Mac OS X Panther 10.3 Reviewed

JigSaw writes "OSNews posted a (constructively) critical, but also favorable review of Mac OS X Panther 10.3. The article discusses the new features, what works great and what's still sour, and it also includes a plethora of screenshots." The review's conclusion suggests Panther is "...a worthy operating system, easy to use, easy to set up, easy to get pleased by it. It just works."

Comments

fix outstanding bugs?

[SuperBanana]

Will it fix the massive bugs introduced into Bluetooth that have yet to be fixed?

How about the problems with remote filesystems? Put your powerbook to sleep with any volume mounted, even read-only with no files open, and you'll basically have to restart(not even a umount -f will unmount the volume) because almost every app will show a spinning pizza of death.

How about the bug that exists in most G4 powerbooks, where changing the volume level too quickly under "heavy load" causes the balance to shift?

Every OS X release has been rather half-baked, although Apple is certainly doing better now than with 10.0 and 10.1...but it's still irritating that several bugs which affect me on a day to day basis will require dishing out another $100+, when I just bought a $3,000 laptop 2-3 months ago(my fourth powerbook, eighth mac, btw.)

Re:Another 'I dont understand'...you really don't

[adzoox]

There are FAR more apps on the PC that crash under XP, just don't work, or are just poorly written. On average, a 3rd party app for the Mac is written with higher programming/compiling standard. And take note, 3rd party apps ARE NOT Apple Apps.

Besides, one of the programs, I believe this guy was talking about was a Haxie that Panther addresses.

Also, I only use respected 3rd party applications. Adobe, Microsoft, and my favorite shareware (Graphic Converter from Lemkesoft) all come out with INSTANT updates if an update needs to be released.

The article extrapolates statistics too much and is a weak review at best. While I don't expect everything to work and everything to be favorable, at least Apple quickly addresses software/OS issues with updates.

Yay! Just announced 10.3.1!

[llamafirst]

0-20% of the third party applications just won't load

There are always developers who cheat the APIs a little, and mostly the small shops and shareware folks. Many of them don't think it's a big deal because they update soon enough, and some of them cheat them because they can't afford a real QA/testing team. But most of those apps/developers get the bugs sorted out within a few months -- as the article author pointed out.

If you tolerate risk, by all means get the dot zero version any major software release from any vendor.

If you are risk averse, the smart thing is to always wait a little, perhaps until the first update. In the mac world, you could choose to get 10.3.1, whenever that is, if you desired.

Not everyone has the same tolerance for risk, incompatibility, or new territory.

Re:Yay! Just announced 10.3.1!

[IamTheRealMike]

Hmm, since when is it possible to "cheat" APIs?

An API is either documented and exported (in which case its behaviour its clearly defined) or internal and not documented, in which case its behaviour can change.

Really, there should be very few APIs that are documented in public documentation but internal. Also, the percentages of apps that seem to have been broken by this upgrade is quite high - I find it hard to believe they are all dodgy GUI hacks and suchlike. Perhaps they have been changing the API internals without realising that some of the details of the internals had leaked out?

Re:Another 'I dont understand'

[MarcQuadra]

I can still run HyprCard 1.4 (released in '87, I believe) on a brand-new G4. That says something. That's an app compiled for a DIFFERENT ARCHITECTURE goddammit!

My dad runs ClarisWorks 3.1 on his G4, and that app is at LEAST a decade old.

If developers write apps that aren't up to spec or link against stuff that Apple doesn't promise will be there next year I hardly see how it's Apple's fault.

When the 68040 came out it crashed TONS of apps because developers were using self-modifying code that got mangled in the (then new to Mac) L1 cache. Apple had been telling folks for YEARS not to write code like that because it would bite them later, but some didn't listen.

I think the responsibility lies MOSTLY with the application developers who want you to buy a new copy of their product whenever Apple releases a major update.

Bloatware?

[2nd Post!]

Isn't it hard to accuse Apple of bloating the OS when every release gets *faster* and *more* efficient?

Or the features are *more* effective?
Like better Samba, and thus Windows, networking? Or better printing? Remote volume protocols? Etc?