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OS X Businesses Operating Systems Apple

Panther Released into the Wild 654

Posted by michael from the nice-kitty dept.
u2fan00 writes "Those fortunate enough to have an Apple Store near them were in for a treat last night -- crowds! Oh, and also Panther. Check out the local reactions, photos and stories from some stores across the nation."
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Panther Released into the Wild More

Panther Released into the Wild

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  • Avoided the whole problem, personally (Score:5, Informative)

    by Malor ( 3658 ) * on Saturday October 25, 2003 @06:53PM (#7310773) Journal
    Geeze. I saw the crowd last year at Lenox Mall in Atlanta for the Jaguar release, so I cleverly waited one entire day.

    The Lenox Mall Apple store is a bit of a drive, so I went to the Micro Center not far from where I live. They're sort of a baby Fry's, but more expensive and nowhere near as good. This is, unfortunately, the South, and you take what you can get here. It beats Bosnia.

    I walked into the Apple department, grabbed a copy of Panther, and asked if I needed to ring it up there or if I could keep shopping. The salesman put a sticker on it and told me to buy it up front, and then tossed a couple of freebies on the pile... a mousepad and a 64MB USB flash drive.

    So I got a much shorter drive, no parking hassles, and a free USB drive in exchange for waiting a day. Calling this a no-brainer seems an understatement.

    No impressions yet, I'm backing up before installing. Ok, one impression: the box is cool. Big silver X on a black background. Box upgrades are very important, you know. :-)
    • You don't think you might have missed the point....just a bit?
      • Who, me? You mean I'm supposed to WANT to go stand in line with hundreds of people and stand around for an hour while everyone froths with praise for St. Jobs and The One True Way of Apple?

        Sure, I might do that for a Linux gathering, but Apple? No way. :-)

    • best part - Xcode included in the box!! (Score:5, Informative)

      by green pizza ( 159161 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @07:30PM (#7310974) Homepage
      The Max OS X Panther 10.3 box includes 4 CDs... three for 10.3 and it's accessories (keep in mind these three CDs include localizations for 12 languages)... and a development environment CD containing compilers, various SDKs, and the feature-filled xCode [apple.com] IDE.

      It's a bit alien to those not used to the NeXT way, but it only took my roommate about 15 minutes to find his way around. Both of us have already converted most of our projects to xCode.
    • They're sort of a baby Fry's, but more expensive and nowhere near as good.

      If you think Fry's is good, I'm going to have to disregard your whole message, and perhaps even put you on my Foes list. :)

    • Re:Avoided the whole problem, personally (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ReadParse ( 38517 ) <johnNO@SPAMfunnycow.com> on Saturday October 25, 2003 @10:25PM (#7311887) Homepage
      I also live in Greater Atlanta and intentionally avoided the Apple Stores. I kind of wanted to go out to CompUSA last night, but they didn't stay open late, so since they close at 9:00 and Panther was released at 8:00, I didn't want to risk any crowds that they might have.

      It so happened that I had to buy a birthday present for somebody and also buy some new headphones today, so I had three good reasons to go to CompUSA, and I was a tad surprised that there didn't seem to be anybody in the whole store that knew what Panther was. There was one iMac (or was it an eMac? Still confused about that) that had it installed for demo purposes, and demo I did. I'll squeeze in a mini-review of what I saw so far.

      Overall, I was a little surprised at how similar to Jaguar it felt... this is a good thing. We want improvements, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Speaking of bathwater, the Finder has been replaced and I'm sure the new one is awesome. It was noticeably different but I didn't see a whole lot of Gee Whiz stuff in my quick (about 30 minutes) runthrough. I probably spent about 10 of those minutes playing with the much-heralded Expos, which honestly is DAMN COOL. I only hope it runs that quickly on my 550 PowerBook... probably not, though. I also tested the quick user switching thing. I had to figure out the CompUSA password, but it only took me about three guesses. That's another great feature.

      The nicest surprise is that alt-tab (yeah, yeah, command-tab on Mac) application switching has really matured. It's much, MUCH more like Windows now... with a transparent bar that appears center-screen and true stack-based app switching (to make it just as easy to go two applications back as it is to go one application back). As a former Windows keystroke nut, I absolutely had to have my alt-tab support, and I about lost my mind when I first switched to OS X and had to deal with the various incarnations of that, including some shareware that did what I wanted and was subsequently irreparably broken by Jaguar, at which point I got used to Jaguar's better-but-not-quite-there implementation. That was when they almost lost me as a customer, but I just love OS X too damn much.

