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To designate Macintosh hardware, we now have a and . I don't think macbookpro should be a separate tag.

There's a new question which is about a non-macbook Mac. Is the right tag? Or ? or both?

Should be made a synonym of , or is there really a need for different tags?

Given the response, please synonym:

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  • why not just simply "mac"?
    – Jeff Atwood
    May 8, 2011 at 20:59
  • 2
    @Jeff: Possible confusion with MAC address. Given the respective popularity of Macintosh vs MAC address, even amongst the Unix.SE audience, this may not matter.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    May 8, 2011 at 21:19
  • 2
    "apple" or "apple-mac" then? "macbook" is a horrendous tag.
    – Jeff Atwood
    May 8, 2011 at 22:07
  • This will change everything. Again. :)
    – boehj
    May 11, 2011 at 11:45

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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If you want to have one single tag, use .

If you want to split the questions into two groups, there are several ways Macs can be divided. For example:

  • Portability


    • Mac Pro, iMac, mini, Xserve, PowerMac, Cube

    • MacBook, MacBook Pro, iBook, PowerBook

  • Era


    • PowerMac, PowerBook, iBook, Cube, iMac (some)

    • Mac Pro, mini, Xserve, MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac (some)

    or


    • PowerMac, PowerBook, iBook, Cube, PPC-based iMac, 68020, 68030, 68040

    • Mac Pro, mini, Xserve, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Intel-based iMac

And of course, there are bound to be questions about Linux on devices that ship with iOS (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV), so you might want to keep those in mind, too.

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  • Very good point about the iDevices. I don't think we'll need to distinguish between the various types of Mac, the questions that require that tend to be asked at AD.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    May 9, 2011 at 6:50
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    The last is no good, since today's current is tomorrow's obsolete.
    – mattdm
    May 9, 2011 at 11:18
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PowerPC is an architecture like x86 or x86_64. Modern Mac's run on Intel and are not PowerPC. Also PowerPC was an IBM architecture, and I don't think apple was the only hardware that had it (I might be wrong). So /macbook should not be a synonym of /macintosh and neither should /powerpc. As far as /macbook and /macbookpro they are probably completely unnecessary, I would think the underlying architecture to be more interesting, this is like tagging /dell, /latitude or /dell, /inspiron I really doubt those last 2 tags are remotely relevant /dell, /laptop maybe.

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  • I agree. Having /macbook and /macbookpro is superfluous. It's interesting though. I'd probably be in favour of /macintosh & /laptop, although you're burning a tag option there and are only left with three more. I don't think there's any use in having /ppc and /powerpc either. I'd opt for just /ppc as that's how it's generally referred to in .iso names from what I've seen.
    – boehj
    May 8, 2011 at 10:00
  • @boehj: ppc/powerpc is about the processor architecture, and it's distinct from Mac. There are non-PPC (vintage m68k, or modern intel) Macs, and there are a few non-Mac PPC (embedded or supercomputer).
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    May 8, 2011 at 13:49
  • @xenoterracide: Since people are spontaneously using macbook, I think it should be left, but it should redirect to a more general tag (macintosh?).
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    May 8, 2011 at 13:49
  • @Gilles - I realize it's an arch, but I'd still favour just /ppc. I'm not sure, but do we have /AMD64 + /x86_64 tags? If we do, I view this as superfluous in the same way, preferring to use just one, however controversial.
    – boehj
    May 8, 2011 at 14:04
  • @gilles maybe it should. amd64 maybe be a tag synonym for x86_64 ... it depends on how people are using it... whether they are referring to the architecture or a processor.
    – xenoterracide
    May 8, 2011 at 17:43
  • @xenoterracide: We have neither, people have been using 64bit. amd64 and x86_64 are exact synonyms, it's not like ppc/mac, they're both processor types.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    May 8, 2011 at 17:48
  • @gilles oh I'm thinking athlon64
    – xenoterracide
    May 8, 2011 at 18:07
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I'm kind of inclinded towards something like "apple-hardware"....

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  • I don't really like artificially introducing a tag that no one spontaneously uses.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    May 8, 2011 at 13:50
  • And more to the point, questions about connecting to an iDevice or running on an iDevice are also apple-hardware but we don't want to gather them in a single tag. I hadn't even thought of this before Dori's post.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    May 9, 2011 at 6:47
  • Yeah, good point on the idevices.
    – mattdm
    May 9, 2011 at 11:17

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