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Panther Released into the Wild
u2fan00 writes "Those fortunate enough to have an Apple Store near them were in for a treat last night -- crowds! Oh, and also Panther. Check out the local reactions, photos and stories from some stores across the nation."
I've been trying to get a reliable e-mail program working for months now. MONTHS.
...those Macs sure do look nice...
1) Mozilla randomly forgets where its configuration files are, and of course has NO OPTION TO SET WHERE THEY ARE which means that I have to rebuild my e-mail settings over and over again.
2) Evolution takes over a minute to start.
3) Red Hat corrupts its own RPM database when other e-mail clients are installed, then just hangs.
4) mutt will take four months to configure correctly.
5) Yeah, Outlook Express. Sure thing.
Then I look at Mac OS X mail and I have to ask: why is there, after FIFTEEN YEARS, no reliable, working, nice, up-to-date e-mail client outside of Mac OS X?
After watching Mozilla faceplant and Red Hat shit itself (by the way, my first Linux install was Slackware on a 486 WITH NO DOCUMENTATION)
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
... To a Microsoft release. That's a real hardcore user base ;)
I'm thinking about buying a 15" PowerBook shortly (probably from MacConnection, since they have good deals). I was going to wait until I could get one with Panther preinstalled, but I'd like to have the PowerBook by Thanksgiving and so it looks like I'll have to order one soon (which will probably still come with Jaguar).
I've been reading various forums and I keep hearing that a clean install for Panther is the way to go. And, since the PowerBook will be brand new, I won't have to back anything up beforehand ;). However, do PowerBooks come with any software that isn't part of the OS by default? For instance, do they come with AppleWorks or other software that I'd lose if I chose to upgrade with a clean install?
Also, I'm still looking for a snug case/sleeve for the PowerBook, if anyone has any suggestions. I'm looking for one that's thin and just big enough to include a mouse and a power supply. I'd also prefer zippers or buttons over velcro (since they tend to be quieter than velcro).
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
Ehh... Carmack isn't developing Doom3 on MacOS. He has been pretty vocal about his love for Visual Studio 6. However, Doom3 does not make much use of DirectX (all of the gfx use OpenGL, for example) so he has made a few builds on Mac OS X and Linux over the past couple years.
In fact, the first demo of Doom3 (and the first demo of the GeForce 3 too) was on Mac OS X as part of one of Steve Jobs's keynote speeches.
Doom3 will be available for Mac OS X... but it's not being developed on it.
Atari also had another system which was never released called you guessed it, Panther. Panther was set to come out about the same time as the SNES... had it come out it would have been by far the most superior console for a year or two.
--- I do not moderate.
Dog tags would have been cool, all I got at the SOHO Apple Store (downtown NYC) was some "designer" wrapping paper for Christmas. But then again there was easily over 1000 people trying to get in. I was stupid and tried to get there right at 8:00, but I was met with a line that went around the block.
;)
There were tons of people there, that's for sure. I at least got entered to win a new Mac, but other than that the wrapping paper kinda sucks. I was hoping for free T-shirts as well. I didn't even get a copy of Panther either. That will have to wait until I get a job. Anyone out there looking for a Mac programer in the New York City area?
I did get to play with Panther though, and it is very cool.
infested with jello like fishes no melotron wishes
I received my copy of "Panther" via FedEx at 11AM... so I spent the afternoon backing up and installing Panther on my two laptops (a 15" AlBook and older iBook SE). The install was three disks long (when will they start offering a DVD?) and rather uneventful.
I really dig the new "Expose'" feature, fast user switching and the capability to easily/seamlessly encrypt my home directory. I plan on testing the windows printer share capabilities in a few minutes...
However, my "Night of Panther" was spent watching the BBC's rendition of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy... had to test out the updated Apple DVD player, you know? It worked great!
I'm 26, but a significant majority of the folks at the release party I went to were 50+. I guess Apple's youth-oriented marketing hasn't been working in my area. It makes sense though; most of the young kids want to game and hot-rod their boxes--something Apple's not known for.
