The macOS Sierra developer preview: Different name, same ol‘ Mac

Enlarge / macOS Sierra is a big branding change for a typical iterative OS release. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

When Apple runs through its operating system announcements at WWDC, the OS X part of the show is pretty much the only instance when the company spends any time talking about a product name.

The Mac has long since ceased to be Apple's most important product, but the company has kept up the tradition of slapping a secondary name on each OS release, something separate from the version number and the "OS X" or "Mac OS X" branding. Often, those names are used to set expectations about the release. Snow Leopard is a refinement of Leopard. Mountain Lion is a refinement of Lion. El Capitan is a refinement of Yosemite.

It's tempting to read the "macOS" rebranding as some grand statement about the Mac, but, truth be told, "Sierra" is more indicative of what we're getting. The name comes from a mountain range that encompasses Yosemite and El Capitan rather than moving away from them. It's another year of building on Yosemite's foundation, another year of incremental change, and another year of over-saturated mountain wallpapers.

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Source: Gear & Gadgets – Ars Technica http://ift.tt/28MIdFq