      I'm glad to see they've burst forth with this great upgrade. I obviously wish it wasn't so expensive, but hey, it could be worse... it could be like $400 :) Highlly recommended, even though I didn't buy it quite yet. Soon, very soon. Especially now that I've touched it... I realize that I really like it but it's not so earth-shattering that I simply must have it. I'm sure many applications will soon be Panther-only (that's what happened with Jaguar), so I'll have to upgrade within the next few months. I hope to be able to do so with a good fiscal conscience within a couple of weeks.

      Sorry it's so long... hope it was sort of interesting.

      RP

  • Silly Apple stores... (Score:4, Informative)

    by wirelessbuzzers ( 552513 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @06:54PM (#7310784)
    ... don't give educational discounts. You have to order online for that. So if you're a student, don't go trucking out to the store... you can't get it for $70 there.

    • Re:Silly Apple stores... (Score:5, Informative)

      by cliffy2000 ( 185461 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @06:59PM (#7310817) Journal
      They give educational discounts on hardware, but not OSes. I got my PBG4 at Roosevelt Field and got the full edu discount.
    • If you're lucky enough to go to school at University of Nebraska last nite they had a special event for it:

      1. Panther Mid-Nite Madness,Union Computer Store 24 Oct

      For Mac users who just can't wait, the UNL Computer Store at the
      Union Campus location is hosting a "Panther Mid-Nite Madness" on
      Friday, October 24th. The new Panther operating system will be
      demonstrated, and copies will be available for sale at the student
      price of $69. To preorder your copy, call 472-0505 or 472-5787.

      I guess I fig
      • Our school (University at Buffalo) carries Apple products at the on-campus computer store, but they didn't have any sort of event for Panther. Much to my dismay, they also didn't start selling Panther Friday, since they close for the weekend at 5PM and Apple wouldn't allow them to put it out until 8PM. Now I've got to wait until Monday to go pick it up...
    • This is why I didn't go to the Apple store last night. I really wanted to go, but if I had I would have bought Panther for $129.00 even though I'm entitled to Panther for 69.00. So instead of impulse shopping and buying with my credit card, I'll wait a few day till I have $69.00 then I'll use my check card to buy from Apple online. Pity though, image how many more copies Apple could have sold to folks like myself, probable could have added a significant amount to their release day sales figures.

    • Re:Silly Apple stores... (Score:5, Informative)

      by jo_ham ( 604554 ) <joham999@ g m a i l . com> on Saturday October 25, 2003 @07:27PM (#7310964)
      Well, you can buy it online from the Apple Store using one of the demo machines in the phyical Apple Store at the edu price, then they'll give you a box to walk out with. My friend did this after the staff at the store suggested it to him.
    • You know they also give discounts for government employees (Federal, State and Local) that's either the same as the education discount or at least darned close. I ordered mine through the Apple Store online and got it delivered the afternoon before "Midnight Madness".

      $69 including tax. Not bad.
    • Actually, you're wrong. I have bought items WITH my educational discount at the Apple Store (Lenox in Atlanta) several times. You simply tell them you're in education and present your student/faculty/staff ID for them to copy.

      Very simple, if you just ask.

  • My God! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Jameth ( 664111 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @06:55PM (#7310790)
    That looked like what happens to distro FTPs when a new release is out. Now they just need a physical equivalent to BitTorrent.

    I believe it should be called either FleshTorrent or Orgy.
    • Bittorrent works for Linux because what is being distributed is free. Apple does have the equivalent for OSX, namely pirated CD's. It just happens not to mesh well with their business and licensing model.
  • Weird, Just got panther installed, launched safari and set slashdot to my homepage, and I see this artical.. weird.....

    Well I must say panther is awesome, but linux is much nicer on my mac....

    and last nights apple store here in buffalo ny sucked, they only handed out dog tags. Not even a free tshirt!!

    • SOHO was overcrowded (Score:3, Interesting)

      by kuwan ( 443684 )
      Dog tags would have been cool, all I got at the SOHO Apple Store (downtown NYC) was some "designer" wrapping paper for Christmas. But then again there was easily over 1000 people trying to get in. I was stupid and tried to get there right at 8:00, but I was met with a line that went around the block.