I went to MacDaddy Computers, an Apple Specialist in Modesto, about a 20 minute drive from my house. It's a really small store on one of the main drags through town, and there was literally nobody there at 9:00PM outside of the store employees. I was lucky enough to snag the last copy they had; they had put a "sold out" sign in the window right before I got there. I also got some dog tags with the cool metal X logo and the requisite 10.3 t-shirt.
:-D
As far as the OS goes, it's by far the best one yet. With each new release of OS X, there have been reviewers going on about the massive speed increases over the previous versions... but this is the only upgrade where I have actually felt the massive speed increase. This, along with numerous other interface improvements, make it worth every penny (I paid full price).
For example, I thought I would hate the new Finder, but it's really great, and I find it more usable than the 10.2 Finder. If you don't like the sidebar and/or the brushed metal, you can make them both go away with a click of the toolbar widget. Once they're gone, the Finder behaves pretty much exactly like the OS 9 Finder, a throwback I (and the spatial-finder dude at Ars Technica) really appreciate. Expose's coolness factor is matched only by its utility. The guy who runs MacDaddy said I'd be loving it on a 12" iBook screen, and I really am. The application switcher that pops up in lieu of the Dock is pretty much lifted from Windows and KDE, but is so much cooler because it displays icons in their full 128x128 glory.
Now the only thing I have to wait for is an update to XPostFacto so I can put it on my Beige G4. I don't think I'm ever going to bother with installing 10.2 or below on anything again.
Well, I feel like an idiot. My friend paid for the upgrade version. I bought the full version. In the past, the upgrade versions required a prior version of MacOS already on the hard drive. I really hate having to install my original 10.0 discs, then go through my 10.1 and 10.2 upgrade CDs on a new clean hard drive install. And I wanted to be able to install Panther from scratch.
I was quite surprised to compare my box to his. Same bar code, same product number, same CDs.
Guess I could have saved $60.
"Population 1,656"
My spiffy new silver-and-black 10.3 upgrade CD's just arrived yesterday, and I installed them... ...it is indeed build 7B85.
But what's with the "B?"
Isn't the "B" designation usually used for a beta release?
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I wonder if the Apple stores would give a government employee a copy if I buy it on-line at an Apple store as jo_ham has mentioned with regard to education discounts.
One thing that I haven't figured out is the full extent of the Apple government employee on-line store. From the Federal employee terms of agreement. I've added some bold text to highlight some of my questions.
The Federal Government Employee Purchase Program (EPP) is a benefit provided by Apple Computer, Inc. ("Apple"), to employees and contractors of selected agencies.
Personal Discount: You may purchase or "sponsor" up to six system bundles each calendar year (January 1-December 31). "Sponsoring" means placing an order for a family member or friend. No more than two systems or monitors may be shipped each calendar year to the same individual or entity (i.e., company, institution, club or group), whether that purchase is sponsored solely by you or, also, by other eligible employees.
Which are the selected agencies? Does this "selected" provision apply to the both employees and contractors of the selected agencies or only to the contractors?
Six systems? Yikes. Free shipping but one has to pay state taxes. Hardware discount is about 10%. This makes the deal comparable to getting a bundled deal from other on-line stores. However, buying from Apple should get one better "karma" in case somethings goes wrong.
I can do this for a Friend?:-) This is best with regard to Apple software which is available for a 50% discount. Finally, I can have this shipped to another location?
I thought that box looked familiar
I understand how you feel. The BBS and computer club days are dead and gone forever. Have you ever gotten the feeling like you spent all those years worshipping at the altar of the personal computer, and it turned out to be a false idol? I know I do from time to time. Maybe it's just best to lament it and move on.
I also live in Greater Atlanta and intentionally avoided the Apple Stores. I kind of wanted to go out to CompUSA last night, but they didn't stay open late, so since they close at 9:00 and Panther was released at 8:00, I didn't want to risk any crowds that they might have.
