Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
OS X Businesses Operating Systems Software Upgrades Apple

Apple Sets Oct. 24th Release For Mac OS X 10.3 696

dricci writes "Yahoo! has posted a press release from Apple, regarding the release date of the next major Mac OS X update, 10.3 ('Panther'). The update will be available 8:00 p.m. on October 24th at Apple Retail Stores and Authorized Resellers for $129.00 US (Family Pack for up to 5 users will be $199). Pretty much the same pricing structure they had for Jaguar. It looks like 'old world' Beige G3 support has been discontinued -- the update requires a Mac with built in USB."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Apple Sets Oct. 24th Release For Mac OS X 10.3

Comments Filter:
  • by adzoox ( 615327 ) * on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @08:32AM (#7162100) Journal
    The only problem I find with the support is that the Wallstreet line PowerBooks, especially after adding a 500Mhz G4 upgrade was one of the best lines Apple ever made. I liked the Pismo line too, but the dual storage bay capability of the Wallstreet was a real plus. Floppy to floppy copy Expansion bay hard drive to floppy copy, or Zip and SuperDisk transfer was a real plus when I had to copy files for a client. I also upgraded my drive to DVD/CDRW combo drive.

    That said, 10.3 is the release of Panther you have been waiting for. Dramatic increases in speed and launch times - and I just have an older prelease from WWDC.

    • by SuperBanana ( 662181 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @09:18AM (#7162544)
      The only problem I find with the support is that the Wallstreet line PowerBooks, especially after adding a 500Mhz G4 upgrade was one of the best lines Apple ever made.

      Please. This is just my-record-player-is-better-than-your-CD-player BS. I had a Lombard, and it was a piece of shit. In your hands it looked, felt, and sounded like a plastic toy. The CD drive door broke. The rubber feet fell off within a month. The case scratched -incredibly- easily and the letters on the keyboard wore off within 2 years. One screen clutch broke, the hard drive died inside of 3 years, the battery within 3 went to half-capacity, and Apple stopped selling new Lombard batteries shortly thereafter. The screen was horrible- in any kind of sunlight, for example, all you saw was green plastic w/ a hint of something in the way of a screen. Half the keyboard doesn't work anymore, the screen has a white line down one side- and to top it all off, the video cable to the screen is toasted; the display went from occasionally flipping out to requiring 2 minutes of adjusting the screen angle, to just not working period.

      I now have a revision-1 17" powerbook. It's awesome. Fit+finish is excellent, and everything in the design screams attention-to-detail. The case appears to be very durable(I do have a few small scratches on the bottom however). The screen is terrific in strong light, even direct sunlight hitting it. Gigabit ethernet is fast as hell, airport reception is fantastic, better than my Orinocco Gold card, which was widely considered the standard. In almost every way, my 17" PB kicks the living shit out of your Wallstreet, including battery life...the one exception being weight(so get a 12 or 15"). So do yourself an enormous favor and start using a computer built this decade.

      My problem is that Apple broke Bluetooth in a MAJOR way with 10.2.8, and with Panther right around the corner, it looks like it'll never get fixed. That's practically illegal- "we broke it, so just buy the update." Um, no- and as a result, I think I'll be downloading Panther, not buying it.

      • Dude, you must have beat the shit out of that thing. I carried my lombard around for 3 years, and it still looks like new. The little rubber feet did fall off after the third DVD I played, but other than that it was a quality machine. It's not a TiBook, but it was an excelent machine compared to the others on the market at the time. I still use mine every day, but I find it's too heavy to carry around without serious justification.
      • Illegal? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by mccalli ( 323026 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @09:51AM (#7162786) Homepage
        My problem is that Apple broke Bluetooth in a MAJOR way with 10.2.8,

        err....really? Works fine here on a 12" Powerbook/Nokia 3650 combination. In fact, with the iCal/iSync updates out today my machine just become a lot more useful as it now sync calendars with any Series 60 device (which includes the 3650).

        That's practically illegal- "we broke it, so just buy the update."

        Or go back to pre-10.2.8 for free. Assuming it's broken of course, as stated above I haven't seen any evidence for that. Happy to be proved wrong if you can point me anywhere.

        ...as a result, I think I'll be downloading Panther, not buying it.

        Now, if you're looking for something that really is illegal...