      There were tons of people there, that's for sure. I at least got entered to win a new Mac, but other than that the wrapping paper kinda sucks. I was hoping for free T-shirts as well. I didn't even get a co
      • I wouldn't be too sad. I got the dog tags and thought "Hell, I'll wear them for good luck while installing Panther!". Oops, airport on Powerbook stopped working.

        Then I tried to install on someone else's computer (I bought the family pack, and am stretching the license slightly by spreading it out across a few family members). I accidentally slipped on the dog tags again (What compelled me? I know not. I had stored them in the Panther case and just slipped them on absent-mindedly while pulling out the

  • BAH (Score:2, Funny)

    by timeOday ( 582209 )
    Real men download their OSs.

  • I see Spike Lee suing over that logo (Score:5, Funny)

    by kaltkalt ( 620110 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @06:58PM (#7310810)
    I'm quite sure spike lee owns intellectual property in the letter "X". Especially in that font and on a black background, jeez....
  • I'm considering getting a G5 for game development. I'm currently running a small dev team that is gearing up for work on a DooM 3 total conversion [doomforcolumbine.com]. My question is, Mac gamers, how hard is it going to be to compile DooM 3 [idsoftware.com] on OS X 10.3 Panther, compared to PC? What are the roadblocks for PC-centric guys like myself? Are there any good tutorial sites for gamers like myself who want to switch ?

    I figure, if John Carmack [bluesnews.com] is coding DooM 3 on a Mac, then it must be all that, right?

    • Re:Quick questions directed at Mac users. (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      John Carmack writes very, very portable code. You should have no trouble moving to panther for your dev work. However:

      Are there any good tutorial sites for gamers like myself who want to switch ?

      Note that you WILL NOT be using your mac to play games. The games support just isn't there. You can play a small, random, usually not terribly good selection of the games that were released for the PC six months to a year ago. As a developer, your mac will make you extremely happy. As a gamer it will not.

      • Re:Quick questions directed at Mac users. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by doce ( 31638 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @08:37PM (#7311285) Homepage
        Note that you WILL NOT be using your mac to play games. The games support just isn't there. You can play a small, random, usually not terribly good selection of the games that were released for the PC six months to a year ago. As a developer, your mac will make you extremely happy. As a gamer it will not.

        the selection of games available on the mac isn't random, actually. other than the small smattering of games that are released simultaneously on Mac and PC, the others are games that make it over because they were profitable.

        it doesn't matter how cool a game is, how many copies it's sold on the PC... if it's not profitable, it will not be ported. period.

      • RE: playing games on your Mac - sure you will! (Score:4, Informative)

        by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Sunday October 26, 2003 @02:22AM (#7312551) Journal
        Umm.... I would hardly describe the current Mac game situartion as "a small, random, usually not terribly good selection"!

        Let's see.... Unreal Tournament 2003, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 and 4, Wolfenstein 3D, Quake 3 Arena, Kelly Slater Pro Surfer, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf from EA Sports, Warcraft 3 + Frozen Throne expansion set, Warrior Kings, Stronghold, Dungeon Seige, Age of Mythology, Age of Empires 2, Halo (due out before Xmas), James Bond: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way, Medal of Honor + expansion pack, Jedi Knight II, Soldier of Fortune II..... not to mention some really teriffic stuff put out by the little guys/shareware authors, like Enigmo.

        I'd say things in the Mac gaming world are looking better now than they have in years - and it damn sure looks better than my Linux gaming selection. No, they still don't have anywhere near the number of titles available for the PC, but so many PC titles are a waste of money. It seems to me they only take the time to port the "cream of the crop" of what's already out for PC, and that's fine with me. Unless you pirate everything, you're not really going to be able to buy all the new game titles they crank out for the PC, anyway.

        (Well, I could live without that port of Bloodrayne for the Mac, but hey - I've seen worse....)

    • Re:Quick questions directed at Mac users. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by green pizza ( 159161 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @07:34PM (#7311001) Homepage
      Ehh... Carmack isn't developing Doom3 on MacOS. He has been pretty vocal about his love for Visual Studio 6. However, Doom3 does not make much use of DirectX (all of the gfx use OpenGL, for example) so he has made a few builds on Mac OS X and Linux over the past couple years.

