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How Apple names things

nicolas.kruchten.com

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Re: How Apple names things

#81

Post by andirk »

rob74 wrote: post #46
tacker2000 wrote: post #19

This reads like some typical fanboi stuff. There are a lot of things to also hate about apples naming schemes, just look at the pro, max, se nonsense they cooked up. Also the naming scheme of Mac OS versions, i can never figure out which one came before or after the other, there is no rhyme or reason. Why dont they use alphabetical sorted names? Or years/numbers like Windows…?

Ok, Microsoft is not a shining example for naming either, I mean, they had a product called "Windows 8" which actually had version number 6.2 - do I need to say more? At least they fixed this with the first release of Windows 10 - and then got rid of the version numbers in the very next release (at least according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Microsoft_Windows_vers... ).

And Windows 9 got skipped because some Y2K-like software would see "Win9" as Windows 95, or because 9 is unlucky in Japan, or because of marketing, or to distance itself from the flop of Windows 8, or because we all like the number 10.

Re: How Apple names things

#82

Post by nomilk »

swyx wrote: post #2

ive been making general notes on How To Name Things (from companies to variables) here since its one of the well known hard problems - offering it up for others https://www.swyx.io/how-to-name-things this piece would be a new category for me - how to name products, given a big brand that covers multiple products

Thanks for sharing this, it will be my canonical resource on the topic. (also, it brings me joy that someone obsessed enough to make such an informative and lengthy compilation of pure ideas; a service to the community!).

Re: How Apple names things

#83

Post by andirk »

hnlmorg wrote: post #79
codetrotter wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why even have a version name then if it’s not intended to communicate anything? It does communicate something. But it's not for comparing release dates of versions. It's for marketing. Go to Apples website, navigate to the Mac section and then to the macOS section. That lands you on this page: https://www.apple.com/macos/ventura/ The names are used in marketing when new versions are launched. Read the page I linked…

But plenty of products manage to have a version name that is both used for marketing and also conveys contextual informal about the release. Which is the point all the other commenters have been making. Your argument that the names are non-descriptive because they were intended to be non-descriptive doesn’t absolve the criticism that non-descriptive names are confusing to a lot of people.

AOL did a great job with those CDs. There was AOL 4.0,5.0,6.0... all free for 30 days or 500,000 hours, whichever comes first.

Re: How Apple names things

#84

Post by andirk »

hnlmorg wrote: post #80
hollerith wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The subscrption is called Apple TV+.

Which is confusing. Why have a hardware product and a streaming service named identically aside the addition of a non-alphabetically symbol. When people talk about Apple TV I’m never quite certain which product they’re referring to and have to infer that from the context of their sentence.

Such as "I like my Apple TV" probably implies the hardware box whereas "I like Apple TV" means the streaming service.

Re: How Apple names things

#85

Post by 22289d »

tacker2000 wrote: post #19

This reads like some typical fanboi stuff. There are a lot of things to also hate about apples naming schemes, just look at the pro, max, se nonsense they cooked up. Also the naming scheme of Mac OS versions, i can never figure out which one came before or after the other, there is no rhyme or reason. Why dont they use alphabetical sorted names? Or years/numbers like Windows…?

As a California native, I love the 10.9.5+ names. They all have meaning to me. (They're all places in California).

Re: How Apple names things

#86

Post by esrauch »

22289d wrote: post #85
tacker2000 wrote: post #19

This reads like some typical fanboi stuff. There are a lot of things to also hate about apples naming schemes, just look at the pro, max, se nonsense they cooked up. Also the naming scheme of Mac OS versions, i can never figure out which one came before or after the other, there is no rhyme or reason. Why dont they use alphabetical sorted names? Or years/numbers like Windows…?

As a California native, I love the 10.9.5+ names. They all have meaning to me. (They're all places in California).

Is their order obvious to you somehow?

Re: How Apple names things

#87

Post by ragebol »

Closi wrote: post #39
lwneal wrote: post #16

Apple's system strikes an interesting contrast to Google's system for naming products, documented at [1]. [1] https://bonkersworld.net/naming-dartboard

Ah yes - Go -> A programming language created by Google Google Go -> An android app to help you search Android Go -> A lightweight version of Android created by Google.

AlphaGo -> AI system from a Google sibling playing: Go. Go -> an ancient board game

Re: How Apple names things

#88

Post by 22289d »

esrauch wrote: post #86
22289d wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a California native, I love the 10.9.5+ names. They all have meaning to me. (They're all places in California).

Is their order obvious to you somehow?

heh no, they don't seem related at all. Sierra and High Sierra were. otherwise it's a pretty random stroll, they don't seem to be in any order by geography or type or anything.

Re: How Apple names things

#89

Post by kwanbix »

andirk wrote: post #81
rob74 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, Microsoft is not a shining example for naming either, I mean, they had a product called "Windows 8" which actually had version number 6.2 - do I need to say more? At least they fixed this with the first release of Windows 10 - and then got rid of the version numbers in the very next release (at least according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Microsoft_Windows_vers... ).

And Windows 9 got skipped because some Y2K-like software would see "Win9" as Windows 95, or because 9 is unlucky in Japan, or because of marketing, or to distance itself from the flop of Windows 8, or because we all like the number 10.

But you can still understand that Windows 10 is newer than 8 or 8.1, and older than Windows 11. It is what most software companies use, v1, v2, v2.2, etc. Another good way is with year/month, like Ubuntu.

Re: How Apple names things

#90

Post by easton »

vvillena wrote: post #67
jimmySixDOF wrote: post #23

Its been interesting to watch the naming evolution (or at least the speculated evolution) of Apple's upcoming vr/ar headset. For example, they were going to use rOS and now it's rumored to be xrOS [1] for technical/branding/market reasons that are evolving behind a curtain. Also, its a little meta, but I am a big fan of visualizations and this link is itself an example of one that would work well in XR ! [1] https://…

Not a good idea to name a new OS "rOS" when ROS, the Robot Operating System, is already a thing.

I mean IOS was already a thing when they named the iPhone’s operating system that. In fact, I think they got in an argument with Cisco over it?

Guessing they think of a consumer hasn’t likely heard of it it won’t be confusing.

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