        Cheers,
        Ian

      • by speechpoet ( 562513 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @10:17AM (#7163124) Homepage Journal
        I never thought about it before, but my new dual G5 is measurably faster than my WallStreet, which has, yes, shown certain signs of age since it was released in 1998. In retribution, I will not only download Panther, but shoplift a 17-inch PowerBook and steal Steve Jobs' turtleneck collection.
  • except for the G5s. Those thinking that buying 'slightly' before its (officially announced) realease will be disappointed.

    • The OS 'Up To Date' program applies to all Apple computer purchases post 8th October, allowing an upgrade to 10.3 for the reduced 'handling fee' of $19.99.

      However, I can see there will be a lot of new 12", 15" and 17" 'Alu' Powerbook owners that will feel they have been shafted having bought the new revised machines at the start of October...
    • That sucks. I shelled out $3k for their latest revision of the 17" powerbook on the second day it was released (Sept 17), only to find that the features they have been touting for so long (X windows, native & fast PDF support, X code) are going to cost. Why only the top of the line desktops - why not my more expensive top of the line laptop? My machine is newer than many G5s (although maybe they were trying to satisfy customers with long preorder times).
      • But X window and native and (relatively) fast PDF support are already available for Jaguar. XCode is definitely available for Jaguar, too, although probably not for non-developers. So, the features you are asking for are there.
        Plus, it was widely known that Panther would come, and probable that there would be no cheap updates for folks who bought Jaguar prior to the release announcement (because it was like that with the last updates, too).
  • Countdown clock (Score:5, Informative)

    by BWJones ( 18351 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @08:33AM (#7162113) Homepage Journal
    Apple is running a very cool countdown clock on their main page here [apple.com].

    Flash aside, this is one important update for Mac users and shows how much code optimization can get you in terms of performance. This release runs impressively fast on current hardware, but more importantly for the installed user base, it gives new life to older machines with good performance on machines going back several years.

    • Re:Countdown clock (Score:5, Informative)

      by Jucius Maximus ( 229128 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @08:40AM (#7162183) Journal
      " Apple is running a very cool countdown clock on their main page here [apple.com]. Flash aside..."

      Actually it appears to be a javascript type thing. I have flash disabled in mozilla (due to stupid flash ads) and I can still see it.

    • Re:Countdown clock (Score:5, Interesting)

      by hype7 ( 239530 ) <u3295110@@@anu...edu...au> on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @08:41AM (#7162196) Journal
      Flash aside, this is one important update for Mac users and shows how much code optimization can get you in terms of performance


      Absolutely! I'm not the biggest fan of XBench, but these numbers [hardmac.com] do paint a very impressive picture.

      Regardless, don't forget the cool stuff Apple's adding - Expose is cool, I got a chance to play with a pre-release version of Panther and it's one of those things that you'll begin to wonder how the hell you ever lived without it. The other thing that I'm looking forward to is the on-the-fly, user-friend 128-bit AES encryption. Your computer goes walkies? Least the pricks don't get all your stuff.

      -- james
      • Re:Countdown clock (Score:3, Informative)

        by dthable ( 163749 )
        The other thing that I'm looking forward to is the on-the-fly, user-friend 128-bit AES encryption.

        Yay, no more encryption by hand. I'm also looking forward to the secure delete function. I'd rather have all those proof of concept and rough design programs and documents destroyed if someone swipes my laptop in an airport.
    • Damn counter is eating up 100% of CPU in my Safari 1.1 (Panther 7B53).
  • Yes, but... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    does it run on Windows XP?
  • Worth it. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by blackmonday ( 607916 ) * on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @08:36AM (#7162146) Homepage
    Jaguar's price was "worth it" because of the speed increases. This time around I'm satisfied that there's anough new functionality that I'll be putting down the cash.
  • Hooray!! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by jcostantino ( 585892 )
    I for one am looking forward to Panther's release (as well as iTunes for PC) and I know that someone's going to cry about "The Apple Tax". Apple NEEDS your money, they can't just throw out free software forever, you know. I don't know if there is going to be a free upgrade voucher for units bought in the past month or two though. If I recall correctly, they did have a voucher for people who purchased a unit with 10.1 within a couple months of 10.2's release.

    Jeff
  • by kurosawdust ( 654754 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @08:39AM (#7162176)
    It looks like "old world" Beige G3 support has been discontinued -- the update requires a Mac with built in USB."

