When will Panther come with the PowerBook?

[Emkay]

I've been waiting to buy my very first Mac for a really long time. I've decided to buy a 12" PowerBook, but at apple.com it says that it doesn't come with Panther. I was wondering when you guys would think Panther would be preinstalled? I don't want to buy it for a $20 upgrade, or have the CDs come in the box when I buy the laptop, because I've never bought a Mac before; it would be annoying enough to have to install an OS right when I get a laptop, but it would be brutal to do it on a system I am not very familiar with.

When Panther comes with the PowerBook does it come with the Developer Tools and xcode? I went to a local Apple reseller and did 'man gcc' and there was no man page for it, which was fairly disturbing.

 

[cb911]

i think Panther will be shipping with all new Macs fairly soon...

you could always just keep checking out http://www.apple.com/powerbook/software.html to see when they update it & say it comes with Panther.

and i think all PowerBooks come with Developer Tools, and all copies of Panther come with Xcode (95% certain about that ).

i guess the best thing to do is keep calling Apple.

 

[soakwashrinse]

My recent PowerBook purchase (a 15-inch 1.25GHz) didn't come with Developer Tools preinstalled. I don't think it's on the Software Restore DVD either. However, a CD image of Xcode/Developer Tools is freely downloadable through the Apple Developer Connection at http://developer.apple.com/.

 

[Superdrive]

My buddy got a 17" yesterday from the Apple Retail Store. They gave him the CDs for Panther, all 3.

 

[cb911]

Superdrive, Panther comes on 3 CD's, but there should also be an extra CD with Xcode on it.

i was certain that Developer Tools came with all PB's... good to know you can DL it as well.

 

[jamesatzones]

Resellers will have to burn through inventory that is loaded with Jaguar. When Jaguar was introduced resellers has a flat pack, the $20 upgrade to Jaguar for machines in stock that didn't have it. As of now there is no word on Apple providing a flat pack for Panther.

 

[Emkay]

My recent PowerBook purchase (a 15-inch 1.25GHz) didn't come with Developer Tools preinstalled. I don't think it's on the Software Restore DVD either. However, a CD image of Xcode/Developer Tools is freely downloadable through the Apple Developer Connection at http://developer.apple.com/.

XCode is free too? I thought that you had to pay for it if you didn't get the CD with Panther. I thought you had to pay to be a member of ADC too. I can't believe that it doesn't come with a PowerBook. That's so lame. It's fairly inconvenient to make an account and download it.

My buddy got a 17" yesterday from the Apple Retail Store. They gave him the CDs for Panther, all 3.

Was it preinstalled as well?

Panther comes on 3 CD's, but there should also be an extra CD with Xcode on it.

OMG, so the PowerBook doesn't come with the Developer Tools AND xcode? What's up with that?

 

[cb911]

Emkay, don't stress.

here's my experience: i just got a new 15" PB. it came with developer tools. i also just recieved the Panther UtD, and it came with Xcode.

it should be the same everywhere, so don't worry.

 

[soakwashrinse]

Originally posted by Emkay
XCode is free too? I thought that you had to pay for it if you didn't get the CD with Panther. I thought you had to pay to be a member of ADC too. I can't believe that it doesn't come with a PowerBook. That's so lame. It's fairly inconvenient to make an account and download it.


Was it preinstalled as well?


OMG, so the PowerBook doesn't come with the Developer Tools AND xcode? What's up with that?

Xcode is completely free. ADC has various levels of pay membership, but you can sign up for basic access for free.

It is lame that the PowerBook doesn't ship with an Xcode CD. It's a small courtesy to ask considering that Apple's consumer line ships with a software bundle (Appleworks etc.) and the Power- line ships with nothing.

 

[Emkay]

Emkay, don't stress.

Heh, yeah I tend to get stressed fairly easily. I just have to breathe...there you go.

here's my experience: i just got a new 15" PB. it came with developer tools. i also just recieved the Panther UtD, and it came with Xcode.

Oh thank God. What's UtD though?

I'll be getting this PowerBook from my campus computer shop so if I yell at them long enough they should include xcode and install the developer tools for me if it doesn't come with it out of the box. Heh.

One question about the PB: the 12" stock comes with 256 megs. I'll only be programming, going online, and some other basic stuff. Should I still upgrade to 512? If I should, would Kingmax be a good choice?

 

[soakwashrinse]

Whoops, I just checked the Software Install and Restore DVD which came with my PowerBook... yes, Developer Tools is indeed on there, you need to click 'Install Applications & Classic Support' and go through a few screens of the 'Software Restore Installer' (not a particularly obvious place I must add). Would have saved me from downloading it if I had realised this previously.

UtD refers to the Up-to-Date program for recent Apple computer purchases. More info at http://www.apple.com./macosx/uptodate/.

 

[soakwashrinse]

Originally posted by Emkay
Heh, yeah I tend to get stressed fairly easily. I just have to breathe...there you go.

Oh thank God. What's UtD though?

I'll be getting this PowerBook from my campus computer shop so if I yell at them long enough they should include xcode and install the developer tools for me if it doesn't come with it out of the box. Heh.

One question about the PB: the 12" stock comes with 256 megs. I'll only be programming, going online, and some other basic stuff. Should I still upgrade to 512? If I should, would Kingmax be a good choice?

Try and upgrade to at least 512 MB if you can -- an extra 256 MB SO-DIMM shouldn't cost too much more (check your configuration to make sure the stock PowerBook has a spare memory slot first). Kingmax should be fine, I've had good experiences with Crucial (http://www.crucial.com/ in the past.

 

[Emkay]

Whoops, I just checked the Software Install and Restore DVD which came with my PowerBook... yes, Developer Tools is indeed on there, you need to click "Install Applications & Classic Support" (not a particularly obvious place I must add). Would have saved me from downloading it if I had realised this previously.

Heheh. We've all done something similar. Well it's good to know that I will be getting the Developer Tools for sure since it's deemed worthy of being placed in a restore cd. There's a possibility that Xcode won't since it's a separate cd, but that's alright since I can download it. How large is it anyway?

Try and upgrade to at least 512 MB if you can -- an extra 256 MB SO-DIMM shouldn't cost too much more (check your configuration to make sure the stock PowerBook has a spare memory slot first). Kingmax should be fine, I've had good experiences with Crucial (http://www.crucial.com/ in the past.

Crucial would be ideal, but I don't like ordering stuff online. The surprise charges I get for living in Canada aren't worth it. There's a store near me that sells a really cheap 512 MB DIMM that's Kingmax actually, so I might get that. I'm just not sure if Kingmax would be fine with a PowerBook since I haven't read anything about it. I thought that the 12" PB had one slot free? ie. 256 MB built in and one slot free.

I actually considered on getting the 15" PB, but the white spots scared me off. I've decided to go with the 12" PB and possibly a Samsung 191T+ (19" LCD) when I'm at home. It's a fairly new LCD, so I'll have to wait till the reviews start rolling in.

 

[Emkay]

Well I made an ADC account. Not too bad. I go and see how large Xcode is and it's broken up into TWENTY parts, each 30 megs. Frickin hell.