      In fact, the first demo of Doom3 (and the first demo of the GeForce 3 too) was on Mac OS X as part of one of Steve Jobs's keynote speeches.

      Doom3 will be available for Mac OS X... but it's not being developed on it.
      • Ehh... Carmack isn't developing Doom3 on MacOS. He has been pretty vocal about his love for Visual Studio 6.
        That's interesting, considering his love of NeXTStep [bluesnews.com], and how "NeXTy" OS X is... Perhaps one day he'll come back (he even alludes to it at the end of that .plan, even though it was six years ago). :^)
  • if you do an upgrade, you will be in a world of pain.

    all the problems I have read about have been from simple upgrades, everyone who has not had problems has done an archive install or an erase install.

  • Seed 7B85 (Score:2, Informative)

    by thedogcow ( 694111 )
    The seed 7B85 is slightly different than the retail version. OS9 installer drivers are not on 7B85.

  • AirPort Difficulties and Control-D (Score:5, Informative)

    by Llywelyn ( 531070 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @07:05PM (#7310850) Homepage

    Some people with in-house AirPort networks have run into difficulties after installing panther. If this is happening to you, Apple has already given a workaround here [apple.com].

    Also, Control-d now selects the dock and allows for keyboard navigation rather than getting sent to the app you want it to be sent to (such as terminal). I haven't figured out how to turn this off, but you can work around it by using the option key in addition to the control key (so Control-Option-d instead of just Control-d).

    • Control-D works just fine for me in terminal on an upgrade install.
    • Freudian slip by Apple in that tech note.

      Just open it and use the "Show" pop-up menu to see the "Network Port Configuration". Then, uncheck "AirPort" and check "Built-In Ethernet". Click on "Apple Now" to save your settings.

      heh.

      Apple Now! Sounds like a special move in Street Fighter or Streets of Rage (whoa, retro).
    • Also, Control-d now selects the dock and allows for keyboard navigation rather than getting sent to the app you want it to be sent to (such as terminal). I haven't figured out how to turn this off, but you can work around it by using the option key in addition to the control key (so Control-Option-d instead of just Control-d).

      That was available in Jaguar too although the default key-combos were Control+Fkey. I don't have Panther yet so I don't know if you can turn it off or not, but you can in Jaguar (al

  • Is MacOS a narcotic or somewthing ? (Score:5, Funny)

    by MarkTina ( 611072 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @07:06PM (#7310856)
    Wow Apple fans sure are a rabid lot :-) You'd have thought from the queues that the shops were giving away free drugs! How do people get so addicted to a piece of computer software ?

  • Heads up for unix types (Score:5, Informative)

    by mwillis ( 21215 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @07:08PM (#7310864) Homepage
    Panther is cool; I like "Expose" pretty well.

    For those unix types I have two issues so far:

    1) the cocoa version of emacs I was using is broken by panther

    2) the version of x11 I downloaded from apple is not automatically updated. You must update it manually from disc 3. Note that the old one is broken by panther.

    I also needed to reinstall Microsoft Office X, but it is working fine now.

    • Re:Heads up for unix types (Score:5, Informative)

      by Llywelyn ( 531070 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @07:17PM (#7310917) Homepage
      As a note, you can have it install X11 automatically by pressing the "Customize" button while setting up the install. Its one of the options there.
      • Agreed -- but if you already have X11 installed, the default Panther installer will fail to detect it, and at the end, the version you have won't run.

        When you insert disc 3, the X11 installer will find your old X11 installation and upgrade it.

        Just an installation thing. X11 should have been autodetected, and wasn't.
    • I forgot to add there is this new "Xcode" disc... which supposedly replaces Project Builder. I use the command line, so I note the following:

      gcc --version

      gcc (GCC) 3.3 20030304 (Apple Computer, In. build 1495)
      Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation Inc. ....
    • There is a much better Carbon version, and instructions on building it from CVS (don't worry, it's quite stable) are at http://members.shaw.ca/akochoi-emacs/ [members.shaw.ca], including the one-line Panther fix. I've been running it through the seed cycle and haven't had a problem.
  • I've been trying to get a reliable e-mail program working for months now. MONTHS.

    1) Mozilla randomly forgets where its configuration files are, and of course has NO OPTION TO SET WHERE THEY ARE which means that I have to rebuild my e-mail settings over and over again.

