In our Mac 101 series, TUAW introduces basic OS X concepts to new Mac users. This is going to be a quick one, because there's not too much to it -- but it's a critical note when talking to other people in your newly adopted community.
It's pronounced "Oh. Ess. Ten," not "Oh. Ess. Ex".
Mac OS X is a Unix-based operating system with roots reaching back to the Mach project at Carnegie Mellon and the NeXTStep OS in the late 1980's -- NeXT was a spin-off corporation founded by Steve Jobs during his exodus from Apple. Mac OS X was the version following Mac OS 9, even though the two system