    That's OK - the six guys to whom that would actually apply are still waiting for their copies of 10.2 to boot up.

    • I am writing this on my(mostly stock) Beige G3/300. I have 256 megs of ram, and the only other upgrade is a ATI Rage 128. With those two upgrades this machine is nearly as responsive as a lot of the newer machines and it costs a lot less. I have used a Dual 1Ghz G4(the mirrored door model) and it feels about the same speed wise. Sure, Safari takes a very small amount of time less to launch. But that is so small, maybe a couple of seconds. I don't use this machine for iMovie or anything like that, and it sui
    • I'm running a 266Mhz G3 imac with 576 MB RAM, and it works like a charm with 10.2.x. It was [not surprisingly] unusable with the stock 64 megs, but the ram upgrade made everything happy. Even GUI performance isn't bad (with the notable exception of the "genie" effect) with this smokin' RAGE 8MB onboard video :)
    • That's OK - the six guys to whom that would actually apply are still waiting for their copies of 10.2 to boot up.

      ...and you just found them all!

  • And now...! (Score:5, Funny)

    by scaife ( 654891 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @08:39AM (#7162178) Homepage
    This version has special built-in protections to keep it from biting you in the neck while you're taunting it in front of your friends. And since its ferocity has been turned down, I suppose I can also expect that I'll need to pet it every once in a while.
  • by HellsAngel ( 582912 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @08:40AM (#7162191) Homepage
    They got more info on the Developer Tools too right here [apple.com] It uses GCC 3.3 now, and from the looks of it, Xcode is gonna rock! Oh, and if you'll look at the Darwin link, you'll notice that the Terminal in the image uses bash instead of tcsh. Darn, and I was just getting used to the C Shell too.=) Oh well then...
  • Apple also announced releasing new versions of iCal and iSync today: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/oct/08ical_is ync.html "iSync 1.2.1 adds complete calendar synchronization support for Symbian-based smartphones such as the Nokia 3650 and 7650, and the Sony Ericsson P800."
  • Panther (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rampant mac ( 561036 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @08:41AM (#7162204)
    I had the chance to preview Panther on a friend's PowerBook (1Ghz Ti /w SuperDrive) recently. I was very impressed to see the speed improvements Panther brings to "older" machines. Imagine that, and operating system that removes bloat and performs better after subsiquent releases! While 10.2 was what I finally considered a 1.0 release of Mac OS X, Panther is a huge leap in usability.

    Expose is so amazing, expect Microsoft to "borrow" it in their next OS release.

    • Re:Panther (Score:5, Insightful)

      by hype7 ( 239530 ) <u3295110@@@anu...edu...au> on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @08:46AM (#7162247) Journal
      I had the chance to preview Panther on a friend's PowerBook (1Ghz Ti /w SuperDrive) recently. I was very impressed to see the speed improvements Panther brings to "older" machines. Imagine that, and operating system that removes bloat and performs better after subsiquent releases! While 10.2 was what I finally considered a 1.0 release of Mac OS X, Panther is a huge leap in usability.


      Expose is so amazing, expect Microsoft to "borrow" it in their next OS release.


      Well, they might try. It'll probably be a pale imitation, just like with everything else that Microsoft has copied of Apple's.

      Regardless, there's a precedent that Apple has set, that MS hasn't been able to follow (and, IMO, won't ever be able to): that is, with every new OS release, your computer gets faster.

      -- james
      • Re:Panther (Score:5, Insightful)

        by hey! ( 33014 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @09:09AM (#7162441) Homepage Journal
        Regardless, there's a precedent that Apple has set, that MS hasn't been able to follow (and, IMO, won't ever be able to): that is, with every new OS release, your computer gets faster.

        This is usually a sign of good software engineering: make it right first, then make it fast. It's difficult to make bad software faster since it is a challenge to get it work acceptably and changes have too many consequences.

        That said, MS probably doesn't care about older machines. Most people don't upgrade their MS operating systems, they buy new ones bundled with new machines. This allows the MS engineers to focus on features that will help MS in its business plans. So, when you get your new machine, with a few exceptions it feels pretty much the same speed as the old one, but has lots of spiffy new features. The folks still using 90MHz Pentiums are not the people who spend much money on IT, and therefore they can do without or suffer horrible performance. It doesn't make for a product one admires on a technical level, but it's hard to fault the business strategy.