    2) Evolution takes over a minute to start.

    3) Red Hat corrupts its own RPM database when other e-mail clients are installed, then just hangs.

    4) mutt will take four months to configure correctly.

    5) Yeah, Outlook Express. Sure thing.

    Then I
    • I feel your pain. I know of one good mail client. Unfortunately, it exists only in Windows.

      Pegasus Mail. If it weren't for Pegasus, I wouldn't believe that it was possible to come up with anything better than elm. I've bemoaned the lack of anything remotely as good as Pegasus for Linux for years. Sad.
    • 1) Mozilla randomly forgets where its configuration files are, and of course has NO OPTION TO SET WHERE THEY ARE which means that I have to rebuild my e-mail settings over and over again.

      Have you reported this? I've never heard of this bug. File the bug report, then whine all you want...but in that order.

      3) Red Hat corrupts its own RPM database when other e-mail clients are installed, then just hangs.

      Yeah, that's bug 73097 [redhat.com]. I (and several others) reported it during the beta period. I don't understand

    • Does Eudora [eudora.com] work on Linux? It's been great on my Mac from back in 1993 or so.

  • Reminds me of... (Score:5, Funny)

    by bender647 ( 705126 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @07:10PM (#7310870)
    I haven't anything like that since people lined up to RETURN Windows ME!

  • Why all the hubbub? (Score:3, Funny)

    by SixDimensionalArray ( 604334 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @07:14PM (#7310896)
    All this over a stupid cat? Maybe I'd wait in a line that long if it was a penguin!

    Oh, when will that day arrive....
  • Well, I saw your article and I immediately ran down to my local Mac place (McDonald's that is... I really wish you guys would not use the short name.). Anyway, I asked them if I could please have the new Panther Burger. They called security and threw me out! Can you believe that?

    P.S. Don't bother asking them for any apples either.

  • You sure don't see that kind of reaction... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ... To a Microsoft release. That's a real hardcore user base ;)
    • It was probably MS that started this kind of hype for an OS; that may be their one claim to originality. Back before 1995, the idea that anyone would get amped up over an operating system release was absurd. I remember a friend telling me that when her family came in from India they were so curious about what this Windows 95 thing was that they had been hearing about.... until she explained that it was a computer disc!
  • Living on the Big Island of Hawaii the nearest Apple Store is probably on the island of Oahu, a $85 and 45 minute one way flight. Needless to say I wasn't about to fork out an additional $170 to get Panther on release day.

    I preordered Panther and was super happy when yesterday, 4:00 PM, Fed Ex pulls up in my driveway with a box from Apple.

    Beat the crowd scene totally... and I didn't have to take off my rubbah slippahs at the airport, or surrender my box cutters.

    It's up and running nicely... everything

  • Developer tools included in the box! (Score:5, Informative)

    by green pizza ( 159161 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @07:25PM (#7310955) Homepage
    Included in the box (what a cool black box it is, too!) is a development environment CD (compilers, APIs, SDKs, and the xcode IDE).

    I'm happy to see Apple still giving the development tools away for free.

  • Any disadvantages to a clean install? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by abischof ( 255 ) * <alex@nOSPam.spamcop.net> on Saturday October 25, 2003 @07:27PM (#7310966) Homepage

    I'm thinking about buying a 15" PowerBook shortly (probably from MacConnection, since they have good deals [macprices.com]). I was going to wait until I could get one with Panther preinstalled, but I'd like to have the PowerBook by Thanksgiving and so it looks like I'll have to order one soon (which will probably still come with Jaguar).

    I've been reading various forums and I keep hearing that a clean install for Panther is the way to go. And, since the PowerBook will be brand new, I won't have to back anything up beforehand ;). However, do PowerBooks come with any software that isn't part of the OS by default? For instance, do they come with AppleWorks or other software that I'd lose if I chose to upgrade with a clean install?

    Also, I'm still looking for a snug case/sleeve for the PowerBook, if anyone has any suggestions. I'm looking for one that's thin and just big enough to include a mouse and a power supply. I'd also prefer zippers or buttons over velcro (since they tend to be quieter than velcro).

