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June 12, 2008

huh

A tale of Snow Leopards, Cheetahs, and the Girl Scouts

Posted Jun. 12, ’08, 12:00 PM PT by Aayush Arya
Category | Apple » Huh?

Snow LeopardOver at the mental_floss blog, Mangesh tries to draw our attention to some reasons why Snow Leopard might not be the best cat for Apple to associate Mac OS X with. Apparently, Snow Leopards aren’t actually Leopards but more closely related to Cheetahs (I have my doubts about that), cannot roar, are “the symbol of the Girl Scout Association of Kyrgyzstan”, and hide behind their tails.

Mangesh might have his doubts but I am pretty satisfied with Snow Leopard as the name for OS X’s next iteration. I, in fact, think that it’s the perfect name for it and, as regular readers must be aware, I can be quite difficult to please.

Snow Leopard tells you that it’s not much different from Leopard (the closer relation to Cheetah’s be damned) and sounds majestic in and of itself. Snow Leopard also happens to be a beautiful, rare animal, albeit a very powerful one. Since the animal is endangered, any positive attention drawn to it might even have an impact on efforts towards its conservation.

The fact that it cannot roar is actually a point in the name’s favor. Leopard, with its fancy new features, came roaring onto the scene. Snow Leopard is its more serious elder sibling, sauntering along quietly, confident in its performance and stability. As for the propensity to hide behind its tail in the face of stiff winters—well, I’m sure it will come in handy if it ends up shipping without PowerPC support, so I guess it lends all the more credibility to the name.

[Image courtesy of ‘digitalstu’ on deviantART.]

[Via TUAW]


4 Comments

Nathan said:

Have you ever seen a snow leopard hunt?
Very agile and quick and powerful.
I'd say it fits an OS nicely.

June 12, 2008 12:30 PM
leonardodamian Author Profile Page said:

I can't even imagine why we are having this conversation.

Oh, poor Magesh doesn't like the name of the OS? Don't buy it then.

Geesh...

June 12, 2008 6:09 PM
nospamboz said:

I'll be waiting for the
review headline:

'S no Leopard!

June 12, 2008 6:10 PM
Rich said:

Only thing I'd say is that Snow Leopards are very difficult to find and are rarely seen.

Does that mean there'll be half a dozen copies of the new OS across each country hidden in random parts of Apple stores?

June 13, 2008 3:31 AM

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