Rating: 
Summary: A great deal ... if you haven't done this in a while
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Panther Delivers
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Solid, Elegant, Powerful, and Fun...
Review: I highly recommend Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" as an essential upgrade! Until Panther, I could not whole-heartedly recommend the "switch" to the Mac; now with Panther, I can! Panther is filled with many new features and useful enhancement. The new Finder makes a world of difference; it is now MUCH more user-friendly! Expose' is fantastic, very helpful, and VERY cool! Safari is THE BEST browser I have ever worked with (even better and faster then Internet Explorer 6 for Windows), though it could be a little more customizable. Panther also, after the free updates, works great on a Windows network. My only qualm with Panther is the Mail application. It is nowhere near as powerful or customizable as it could be. All in all, it is an excellent upgrade, which I highly recommend! You will not regret your investment.
Rating:
Summary: Not a major upgrade but a nice one
Review: 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)
Rating:
Summary: Well Well Worth It!
Review: Man Oh Man what a super upgrade! Mac OS 10.2 was sweet but 10.3 is friggin mind blowing! I am running it on a iMac 500MHz G3 with 1.2 GB of ram and I swear this computer is twice as fast now! Everything in this operating system is faster, even my boardband internet connection with Safari is faster! Mail, faster! iTunes, faster. iPhoto, faster! MS Office, faster! Sherlock, faster! Even my shareware programs move faster. The interface itself is faster, moving files, moving thru disk etc, it is all faster, much faster! The changes to the OS are great, the new finder, Expose, the new Mail all of it. I waited in line for an hour to buy it the night it went on sale at the Houston Apple Store, and it's worth not only the wait but the money. This baby must scream on a newer Mac. At first I was concerned my iMac would bogg down with this new OS but my little 500MHz G3 is smokin now, kinda sucks cause now I have even less of a reason to buy a new Mac.......My advice buy this baby and again have the best computer OS in the world! Long live the Panther!
Rating:
Summary: So Far, So Good.
Review: I recently got Mac 10.3 Panther and so far everything good that has been said about it is true. In my G4 iMac, it has worked without problem. While I had to take a little time to get used to it's different interface, in the end, has been a breeze to operate. I have had no problems in the stability of the system. Finally, Apple got it right and you can still work on your other programs and not have to restart your computer. This is a real boon to people, like myself, who are not computer geeks. After having Macs for 10 years and 4 operaring systems, I can finally say that Apple has an operating system that beats Windows on every front. I hope the rest of the world never finds out. I would hate for Bill Gates to mess it up for the rest of us.
Rating:
Summary: Panther Delivers
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A great new product / a few problems
Review: After installing OS X.3 Family Pack on two computers (a 400 MHz G3 iMac and 600 MHz G4 Powerbook), I am mostly happy with the product and believe that it will eventually justify the cost.
1) The new finder is much easier to use. Keeping track of your iDisk, external hard drives and CDs is much easier. The new Finder is also nicely integrated into your open/save dialog boxes.
2) Expose will be enjoyed by anyone who likes to run many applications at once. Read the help on this feature because it is more powerful than it appears.
3) If you have an iDisk you will really appreciate the offline/online synchronization feature
4) There are many small/hidden features that improve your user experience:
* Running print center is no longer required. An icon for your printer appears during printing.
* Text Edit displays Microsoft Word files (great for occasional .doc attachments)
* There is a noticeable speed improvement especially starting Panther and in overall use. This upgrade had a few surprises:
1) Virtual PC 5.0 started crawling on my G4 Powerbook. In some cases applications crashed and Windows refused to start. Upgrading to VPC 6.0 solved this problem nicely. This was an unexpected upgrade cost.
2) A question mark icon appeared where the "HP printing and imaging director" used to be. My HP PSC 2210 still worked as a printer, but the scanner/copier controls were missing. Reinstalling the HP software alleviated the problem. Beware though that you will then have two listings for the printer in the print setup app. Delete the older one (the newer has a recognizable icon of the printer). "Maintain Printer" starts up Classic, so use "Configure" to access this feature instead. The HP web site states: "Mac OS 10.3 software drivers providing full functionality are currently being developed by HP." Keep checking their site for updates... Installing Panther with customization and removing all unnecessary languages will help installation on older Macs with limited hard disk space.
Rating:
Summary: Great product, but worth the upgrade?
Review: I've been running OS X on my G4 Powerbook for over a year now, and I love it.
Jaguar 10.2.8 was running great so there was no stability reason for me to upgrade. Basically I just had to have the latest version just because it is the latest type of thing. Yes the system is quicker and there are some useful features such as expose, but I'm not sure it was worth the cost of the upgrade.
If Apple is planning on upgrading OS X every year then I probably could have gone along with 10.2.8 with no complaints and done a upgrade on the next version. I think Apple should have offered a upgrade version for those with 10.2 for about half the cost of what is charged for Panther. To pay full price for a OS you expect major changes, like from Windows 98 to Windows XP. So if you are happy with 10.2 and the new features in 10.3 are not something you need then I would stay with your current version and see what comes along next year. If you just have to have the lastest version no matter what then pick it up and you won't be disapointed.
Rating:
Summary: Not a major upgrade but a nice one
Review: 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)
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