    • I don't know if the PBG4s come with AppleWorks (iBooks, iMacs do) but I know they have an OfficeX demo as well as a game or two, and I think the latest Quicken. You get restore DVD that should let you re-install the apps that come with it. As for doing a clean install and not an upgrade, when the installer comes up you click on the option button and tell it to archive and install. It'll keep all your user settings (Users/user/Library) and apply them where it can (some new things in 10.3 have to be set up a
    • Wow, someone with a lower User ID than me. :^)

      Anyway, check out Willow Design [willowdesign.com] for your next case... The models you would probably find interesting are the SC-17, 29 and 31. They make very well thought-out products, custom-designed for Apple machines, with lots of padding where it counts. Their handles tend to be quadruple riveted, among other niceties. My only gripe is that their shoulder straps could use better connectors at each end. It looks like some of their models now incorporate a newer connec
    • I bought a new PowerBook back in March and it came with some extra software (mostly shareware, but all paid for). Check the Applications folder before you blow anything away. Mine came with licensed copies of GraphicConverter, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, and a couple random graphics utilities.

      If you get a PowerBook and it comes with any Omni Group stuff, make sure you save the license files. They're in /Library/Application Support/Omni Group.

  • new life into iBook 500 (Score:5, Informative)

    by jpellino ( 202698 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @07:35PM (#7311005)
    Gotta say I was drooling when they announced the G4 iBooks, lamenting my Applecare isn't up til May, but this has breathed new life into my iBook 500. I backed up to Peerless (hush - they were $50 EOL) and did an upgrade install - no problems so far. Given the backup, I may backup again now and do an erase install...

    Everything is much faster. Mail.app has to reindex, Preview will now be my pdf viewer, and the calculator actually remembers which mode you quit it in. Sorry I paid for Koalacalc. The network panel is informative and rather than a clicking party.

    Only drawback is without Quartz Extreme my Expose is doing about 3 fps, but it still does what's needed.

    Only grip is that the new finder windows w/o toolbars have a very subtle facing - then you enable the new finder windows in full regalia, and they get the old brushed metal, which looks rough in comparison.

  • my night of panther (Score:2, Interesting)

    by photoblur ( 552862 )

    I received my copy of "Panther" via FedEx at 11AM... so I spent the afternoon backing up and installing Panther on my two laptops (a 15" AlBook and older iBook SE). The install was three disks long (when will they start offering a DVD?) and rather uneventful.

    I really dig the new "Expose'" feature, fast user switching and the capability to easily/seamlessly encrypt my home directory. I plan on testing the windows printer share capabilities in a few minutes...

    However, my "Night of Panther" was spent watch

  • eye-opening night (Score:2, Interesting)

    by OneOver137 ( 674481 )
    I'm 26, but a significant majority of the folks at the release party I went to were 50+. I guess Apple's youth-oriented marketing hasn't been working in my area. It makes sense though; most of the young kids want to game and hot-rod their boxes--something Apple's not known for.

  • In other news... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Jubii ( 315611 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @08:01PM (#7311145) Homepage
    ... Sales of Apple's new OS dubbed "Panther" slowed to a crawl Saturday as 90 percent of Mac owners purchased the software the night before...

  • MacDaddy in Modesto, CA (Score:3, Interesting)

    by istewart ( 463887 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @08:03PM (#7311161)
    I went to MacDaddy Computers [macdaddy.net], an Apple Specialist in Modesto, about a 20 minute drive from my house. It's a really small store on one of the main drags through town, and there was literally nobody there at 9:00PM outside of the store employees. I was lucky enough to snag the last copy they had; they had put a "sold out" sign in the window right before I got there. I also got some dog tags with the cool metal X logo and the requisite 10.3 t-shirt.

    As far as the OS goes, it's by far the best one yet. With each new release of OS X, there have been reviewers going on about the massive speed increases over the previous versions... but this is the only upgrade where I have actually felt the massive speed increase. This, along with numerous other interface improvements, make it worth every penny (I paid full price).

    For example, I thought I would hate the new Finder, but it's really great, and I find it more usable than the 10.2 Finder. If you don't like the sidebar and/or the brushed metal, you can make them both go away with a click of the toolbar widget. Once they're gone, the Finder behaves pretty much exactly like the OS 9 Finder, a throwback I (and the spatial-finder dude at Ars Technica) really appreciate. Expose's coolness factor is matched only by its utility. The guy who runs MacDaddy said I'd be loving it on a 12" iBook screen, and I really am. The application switcher that pops up in lieu of the Dock is pretty much lifted from Windows and KDE, but is so much cooler because it displays icons in their full 128x128 glory.

