This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on October 8, 2003). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.
Mac OS X 10.3, a.k.a. Panther, has finally had its official release date announced — October 24th, just a little over two weeks from now. I qualify for the Mac OS X Up-To-Date program, too, as a new G5 owner, so I get to upgrade for \$20. Go me!
Mr. Man and I were at CompUSA in August and the Mac rep had a copy of Panther up on one of the eMacs. There weren’t any other people around so she let us fool around with it.
uhhhhhhhhhhhh
So what’s like the deal with that?
The start up is cool but I was sorta kinda hard pressed to see the differences. I’d certainly upgrade for $20 or even $50, but I’m gonna have to think hard about $130.
There was – at last on that preview release – a copy of IE for Mac. If you go to the the Computer Store up on 45th (or whatever they’re calling it these days) they’ve removed all copies of IE from their models on the floor.
If there’s a Panther release demo session I’ll go. But I think I’ll wait until we look at getting a new Mac before I move up to Panther.
I’m a new G5 owner? Do I get the upgrade too?
Tim — absolutely. Just go here and follow the steps, and your copy will be shipped out to you to arrive on the 24th.
Pops — for me, Panther is definitely worth the upgrade price (and would be even if I had to pay the full $130 retail price). There are a few new features I’ve been looking forward to (things like Mail’s threading and better Address Book integration, Preview’s ability to fly through .pdf files, and Exposé is right at the top of my “I want” list), and there are a lot of reports from people that have the pre-release developer builds that confirm that it’s noticeably faster than 10.2, even (and maybe especially) on older hardware.
That last point is one of the things I love. Take a 2-year old PC, upgrade it from, say, Windows 98 to Windows XP, and watch it bog down. Sure, it might run the newer OS, but everything gets slower. Take a 2-year old Mac and upgrade it from OS X better, even with new features and new bells and whistles added.
Just more of the many reasons I stick with the Mac. :)