Why is it called El Capitan: Apple's operating system and the reason behind the name

Apple CEO Tim Cook prepares to announce OS X El Capitan at WWDC 15

APPLE will tonight roll-out its new operating system, OS X El Capitan

 

The name of Apple's new Mac operating system says a lot about what to expect.

OS X El Capitan is named after a natural monument in California, the naming convention Apple adopted after it dropped the names of big cats in 2012 with Mountain Lion.

In real life, El Capitan is a 3000ft rock formation on the north side of Yosemite National Park

 

El Capitan then won't offer any dramatic changes, but rather refinements and enhancements to the current Mac system, OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

Its a subliminal hint Apple has used in the past.

For example, Snow Leopard tweaked and refined the radical changes Apple introduced with the previous version, OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Three years later, Mountain Lion did the same for OS X 10.7 Lion.

 

Split Screen allows you to share and view content between two Full Screen applications

 

OS X El Capitan adds a number of new features of Full Screen apps, like Mail

 

OS X El Capitan does bring some new functionality, including a smart Spotlight Search which now supports natural language, and a Split Screen view for the full-screen apps introduced with Lion. 

A new font – dubbed San Francisco – designed in-house at Apple will also be introduced to the Mac for the first time, after rolling out across watchOS and iOS earlier this year.

Though you're not getting a lot of new functionality, El Capitan is packed with goodies that will shave off seconds here and there. And those seconds quickly add up.