    Now the only thing I have to wait for is an update to XPostFacto so I can put it on my Beige G4. I don't think I'm ever going to bother with installing 10.2 or below on anything again. :-D

  • Exposed (Score:5, Funny)

    by HarveyBirdman ( 627248 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @08:29PM (#7311259) Journal
    Expose is the greatest GUI enhancement since the interfaces on the Thetan massacre machines way back in 15,000,000 B.C. or whenever.

    It singlehandedly erased all my negative engrams upon first usage.

    I commonly have ten applications and 25 windows open. Expose rocked my freakin' world. When I tied it to the right side button on my Intellimouse, my brain trancended to a spiritual level shared only by archangels and certain select saints. Once I came down from that, I had a full and satisfying orgasm with every subsequent use.

    I AM NOT EXAGGERATING!

    Well, OK, maybe a little.

    Oh, and the new customizable finder bar in conjunction with the dock makes life good.

    And for the first time I find labels cool. I never even used those back in the ghastly pre-OSX days.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @09:22PM (#7311531)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Panther is fabulous. Finally. (Score:5, Informative)

    by melatonin ( 443194 ) on Saturday October 25, 2003 @10:30PM (#7311908)
    Finally. I bought a G4/733 (the first 733s... the ones that have 1MB L3 cache) a few years ago, and it arrived right when 10.0 came out. And naturally I used 10.0 on it never getting used to how fast OS 9 was on it. Coming from a 400 MHz G3, I never got to really feel how fast this Mac was.

    After using 10.0 for a few months, my mind started melting away and Apple released 10.1. Yay.

    After using 10.1 for almost a year, my sanity for a sane user experience started wearing thin. Finally Apple released 10.2, which was also much snappier. And it was something to rival OS 9 in a give-or-take competition for usability vs. stability, with Jaguar clearly winning.

    But Panther just blows the doors off of.., um, not sure which doors I'm talking about. Let's put it this way in terms of performance. I used xbench to measure before and after the upgrade.

    10.2.8 scores
    CPU: 65.14
    Thread Test: 35.3
    Memory: 63.7
    Quartz: 66
    OpenGL: 60.5
    UI (aqua controls): 57.87 (18.51 refresh/sec)

    10.3.0 scores
    CPU: 78.87
    Thread Test: 60.95
    Memory: 103.96
    Quartz: 102.62
    OpenGL: 78.6
    UI (aqua controls): 141.58 (45.54 refresh/sec)

    Totals:
    10.2: 57.75
    10.3: 85.19

    Yes, HOLY CRAP this Mac is faster! My Q3A framerate jumped 15 fps (using the Q3 G4 beta). And the UI experience is much much smoother now, really the way OS X should be. Most notably, sheets and other window animation is VERY fast, and they now properly supplement the user experience, instead of just being eye candy. The Dock still sucks, but you can finally hide apps from the Dock contextual menu.

    So, if you're sitting on the fence, jump off. If you thought Macs were slow, they just got a bit faster.

  • First impressions. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by GeorgieBoy ( 6120 ) on Sunday October 26, 2003 @02:02AM (#7312505) Homepage
    Having installed Panther today, I'd say it's a nice improvement.

    Upon installation, one interesting thing happened: the machine happened to kick into sleep mode, because I was away while it asked for disc 2. That's the first time I've ever seen an OS installer ever do that. Sure, they just boot to OS X from CD and then do an installation, but still pretty cool. Also, my machine didn't reboot after install, it was ready to use immediately, and no required reboot after doing Software Updates for iTunes and iSync. Expose is probably my favorite new feature, overall, though. The speed improvement is quite noticable on my upgraded G4 1.2Ghz (used to be a G4 400Mhz).

    • Re:First impressions. (Score:3, Informative)

      by Have Blue ( 616 )
      In addition to the points made by the other posts,the timed system sleep feature is managed by the settings in NVRAM. The installer boots a bare-bones version of OS X off the CD which has a complete kernel and obeys these stored settings.

  • Panther Released into the Wild (Score:3, Funny)

    by InsaneCreator ( 209742 ) on Sunday October 26, 2003 @03:30AM (#7312699)
    Several tribesmen slaugtered.

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