Panther is phenomenal!

[snickelfritz]

Mail
Not even one spam has hit my inbox since upgrading to Panther, and email from friends etc... comes through nicely.
Message threading is brilliant.

Expose
Hooked up my Logitech Dual optical mouse and mapped expose functions to it.
IMO, this is the way to go with Expose.
At least map it to some of the hot corners of your screen; using f9, f10, f11 is far too cumbersome after using it this way.
This feature is worth the price of the upgrade by itself.

Finder
Not sure I really need wonderful utilities like Dragthing anymore.
The new finder+the Dock adds exactly the same kind of functionality in a much more streamlined fashion.

GUI Enhancements
Personally, I disliked the Jag pinstripe skin on application windows and toolbars.
The new smooth metal effect is much nicer, more Mac-like IMO.

Font Book
Apple is listening.

Speed
I no longer feel like I need a G5.
My 1ghz G4 runs smooth as silk and functions nearly flawlessly with this OS.

Bravo!

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

done any gaming on it yet?? im waiting to see how many bugs pop up before i get another anual os, and i have found through the years that the first edition always has a few glitches. ill stick to jag for 6 months-year.

 

[Panther Blue]

Re: Panther is phenomenal!

Allow me to grade this too.

Mail
I agree, no spam has come in, and i like the interface much better.

A-

Expose
It's great, but i don't like the fact that you can't use it to close windows and stay in it.

B

Finder
I hate the new structure of the windows, it drives me absolutely ballistic. I do like the labels though.

C-

GUI Enhancements
I like the GUI, but it's not consistent enough. And i want moree apple-made desktop backs.

B+

Font Book
It is great, I don't use it much but it's useful.

A

Speed
It sped up my iMac G4 a lot, and I'm really damn glad.

A

Overall: B

 

[snickelfritz]

I ran timedemo 1 in Quake3:
Jag = 85fps
Panther = 97fps

 

[Abstract]

Since I had only recently received my rev B 12" Powerbook when Panther was announced, I really didn't have any/much time to pay attention to exactly how long I could use my laptop on battery power. Also, the battery life indicator was definitely busted in 10.2.7/10.2.8, so I never got a good read on my battery life.

Has battery life been improved like other people have testified? I'm about to pull the powercord off my PB and try to use it until it runs out of juice, but I just want to know what other people have experienced thus far.

Anyway:

Expose: B

I always had problems with multiple open windows, and they remedied it with something cool. Windows always did a nice job with multiple open windows, but whatever. Expose is obviously much sweeter. However, they had to fix a problem that was obviously due to their lack of thinking things through entirely, so they really owed us a better way to handle open windows.

Searching: A

Everything comes up instantly, something that's slow on windows and Jaguar.

Font Book: B-

Personally, its really not so innovative or anything, and I don't have much use for it. I can look at my fonts while simply using MS Word. I understand that Font Book is useful for some, but definitely not me.

 

[Ruthless]

Upgrading?

Is there any advantages in re-formating and installing vs. just upgrading to panther?
please reply
thanks,
Ruthless

 

[Panther Blue]

Ruthless, I don't know, it depends on your situation. Do you have a lot of crap that needs to be cleaned out? i wouldn't do it unless you are sure you have to, it's a real pain....

 

[Ruthless]

Clean

no my computer is extremely clean all i have on it is photoshop, pictures a a ton of music. I have just never updated mac os x and i remeber from my hellish windows days that it was better if you reformatted. Did you upgrade or reformat?
thanks for the input,
Ruthess

 

[Panther Blue]

This is not Windows... yay!

Nope, no reason to then. You're good to go, good luck with the upgrade. No reason to reformat, this is not a PC.

 

[FightTheFuture]

Re: Panther is phenomenal!

Originally posted by snickelfritz
Bravo!

Bravo indeed! don't forget the new enhancements in addressbook and sherlock! i really love addressbook now, making a category for companies is great! the little plus and minuses weren't there before! what a great help! its the little things that make this an incredible update. placing an outline around your icons when you select them, the updated command-tab switching is a huge help, and expose is gonna leave windows and jag users drooling!

