Customer Reviews

Mac OS X 10.3 Panther [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Mac OS X 10.3 Panther is not the substantial upgrade that 10.2 Jaguar (made "snappier" with Quartz Extreme) and 10.1 Puma (the first Mac OS X usable for the masses) represented. It does, however, add many welcome features and is particularly recommended for notebook (iBook and PowerBook G4) and PowerMac G5 users.

It is difficult to list every new feature (Apple claims 150 new features). I will describe only the major ones (as well as my personal favorites).

The most significant addition is Exposé, which upon a key press or a mouse gesture, shrinks all running windows so you can see them all. Click on one of the windows, it zooms in to a normal size. It is very cool and very effective, possibly the most revolutionary window management technology since the dawn of windowing graphical user interface. Even more impressive, all the windows continue to update themselves even when they shrink, giving you the "control center" view of running applications. Exposé also lets you hide all the windows (so you can see what's on the desktop) or hide all the windows but the active one. This is a huge addition, especially for those with lower resolution display.

The next most significant addition is rewritten Finder. Although many may not appreciate metallic design, it has received a ton of new feature and much faster to boot (multi-threaded). The new Finder resembles iTunes: the right pane shows mounted drives and volumes as well as "favorite directories" that you can customize. Located on the upper right-hand corner is a search function that returns matched files in real-time. Another welcome feature is color labels. You can organize files by marking them with one of many color labels (e.g., red for work stuff, blue for family stuff). And you can create zip files directly from Finder.

At this point, most people will probably list Fast User Switching as the next most significant feature. Since my PowerBook is used by only me, I don't find this feature personally compelling. I've tried it and it works well. If you have multiple users, the menu bar will list your name towards the end. Clicking will list users you can switch to. Select one and after the password authentication, the entire screen rotates in 3D, switching to the new user's desktop. Very snazzy. Those with very long name (e.g., Arnold Schwartznegger), may not welcome his/her name occupying precious menu bar space, however.

For me, 3rd most compelling addition is upgraded Mail. It is significantly faster than before. Significantly! And it adds several welcome additions, such as threaded view of messages, enhanced anti-spam features, enhanced HTML email rendering (thanks to Safari), and enhanced integration with the Address Book (which can now print labels, by the way).

One disappointment is FileVault. While great in concept (it automatically encrypts files upon logout and automatically decrypts upon login), it is not very stable. Many users have reported preferences getting corrupted.

Significant changes are summarized as follows.

Pros:
- Exposé is one the most revolutionary windows management technologies to date
- Faster faster faster -- Preview (with support for latest Acrobat format), Help, Mail, Finder
- Performance enhancements for G5 processor
- Significantly improved Finder and Mail
- Cool Fast User Switching
- Improved anti-aliasing for LCD displays (and you can enable it all the way down to 4 point fonts)
- System Preferences better organized
- Improved, more professional looking Aqua interface
- Significantly improved DVD Player user interface with new bookmark feature
- TextPad supports Word format
- Emphasis on security with many security fixes, secure empty trash can, and FileVault

Cons:
- Expensive considering Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar is only about a year old
- FileVault has many stability issues (do not use it until Apple offers a fix!)
- iChat AV works with only .Mac and AOL (please open it to support MSN and Yahoo!)
- Improved anti aliasing does not apply to older QuickDraw applications (e.g., Microsoft Office v.X)
- Dock gets none of the much needed enhancements
- DVD Player still lacks support for interactive DVD-ROM contents
- You cannot add/remove features after installing Mac OS X Panther
- Keyboard support is still limited (i.e., cannot directly select the menu item)
- Not high DPI displays friendly (Dots/pixels Per Inch), such as 12.1" iBook and PowerBook -- smaller fonts will be difficult to read still
- Apple menu is still not customizable
- Safari gets only a minor update (still incompatible with many web sites)

I've had the pleasure to use Panther over the summer, including the version that is now being released by Apple. There are several things you ought to know. (1) Speed. Every Mac I installed it on, from an iMac 500 DV to a G5 1.8 gHz felt easily twice as fast. It really is like getting a brand new computer. (2) RAM. This beast needs plenty of RAM; 512 MB at the least. (3) Expose. The new feature for dealing with multiple open windows and programs is priceless. Alone worth the expense of this software, I couldn't live without it.