:) Highlly recommended, even though I didn't buy it quite yet. Soon, very soon. Especially now that I've touched it... I realize that I really like it but it's not so earth-shattering that I simply must have it. I'm sure many applications will soon be Panther-only (that's what happened with Jaguar), so I'll have to upgrade within the next few months. I hope to be able to do so with a good fiscal conscience within a couple of weeks.
It so happened that I had to buy a birthday present for somebody and also buy some new headphones today, so I had three good reasons to go to CompUSA, and I was a tad surprised that there didn't seem to be anybody in the whole store that knew what Panther was. There was one iMac (or was it an eMac? Still confused about that) that had it installed for demo purposes, and demo I did. I'll squeeze in a mini-review of what I saw so far.
Overall, I was a little surprised at how similar to Jaguar it felt... this is a good thing. We want improvements, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Speaking of bathwater, the Finder has been replaced and I'm sure the new one is awesome. It was noticeably different but I didn't see a whole lot of Gee Whiz stuff in my quick (about 30 minutes) runthrough. I probably spent about 10 of those minutes playing with the much-heralded Expos, which honestly is DAMN COOL. I only hope it runs that quickly on my 550 PowerBook... probably not, though. I also tested the quick user switching thing. I had to figure out the CompUSA password, but it only took me about three guesses. That's another great feature.
The nicest surprise is that alt-tab (yeah, yeah, command-tab on Mac) application switching has really matured. It's much, MUCH more like Windows now... with a transparent bar that appears center-screen and true stack-based app switching (to make it just as easy to go two applications back as it is to go one application back). As a former Windows keystroke nut, I absolutely had to have my alt-tab support, and I about lost my mind when I first switched to OS X and had to deal with the various incarnations of that, including some shareware that did what I wanted and was subsequently irreparably broken by Jaguar, at which point I got used to Jaguar's better-but-not-quite-there implementation. That was when they almost lost me as a customer, but I just love OS X too damn much.
I'm glad to see they've burst forth with this great upgrade. I obviously wish it wasn't so expensive, but hey, it could be worse... it could be like $400
Sorry it's so long... hope it was sort of interesting.
RP
Hey grandpa, they let you have laptops at the nursing home?
Hehe! But seriously, you must not have any experience with crazy numeric meteorology folks. In a lot of similar textbooks you'll find FORTRAN listings for many of their most efficent algorithms. Many of which would be a complete bear to reproduce in C.
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
I wouldn't be too sad. I got the dog tags and thought "Hell, I'll wear them for good luck while installing Panther!". Oops, airport on Powerbook stopped working.
Then I tried to install on someone else's computer (I bought the family pack, and am stretching the license slightly by spreading it out across a few family members). I accidentally slipped on the dog tags again (What compelled me? I know not. I had stored them in the Panther case and just slipped them on absent-mindedly while pulling out the install CD's). Helllo, a computer trying to go from 9.0 to OS X - no more classic and no more booting back to OS 9 for YOU son!
Sure, I managed to resolve each of these issues after a few hours investigation. But I might point out only AFTER I removed the dog tags from around my neck.
At least the wrapping paper looks cool, and didn't cause you hours of annoyance.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Having installed Panther today, I'd say it's a nice improvement.
Upon installation, one interesting thing happened: the machine happened to kick into sleep mode, because I was away while it asked for disc 2. That's the first time I've ever seen an OS installer ever do that. Sure, they just boot to OS X from CD and then do an installation, but still pretty cool. Also, my machine didn't reboot after install, it was ready to use immediately, and no required reboot after doing Software Updates for iTunes and iSync. Expose is probably my favorite new feature, overall, though. The speed improvement is quite noticable on my upgraded G4 1.2Ghz (used to be a G4 400Mhz).
I've got a G4/400 with a video card that does not support Quartz Extreme, and I think the performane is much better with Panther. It seems like another leap similar to the one I got with Jaguar. Actually, I feel the same way about my G3/300 iMac too.
It was worth the price for us, but then we have 5 macs and bought the 5-pack.
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