 

[iEric]

Re: Panther is phenomenal!

Mail
Threading is SOO good.
Checking mail is faster than before.
Grade: A

Expose
Excellent! This function is almost worth like half of the price of Panter!
Grade: A+

Finder
Faster searches- great.
Nice graphic thingy they did when you double click for an app to load..when it looks like the Icon is coming out at you.
Labels, great idea, very nice touch to folders.
Grade: A-

GUI Enhancements
Don't really like the metal look.
But I might get use to it
Grade: B-

Font Book
No real use for it
Grade: C+

Speed
I CAN ACTUALLY FEEL THE DUAL 1.0GHZ G4s NOW!!
Grade: A

Overall Grade: A

 

[Panther Blue]

The finder is starting to grow on me. I'm going to reasses it. i think that the finder gets a B and the overall grade is an A-.

 

[5300cs]

I was going to sell off my TiBook before Panther came out... 10.3 is soooo much faster on it.
The top menu bar looks muddy, 'cause I can still see the pinstripes, but not clearly. Get rid of them already if you're going to.
I'm getting used to the Finder too .. I'm not a real big fan of the new way to connect to network volumes...

 

[snickelfritz]

I agree with the "sort of pinstriped look" on the main menubar.
Kinda like a cross between OS9 and Jaguar.

 

[groovebuster]

Re: Re: Panther is phenomenal!

Originally posted by iEric
Font Book
No real use for it
Grade: C+[/SIZE] [/B]

FontBook gets an F from me! In the given way it is absolutely useless for pros who have to rely on font management on a daily basis.

The rest is pretty neat.

groovebuster

 

[tduality]

Re: This is not Windows... yay!

Originally posted by Panther Blue
Nope, no reason to then. You're good to go, good luck with the upgrade. No reason to reformat, this is not a PC.

I had some serious problems with Mail and Safari after upgrading to Panther. Making a clean install resolved the problems and Panther is running smooth and fast.

Sure I'll have to go through all my stuff now and put it back to where it belongs. But that's not as bad as it sounds.

 

[cwedl]

I had to do a clean install, my 12" powerbook was to slow when I upgraded to panther, it took ages to do any thing, e.g. file vault took 19 minutes to activate, when I did a clean install it took about 2 minutes.

 

[Wyrm]

Panther on a Pismo!

I installed (upgraded) Panther on a PISMO with OS X 10.2 - and guess what?
It works!

Installation was a long process - even though the installer reported it would take about 20 minutes, in actual fact it took about 40 minutes to get through the first disk, and another 40 for the second.

Things I've noticed:

1) Safari seems a whole lot faster - in Jaguar there was a small delay when entering a new URL... now it's instantaneous.

2) Er - did Panther do away with that cool CPU monitor? I can't find it anymore. Anyone notice this, or am I just looking in the wrong spot?

3) MAME works flawlessly - ahem (well the pismo ain't gonna play quake3 too well)

4) Expose is pretty cool - heavy use already (well the Pismo is rather challenged for screen real-estate so Expose is a killer feature for me)

5) User switching is well done - a great way to switch between languages super fast.

6) Airport signal is stronger - I only had 2-3 bars in Jaguar. Without moving the laptop, it is now almost full - full. Not sure if it's just coincidence?

7) Increased performance overall - hard to evaluate, but the system seems more responsive... rather funny, since usually upgrading anything software causes a downgrade in performance.

Apple Japan threw in some Panther dogtags - not that these are are anything special, but it's a nice touch.

Hope everyone's upgrade goes as smooth!

Cheers

-Wyrm

 

[Spock]

I am going to install it on my old iBook 366 and see what happens
I am thinking about putting OS 9.1 back on it if it is too slow

 

[evoluzione]

I can't use Panther on one of my machines, it doesn't support my SGI SW1600 monitor

such an awesome flat panel screen and works in 10.2.8 no problems, no drivers needed etc, but in 10.3 it will not work. and i can't find any info on it either....

very unhappy as i think panther is a great upgrade otherwise