        Apple's approach makes sense too though, considering their niche position. People buy the latest Macs because they must have them, and roll down their old Macs to other folks. Improving the experience of folks with the hand-me-downs probably helps create the next generation of converts who will shell out money every year to year and a half out of pure technological lust.
      • "with every new OS release, your computer gets faster"

        XP is already fast enough. On a 500mhz notebook, I almost never experience the same kind of "lag" that my Mac (and Linux) using friends do. I'm not talking about speed per say, but XP just feels snappy compared to GNOME or Mac OS. Hopefully 10.3 will resolve this.

        I have seen expose in action, but, quite frankly, it doesn't impress me all that much. There are already emulations of Expose for Windows, but quite frankly I find the taskbar to be just as ef
  • by Pirogoeth ( 662083 ) <mailboxNO@SPAMikrug.com> on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @08:41AM (#7162205) Homepage Journal
    Panther is only $69 if you qualify!
    • I keep forgetting that damn discount!

      --Richard
    • by SlamMan ( 221834 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @09:07AM (#7162421)
      And $64.50 for a Government discount (which applies to employees of Fed, state, and local governments).
  • Rumor sites right (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @08:41AM (#7162209)
    Everyone loves to bash the rumor sites when they get something wrong... but here we are... rumor sites were spot on with this... so credit where credit is due:

    Panther is GM [macrumors.com]
    October 24th Release for Panther [macrumors.com]
    Oct 8th official announcement [macrumors.com]
    S+H Upgrade price for G5 owners [macrumors.com]
  • by MouseR ( 3264 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @08:42AM (#7162211) Homepage
    I got my dual G5 on the 7th of september. I have partitioned it and have installed both Jaguar (10.2.7 G5) and Panther 7B74 on it (for those asking, I was at the developer conference, hence my seedings of Panther).

    Using Code Warrior to build 730 megs worth of sources (no, really), the complete build cycle (after a total cleanup of objects) took 9 minutes on Panther, and 13 minutes in Jaguar.

    And that's with a tool that's not multi-threaded. Kudos Apple.

    (Oh, and BTW, this same source code set takes roughly 45 minutes on a dual G4 450!!)
  • by Talez ( 468021 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @08:43AM (#7162222)
    Seriously... Take a look! [apple.com]

    The rendezvous enabled distributed building and predictive compiling look to be winners.
    • by watzinaneihm ( 627119 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @09:30AM (#7162627) Journal
      They finally seem to have a solution to the "too many windows open" (not apple specific, I have not even used one) problem. I hate to have to hold down Alt-Tab (i like to use the keyboard) and then look around to find which window I want to switch to. Because of this, I tend to have a max of two or three windows open at a time. No OS really helps here, though in Linux I use multiple desktops to group tasks of similar kind (Desktop one for work, two playing music, three for a root login in case I want to mount NFS etc. ) and I can easily switch when the windows hierrarchy looks like a tree.
      Take a look at the Apple solution called Expose [apple.com]. They use F9 to cascade all windows (like opera), another key to grey out all windows of other apps than the one you are using. Press F10 and all photoshop apps are highlighted while all other apps fade into grey. In linux Gimp could benefit from such a feature.
  • The ftp client built-in in the finder is still read-only.

    Shame on you Apple...
  • No G5 (Score:5, Funny)

    by dublisk ( 456374 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @08:46AM (#7162251) Homepage
    Panther requires a minimum of 128MB of memory and is designed to run on the following Apple products with built-in USB support: iMac,(R) iBook(R), Power Macintosh(R) G3, Power Mac G4, Power Mac G4 Cube.

    Thank god I didn't get a G5.
  • I was hoping this announcement would take a bit longer - I was going to put my old Beige machine up on eBay next week. :)
  • I dunno, I'm running Gentoo on my laptop and GCC 3.3 is still masked. Not that I don't trust 3.3, but when a major computer company touts a new version of software as "proven" I just kinda wonder. But I digress. Possibly this new speedup could be by Apple using GCC 3.3 with some more aggressive compiler flags. Red letter date. Apple learns about -O3 -mcpu=PPC750 -fomit-frame-pointer -(etc etc)
  • by mariox19 ( 632969 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @09:08AM (#7162433)

    I will stipulate that Apple went ahead and violated a convention in computing for the sake of marketing; but people criticizing the $129 price in the context of the upgrade being a "point" release are way off the mark.