This is the best operating system on the market, bar none.

Oops! Hit save twice without meaning to, and I can't seem to edit out the rest of this review. Sorry!

I ordered this product because I was suffering some difficulties with an earlier version of OS X (10.2.8), and because this one promised some nice improvements and a speed jump.

Goodness.

Installation was a snap. Several online news sources strongly recommended running disk and permissions repair from the Disk Utility; that took about a half-hour for both--I have a 40GB drive. Then I ran the installer, clicked maybe four buttons, and another twenty minutes later I was running 10.3. Not only does it look cool and contain some fabulous interface improvements--Exposé alone is one of those OS doodads you wonder how you ever got along without, and I can finally run the HP driver for my home-networked DeskJet--but the speed and responsiveness of my computer has bumped--this is a subjective measure, but I think a good one--probably 15-25%.


It's also quite stable--not that earlier versions of OS X weren't, but this one has run like a dream. Running on my PowerBook G3 (Pismo/FireWire/2000 model) for the past week and a half, no bombs (of course--in a year and a half of running X, I've had two kernel panics), few application crashes (actually, I'm not sure I can remember any), and only one glitch: if the "Wake for system administrator" box was checked in the Energy Saver "options" tab, my computer would occasionally wake from sleep, but the monitor would be irrevocably black. Fortunately, I don't need to have a SysOp diddle with my system--if I did, I'd probably drop the review a star.

The new 'quick user change' option is a godsend, since my kids occasionally use my computer, and I like to be able to leave my email, etc, on while theire doing their thing. It's incredibly smooth--the only drawback being that you can't (apparently) have the same application opened by two different users at the same time. That includes the Classic environment. In order to switch between my daughters' accounts, I needed actually to log out, since both of them primarilly use OS 9 edutainment apps. Ah well. That's the one thing I'd love the Apple geniuses to rethink for 10.4!

The wonderful thing is that this OS actually breathes new life into my 3 1/2 year old laptop--think of the last time an operating system upgrade didn't actually SLOW DOWN your vintage computer. The smoothness and the features--especially the HP IP printing driver--make it possible for me now actually to consider jettisoning Classic. I think that's a strong enough endorsement of how terrific this version of OS X is. If you've been putting off upgrading from OS 9 till the system got a bit more mature, your patience has been rewarded; this is a beatiful, fully-grown operating system.

I upgraded my G4 Powerbook to Panther about two weeks ago and so far everything's gone off without a hitch. But while this system continues the rock-solid stability I was accustomed to and there are dozens of improvements here as detailed by my fellow reviewers and in The Missing Manual (which I loved), I wonder if this update is a good value for money for those who were already using OS10.2 as I was.

It is a clear (even if incremental) improvement from OS 10.2, and at least one friend who is a Mac user told me that an upgrade to OS 10.3 from OS 10.2 eliminated what had been an annoying software conflict. But I think that anyone who is comfortable with OS 10.2 might be better off sticking with what they have and waiting for OS 10.4 or 10.5 before making the leap.

But for users still using OS10.1 or something older, I think this would be a great investment, adding stability (when I used it OS 10.1's stability was undermined by a lot of bugs that were worked out in the following generations), slick new features like Esposé, and an interface that's easy on the eyes and more intuitive than previous versions.

I've installed Panther on 4 different computers and the only one I had trouble with was the one with a non-stock video card. After putting in the original card and doing another install (the first died), it installed. I then had to put in a nVidia GeForce4 card (the ATI 9700 produced a black screen). Many of my Mac-friends have also upgraded Panther and I would say that half had terrible problems while the other half had only minor ones (like myself). This is by far the most problematic upgrade of an Apple OS that I've seen in quite some time. It really needed to be left in the cooker just a little bit longer.

Suggestions: Be sure nothing is loading in your login items (system preferences) before the install. Be sure nothing is in your /Library/StartupItems folder of your main drive and home folder. Be sure you disable any menu bar applications until you know they work with Panther. Be sure you don't have any third party preferencepanes loading until you know they work with Panther (Haxies, etc...). These are in your /Library/PreferencePanes folder of your main drive and your Home folder. And be sure to do a customized install, selecting clean install and preserving your existing username and settings. These are the steps I took with each computer and the problems I encountered were utterly minor.

