ, âLeopardâ and âTigerâ. Now Tiger and Leopard are already out, so expect âLynxâ or âCougarâ to be released from the cage of Apple in the coming OS X 10.6.
Update: hereâs an interesting article about the uncanny naming resemblance between WWII German tanks and Mac OS X. Hereâs a portion of it:[â¦]
Ok seriously I think Lynx would be the next one. Back to July 2003 Apple has trademarked âLynxâ, âCougarâ, âLeopardâ and âTigerâ. Now Tiger and Leopard are already out, so expect âLynxâ or âCougarâ to be released from the cage of Apple in the coming OS X 10.6.
Update: hereâs an interesting article about the uncanny naming resemblance between WWII German tanks and Mac OS X. Hereâs a portion of it:
But why does Mac OS X and german tank models share the same naming convention and other similarities? Could it be something
Hmm .. If it’s for world domination, then the next release should be “Mammoth”.
Interesting observation, but I agree with BEDrock that wild cats’ names evoke desirable associations for a wide range of products and therefore I’m pretty sure this is coincidence.
Hey, I just got a mac
There great compared to my old pc. I never would of actually bought one though because there so expencive luckly I won won at muulu.com :p
Apple FTW!
diego sucks, Apple ftw!
@diego
diego sucks, Apple ftw!
@diego – urm, maybe you should look at the origins of the core of OSX before making such a juvenile, under-aged little comment.
Steve Jobs did his usual intensive research with Jonathan Ives, (who incidently also designed Eva in Wall-E),into a naming schema for the OS’s – and like the happy cutesy smiley macintosh start up icon of old – saw that the happy cutesy fluffy kitten approach really works – and it really does work !
And macs are as different to PC’s, as cats are to dogs ,-)
And then the T34 came.. and destroyed every german tank..
Simple, versatile, quick and cheap..
Ah ah ah! Brilliant debate! Let us wait for the T34… And hope that Steve Jobs doesn’t come up with some Enola Gay
just gonna reveal hello…
must look at this at my estore at my estore
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