    Panther is OS XII -- but I guess Apple wants to stick with the mindshare that the big "X" has created.

    I stuck with 10.1 until only last month. Know what? When I finally installed Jaguar on my machine, I was kicking myself for waiting so long.

    These are major upgrades.

    • i agree with them being major upgrades, and can see your logic in saying that it is OS XII, but one thing we all have to notice is that our notion of OS true "upgrades" is warped by the likes of microsoft. they simply bloat their code, change the ui a bit, and add some more features on. but what apple has done has created a nearly perfect user interface [that steve worked on at NeXT for years and years], and now they are doing what they should be doing - optimizing the existing codebase, and then tacking on
    • I'm surprised this still comes up.

      The X in OS X is a word play. It has a double meaning. It means 10 in Roman numerals, thus signifying the next big release after OS 9, and a revolutionary release. It is also an X as in uniX and advertises that OS X is a uniX operating system. There's more to the name than just changing to a Roman numeral numbering scheme.

      OS X is the name of the operating system. The number afterward is the version.

      Could they have gone with OS X 1.0? Yeah, and I think that would have bee
  • by frozenray ( 308282 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @09:09AM (#7162452)
    Ellen Feiss doesn't like it [wemakedotcoms.com]

    8P
  • by Nutcase ( 86887 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @09:11AM (#7162475) Homepage Journal
    I bought a new powerbook on Friday. Less than 3 weeks from the date I bought, they will be releasing Panther. So far, this is cool. But the fact that the up-to-date program doesn't cover it is not cool. That sucks.

    It wouldn't burn so bad if they hadn't made a specific exception for machines that were shipping back in August. That's like a slap in the face.

    I wonder who to complain to (clearly complaining to /.ers is not the right approach). Squeaky wheel and all that....
    • by valkraider ( 611225 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @09:51AM (#7162795) Journal
      I have the same problem! Mine arrived the 3rd, ordered it the day they announced them. What bothers me is that all the G5s get the upgrade FREE, but the NEW Powerbooks are NEWER than the G5s!!! And the laptops are not even considered...grrr.

      No bother anyway though, cause my laptop will fit under the family pack that I have to buy for my older machines anyway, it's just the point of it all. They should say - anyone with a computer that SHIPPED with 10.2.7 should get a free (or $20) 10.3 upgrade.
  • X11 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by CGP314 ( 672613 ) <CGP @ C o l i n G r e g oryPalmer.net> on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @10:24AM (#7163238) Homepage
    I'm suprised no one has mentioned the native X11 support in 10.3. That's what's going to make me switch from a win/linux dual boot dell to an ibook or powerbook.
  • Tribute? (Score:3, Funny)

    by wtmoose ( 639328 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @10:29AM (#7163291)
    I'm sure this has been noted before, but I hadn't come across it...

    OS X Panther [apple.com]

    Malcolm X [imdb.com]

    Black Panther Party [tripod.com]

  • by teamhasnoi ( 554944 ) * <teamhasnoi@@@yahoo...com> on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @11:07AM (#7163837) Journal
    Somewhere in California, in a seamless ivory tower that slowly glows, then fades.

    Steve: "Well, we'll just give all the G5 people the free upgrade, the powerbooks are shit out of luck."

    Lackey: "What if the angry powerbook owners storm the building, and take it?"

    Steve: "How much damage can they do? Those powerbooks wouldn't even dent my skull. Now, if the G5 owners got pissed, wielding their G5s like clubs, then I might shit my pants. Those things are big. Let's keep them happy."

    Lackey: "Good thinking, master. I will alert your minions."

    Steve (to self): "Yes... Angry G5 owners...damn....Shit my pants..."

  • by Josuah ( 26407 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @11:25AM (#7164059) Homepage
    If you purchased any new Mac after Oct. 8 you are entitled to a $20 upgrade. If you purchased any new G5 (any date) the same applies. Visit the Mac OS X Up-To-Date [apple.com] page for the application an further details.

    The $20 covers shipping and handling of the retail box.

An authority is a person who can tell you more about something than you really care to know.

Working...