Hope this helps as Panther is worth it, and you'll notice a significant speed boost a la OS 9, and so many cool, productive features you'll tend to overlook some of the smaller stuff.

First, I would like to state that I have used Macintoshes since May 1986 and would rather own an old, slow, second-hand Mac than have to grapple with any version of Windows, including XP. There's absolutely no reason for anyone who can't afford a new Mac to switch to a PC.

I have installed Panther (10.3.2) on two computers, my own B&W that now sports an Encore 1 GHz G4 processor, and my husband's 733 MHz Quicksilver, and we had no problems--not until we started downloading Apple's updates. The 10.3.9 combination update seemed to make both machines slow down. I have no idea how badly it has affected the Quicksilver (with 512 MB RAM) because I don't get to use it enough (I just get to do all the "techie" stuff on it *G*) but the slowness of the B&W (with 364 MB RAM) has become unbearable and I think I need to return to 10.3.2. Or maybe I should try more RAM first. :-(

I don't understand why some people have had trouble with OS X. Now, if I can install Panther on a machine with a bus as slow as the B&W, and a processor that isn't even supported by Apple, why are others having trouble on newer, faster machines? All I did was put the CD in the DVD or CD rewriter, hit the install button, let the machine restart from the CD, reformat the hard drive with OS X's Disk Utility, start the install and leave the installer to do its work. What could be easier?

First impressions, coming straight to Panther from OS 9, weren't entirely favourable. After all, OS 9 wasn't considered the best OS of its time for nothing! And it was so much better with Action Utilities, just as OS 7.6 (another great Mac OS) was better with Now Utilities.

My gripes:

1. I miss the ability to configure the apple menu the way I want it. I especially miss the way Action Utilities allowed me to navigate anywhere on my hard drive from this menu. Bring back a user-configurable apple menu, please, Apple! (Power-on Software confirmed that they will not be releasing an OS X version of AU.)

2. I miss the Action Utilities user-configurable short cuts--especially the ones that allowed me to open an application or switch between applications: e.g., control-p to open or switch to Photoshop, control-shift-p for PageMaker, control-q for Quicken, control-a for Acrobat. The command-tab feature (which was also part of OS 9) just isn't as fast. As for clicking on an alias in the dock, that's way too slow! It's tidier than clicking on aliases on the desktop, but that's about all. There ARE keyboard shortcuts in Panther, but they allow the user only to change the shortcuts of menu items that already have shortcuts. How about allowing us to make short cuts for ANYTHING, Apple? Please! I have no idea why this feature wasn't incorporated into the Mac OS long ago. If a third-party developer can do it, surely Apple can.

3. At first I had trouble coping with the way windows open on the desktop. It gave me a peculiar sense of claustrophobia. Yes I know: very strange! However, once I asked for column display I soon got used to this feature. It's actually very nifty if you have more than one hard disk, or several partitions.

4. I didn't like the dock at all. After several months of using Panther I still don't care for it. Action Utilities had a similar, though much plainer, feature, and I didn't like that either. I would have asked for it to be hidden all the time but for its calendar, which I found mildly useful. I can see the point of the dock for newcomers to the Macintosh environment (particularly those who are also first-time computer users) and for this reason I wouldn't want Apple to get rid of it. I know I can hide it, but what's the point? It merely makes opening a new application far too time-consuming. If Apple would only provide user-configurable short cuts to open/switch between applications, or a user-configurable apple menu--preferably both--those of us who don't like taking our fingers off the keys just to open a new application could keep the dock hidden all the time.

5. It isn't easy to work out how OS X works, as it was with OS 9 and its predecessors, which didn't have invisible files. I wish Apple would make all OS X's files visible. Why do some have to be invisible anyway?

6. Safari 1.3 quits if I hit the close window button. This happens on both my B&W and the Quicksilver. Just as well it's not working in OS 9 because at least I don't have to restart my machine.

