8

We don't have 7, but rather we have . By the same token, there seem to be a lot of "cat name only" tags out there that, I believe, should be prefixed with os-x, making it instead of just

3
  • Shouldn't most of those questions be on SuperUser or Unix&Linux?
    – Andrew
    Nov 16, 2011 at 1:11
  • 3
    @Andrew unless they're about OS X server, or about managing OS X in a professional capacity, just like any other OS.
    – MDMarra
    Nov 16, 2011 at 1:18
  • @Andrew "Theres a StackExchange site for that" (apple.stackexchange.com) - but like MarkM said, if it's professional desktop/server support & management it can come here too.
    – voretaq7
    Nov 18, 2011 at 15:50

4 Answers 4

4

I'm all for this, but I would synonym the cat-name tags: You don't normally say "I'm running OS X Lion", or "I'm running MacOS 10.7.2" (unless you need to be very specific about the patch level for some reason), you say "I'm running Lion" -- we'd be forever cleaning up tags...

3
  • Indeed, I thing a synonym would be the right thing to do here. Nov 16, 2011 at 0:12
  • There is an operating system called Lion?
    – Andrew
    Nov 18, 2011 at 5:44
  • @Andrew Probably, but the one we're discussing is properly called "OS X Lion" :-)
    – voretaq7
    Nov 18, 2011 at 15:47
4

Can't we just ban the use of 'cat names' and insist on version numbers, it's childish and crappy, it's 10.7 or whatever - we don't call Windows by its dev names 'Windows Whistler' etc.

Personally I'd kill all use; back-convert every posting of cat-names and bad the words from new questions.

And I LOVE apple otherwise btw.

9
  • 1
    The problem is that Microsoft doesn't market it as Whistler where Apple strongly pushes the name as the branding over the version number.
    – MDMarra
    Nov 15, 2011 at 16:55
  • 4
    But they're wrong, it's stupid, we're IT pro's we should talk in riddles and numbers all the time otherwise 'they' will figure out it's all very easy and fire us :)
    – Chopper3
    Nov 15, 2011 at 16:58
  • Oh. Well in that case, have an upvote.
    – MDMarra
    Nov 15, 2011 at 18:53
  • 1
    I feel teh same about Ubuntu names, only the problem there is that I know we have a few Ubuntu 10.2 servers, but EVERYTHING in their sites refers to Natty or Lucid or some other crazy name and I can never remember which arbitrary name we're running Nov 15, 2011 at 19:28
  • 1
    Ubuntu 12 should be 'Twee Shite'
    – Chopper3
    Nov 15, 2011 at 20:29
  • 1
    Sorry but we do in fact refer to Microsoft products by name, not version numbers. Not the dev names perhaps but names nonetheless. e.g. Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows NT, Windows Server 2003, etc., etc. How is that different to Tiger, Lion, Leopard, etc.? Nov 15, 2011 at 22:24
  • 2
    @JohnGardeniers We already synonymed the Ubuntu "codenames" to their version numbers. Besides, the percentage of "professional desktop support" questions around all versions of Mac OS X is tiny compared to any version of Windows.
    – Andrew
    Nov 16, 2011 at 1:36
  • @Andrew, does that mean we should also create version number tags for Microsoft products and synonym the release name to the version numbers? Why this call for consistency that is so totally inconsistent? Nov 16, 2011 at 2:08
  • @JohnGardeniers see my answer below.
    – Andrew
    Nov 16, 2011 at 3:24
2

If I remember correctly a certain amount of SEO work was undertaken which involved tags.

I would say standardise on what the people who use the tag think is correct and synonym the variants to that. This will help people find answers.

Looking at the figures the reality is that most people don't seem to care and use macosx/macosxserver. Those that do express a preference seem to prefer the code names.

10.4 × 8 synonym to

10.5 × 43, × 4 synonym to

10.6 × 105, × 70, x30 synonym to × 16

10.7 × 14, × 16 synonym to

10.x × 1333 × 333

Some searching suggests that it may be able to recategorise some of the macosx/macosx server questions based on heuristics but we'll still end up with ~1000 without a specific tag.

1

WRT version names & numbers:

Microsoft brands Windows releases by a name ("Windows Server 2008 R2"). The internal version number (6.1) and build number (7601) have not been used in marketing since Windows NT 4, and our tags use the names.

Canonical brands Ubuntu releases by both a name ("Lucid Lynx") and the date of release (10.04). The release date seems to be more prominent, and our tags use the release numbers.

Apple brands Mac OS X releases by both a name ("OS X Lion") and a version number (10.7.2). The name is more prominent.

2
  • I don't see the relevance of marketing. What I do believe is relevant is how most people identify versions. As far as I can tell most Mac users appear to prefer the names, not the version numbers. Nov 16, 2011 at 20:45
  • @JohnGardeniers marketing drives identification. I think you've changed my mind about Mac OS X names though.
    – Andrew
    Nov 18, 2011 at 5:49

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