7. Old applications work noticeably slower in Classic than when our machines are booted in OS 9. This probably has more to do with the machines than with Panther. In some cases it might also be the sheer age of the software (made for pre-Power PC processors).

The good things:

1. Panther is so stable. While OS 9 and its predecessors didn't crash anywhere near as often (or as badly) as their Windows equivalents, I haven't had Panther crash at all.

2. It's good to be able to use all my old software. Even Word 5.1 (from 1992) and Quicken 5 (1994) work in Classic.

3. There's no doubt that Panther's interface is very elegant (the dock notwithstanding).

4. TextEdit is head, shoulders and even more above Simpletext. It's virtually a word processing program. I suspect the version shipping with Tiger is even more so.

5. I love being able to get my Mac to tell me the time on the hour. I desperately needed something more able to catch my attention than a mere sound, which I soon found my brain was all too capable of stopping my ears from hearing! But it's very hard to ignore a voice.

6. Mail is fantastic, though it took me a little while to get used to after so many years of Outlook Express. The only feature I miss from OE is the name and email address of the sender and the size of the incoming email (in the Activities window).

7. The iLife suite of applications is awesome--extremely good value-for-money, especially if you are a keen photographer and want a decent application (iPhoto) for displaying photos and even fixing faults in them, are into making your own movies, transferring ones you already have on tape onto DVDs (iMovie and iDVD), creating your own music (GarageBand), downloading music from the iTunes store (or anywhere else) or even just turning your own CDs into MP3s for your iPod (iTunes).

Should you upgrade to Panther? Well, that depends. We probably did so before we were really ready, but my husband wanted to transfer his video tapes onto DVD and I tend to be a download freak. I will download trials of almost anything (that's how I landed up buying Action Utilities) and it's been absolutely ages since there was anything new to try in OS 9. If, however, you find you absolutely need to update many of your oft-used pieces of software, you might as well take the plunge. Mind you, now that Tiger is out you'd probably be best going straight to that.

Software is funny that way. You can be happy with a release until you see the next generation, then you realize all its deficiencies at once. Now, finally, after 19 years of joy and suffering, with Panther we have what is very nearly the perfect desktop OS for the Mac - until the next one. I rate it 4.9 stars, and I'll round up this time.

If you own anything from 10.1.5 on down and have the supported hardware, the upgrade to Panther is the king of no-brainers. Everything is improved, and improved markedly - features too numerous to mention. It's even a bit faster.

If you're starting with Jaguar, the upgrade is more subtle, and you may want to take your time, maybe wait for 10.3.2 or 10.3.3. However, the improvement in Finder, which now goes by the iTunes model, is so dramatic that you will want to consider upgrading right away. Also, Panther plays really, really nice with a Windows network, which is the cross I have to bear, and if you do to, I think you'll want Panther now.

Deficiencies are mainly in the bundled apps, not the core OS, and they are mainly lack of features that were left off to keep the bundled aps from running away. I'm sure Expose will be great once I get used to it, but now it oftne surprises me when I don't expect it. iCal is nice, and I use it, but it could be a lot more powerful. Address book is beautfully done, and nicely integrated. Mail is generally excellent, but needs more formatting options. I use X11 frequently and it is solid, but there is room for improvement. Preview is very nice, but I wish it could export in more formats. For home use, iPhoto and iMovie are perfect for the casual user (like me), but more serious prosumer photographers and videographers will want unbundled apps like Photoshop or Final Cut Express.

Overall,very nice work by Apple, and will be hard to top. What's next - Tiger?

A First Look - Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther"
Tim Robertson
Publisher/Owner, Columnist, MacRelevant
Friday, 10/24/03

As the masses await the Fed-Ex truck to deliver to their eager hands a copy of the latest Mac OS X release from Apple, Panther, MyMac.com presents our early, first-look at the eagerly awaiting OS.

First impressions: Wow, this thing is fast! Running 10.3 on an Apple Macintosh G5 1.8GHz, we noticed a huge speed boost to almost every finder-level task. Opening windows, scrolling large directories, accessing other machines over the network, you name it, it seemed faster. But lets take a look at some of the unique features in Panther.

Exposé. This is a very, very cool new feature that I am simply in love with. What does it do? Well, for the uninitiated, it gives you instant access to any open window from any program, including the finder. What Exposé does is makes every open window shrink on your screen, and you simply click the window you want to spring to the front. So what's the big deal, you ask? Unlike the old Application window in Mac OS 9, which will only show you the applications running, this shows you all your open windows. So if you have three Safari windows open (I never do, I am in love with Tabs now) this will let you see every window. What's more, when you put your cursor over the mini-windows, the name of the window is displayed. You really have to experience Exposé live to appreciate just how much it is going to change the way you use the Mac OS. The only drawback for me is that it does not show any windows you may have minimized to the dock.

To access Exposé, you first set it up in your system preferences pane. For myself, I have Exposé activate for all windows if I put my cursor in the upper-right hand of my screen. If I put my cursor in the lower right, only the front application (including the Finder) will show. By default, three F-Keys are also set to do the same. Even cooler, when you click F11, all open windows move out of the way to reveal the desktop, and stay out of the way until you call them back.

If you have a multi-button mouse, you can also assign mouse buttons to do the same. I personally use my extra mouse buttons to launch applications, but I could set it up so that the scroll wheel button moves everything out of the way for quick access to the desktop.

Exposé is one of those application that, like I said, better experienced than explained. I cannot get over how useful this is to how I would with my Mac. If it were not part of the OS, I would call this the next Killer App for the Mac.

Heads-up Application Switcher. This is yet another way to switch between applications without using Exposé or the Dock. Mac OS 9 also had it. All you do is hold down the command-tab keys to bring up a heads-up display of the open applications. You continue to hold down the command (Apple) key while you "Tab" to the application you want. I used the same method in Mac OS 9 for years, and fell in love with it. It is one of the most missed features for me in Mac OS X.

Welcome Back Labels! Yes, you can, finally, use labels in Mac OS X. But this, my friends, is labels on steroids! Labels work in all three views, Icons, List, or Columns. In Icon view, the label is a rich full color, rounded around the text. The icon itself is not colored, as it was is Mac OS 9. In List view, the color again does not apply to the icon, but to the entire line of the item labeled, so that the rounded colored bar extends across the entire windows. The same is true for Column view, but when you have clicked the labeled folder, the triangle keeps the label color. These may seem like not such a big deal, but they really are. Many, many people used labels to help find items, or to mark items that are of special importance, and it is a much-welcomed re-introduction to the Mac OS. Like Exposé, you really have to see the new labels in action to appreciate them.

Many people are all up in arms about the brushed metal look, which is used in all the iLife applications, now being carried throughout the finder as well. These worries are unfounded, in my opinion. While I actually like the look, you can toggle it off if you wish. You do, however, loose some of the new functionality of finder windows if you do. Rather than having application folders, favorite folders, document folder etcÉ at the top of each window, they are all now on the far left of your open windows. And they are all customizable. Personally, I think the new windows in Panther are a welcome improvement over the previous OS X windows.

One neat, though small, new feature is Apple put the often-used "Software Update" in the Apple menu. Clicking this simply opens the Software Update pane, but it does save one step in the process. A small update, sure, but one I have already gotten used to. And as the Apple menu is unchanged system-wide, you are always one click away from it.

Fast Switching. What is this? Well, if you share your computer with others, you will probably want to have multiple users accounts set up. A staple since the first release of Mac OS X, it was easy to switch to a different user. Now, however, it is even faster. When you activate "Enable Fast User Switching" in the "Accounts" pane in System Preferences, it puts the current users name in the upper right hand corner of your screen. It also puts in all the other names of any other user of your Mac. In my case, I have a "Basic" in which the system is basically as it would be fresh from the store. I also have one for my wife (even though she uses her own iMac, not my G5) and one named "Kids" which is for, obviously, my kids. (All they can do is create pictures in Illustrator or Photoshop, type up letters, and use Safari with bookmarks my wife and I approve, all others all deleted.)

So what happens when you click one of those names? You entire screen rotates; bring that user to the front. If the name is password protected, in brings up the log-on screen. And best of all, you can leave your account just as it is, with all the applications running, and switch users. When you switch back, everything is just as you left it. This is amazing technology I don't think enough people utilize.

All in all, Panther is a great OS. Of course, there will be some applications that will not run correctly and need updating, but that is true for any major OS upgrade. I am very, very pleased with Mac OS X 10.3, and think that for those with a newer machine, you will appreciate the added speed benefits and stability. The new features all work really well, and I look forward to delving deeper into Panther in the coming months.

Tim Robertson

I ordered this product because I was suffering some difficulties with an earlier version of OS X (10.2.8), and because this one promised some nice improvements and a speed jump.

Goodness.

Installation was a snap. Several online news sources strongly recommended running disk and permissions repair from the Disk Utility. Most of the negative feedback I've heard abou this version of the Mac OS (aside from the ones penned by MicroSoft's marketing contractors) has involved folks who didn't make sure their disk was clean before installing. I went ahead and checked my internal drive; that took about a half-hour for both--I have a 40GB drive. Then I ran the installer over my existing system, clicked maybe four buttons, and another twenty minutes later I was running 10.3. Not only does it look cool and contain some fabulous interface improvements--Exposé alone is one of those OS doodads you wonder how you ever got along without, and I can finally run the HP driver for my home-networked DeskJet--but the speed and responsiveness of my computer has bumped--this is a subjective measure, but I think a good one--probably 15-25%. I love the new Finder windows--the integration of the Favorites and the mounted drives into the NeXT three-pane window makes zipping through your folders incredibly easy, and the search field in the upper right corner now works the way you'd expect it to. It allows you to search either the whole drive, within all local drives, on any mounted drives... or just within the open window, as was true in 10.2. The iDisk (for .Mac subscribers) is beautifully integrated into the system--logging on is painless. So is connecting to networked drives.

Panther is also quite stable--not that earlier versions of OS X weren't, but this one has run like a dream. Running on my PowerBook G3 (Pismo/FireWire/2000 model) for the past week and a half, no bombs (of course--in a year and a half of running X, I've had two kernel panics), no application crashes (and I had had a rash of those in 10.2), and only one glitch: if the "Wake for system administrator" box was checked in the Energy Saver "options" tab, my computer would occasionally wake from sleep, but the monitor would be irrevocably black. Fortunately, I don't need to have a SysOp diddle with my system, so I just unchecked the box--if I did need this option, I'd probably drop the review a star.

The new 'quick user change' option is a godsend, since my kids occasionally use my computer, and I like to be able to leave my email, etc, on while they're doing their thing. It's incredibly smooth (though my Pismo's ancient video card doesn't allow for the nifty rotating cube animations)--the only drawback being that you can't (apparently) have the same application opened by two different users at the same time. That includes the Classic environment. In order to switch between my daughters' accounts, I needed actually to log out, since both of them primarily use OS 9 educational apps. Ah well. That's the one thing I'd love the Apple geniuses to rethink for 10.4! (Cougar? Tiger?)

The wonderful thing is that this OS actually breathes new life into my 3 1/2 year old laptop--think of the last time an operating system upgrade didn't actually SLOW DOWN your vintage computer. The smoothness and the features--especially the HP IP printing driver--make it possible for me now actually to consider jettisoning Classic. I think that's a strong enough endorsement of how terrific this version of OS X is. If you've been putting off upgrading from OS 9 till the system got a bit more mature, your patience has been rewarded; this is a beatiful, fully-grown operating system.

Many improvements over 10.2. DVD player scan rate includes 16x and 32x. That's my second favorite improvement, but playing DVDs and surfing the 'net is just about all I do in my iMac. It's a 5 star product, but I'm giving it 3 because of problems that I, and several other people have had with the installation disks. I tried 3 copies of the disks from the Burlingame Apple store, plus one from another retail store, and all disk #2s were not readable on my iMac. Apple support tried to convince me that I needed to pay an outrageous sum of money to them to replace my DVD/CDROM drive, but I could not get it through to them that I use the drive all the time without problems. I ended up burning a copy of the defective disk on a computer that WOULD read it, and completed my installation. Bad media. Bad support. Two marks off. Check the Apple Support Discussions board, and you'll see the problems people are having with the disks.