Panther sucks

tintin99 · October 27, 2003 6:01PM

I gotta say for 99 UK pounds -which is equivalent to 150 US dollars, its rubbish..

Not only the price but the features - hardly any changes at all...nothing to write home about - I would say a total waste of money on my part and effort on Apples part.

Those who have yet to upgrade, dont bother! unless you want labels back on your folders

kirkland · October 27, 2003 6:07PM

Yes, Panther sucks. It's only markedly faster, with integrated .zip compression, a fabulously new Finder, a better Mail.app, the incredible new Preview.app, Exposé, Fast User Switching, Safari 1.1, the first font management system ever integrated into an OS in Font Book, better integration with your iDisk, a totally refined Aqua look, better FTP support in the Finder, revised Open/Save dialogues, the restoration of Label metadata, support for DVD+ formats, improved Software Update and a slew of deep level Unix enhancements. To say nothing of fun little tweaks like iPhoto integration with your Desktop pictures and Screensaver.

Yeah, how dare Apple think of charging for such an anemic raft of improvements.

ethar · October 27, 2003 6:11PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kirkland

Yes, Panther sucks. It's only markedly faster, with integrated .zip compression, a fabulously new Finder, a better Mail.app, the incredible new Preview.app, Exposé, Fast User Switching, Safari 1.1, the first font management system ever integrated into an OS in Font Book, better integration with your iDisk, a totally refined Aqua look, better FTP support in the Finder, revised Open/Save dialogues, the restoration of Label metadata, support for DVD+ formats, improved Software Update and a slew of deep level Unix enhancements. To say nothing of fun little tweaks like iPhoto integration with your Desktop pictures and Screensaver.

Yeah, how dare Apple think of charging for such an anemic raft of improvements.

I second that. It's just awful!

tintin99 · October 27, 2003 6:13PM

but everything you list there is just marginal improvements - you gotta admit is not earth shattering...It really is a waste of press, effort and money...everone is saying "oh wow check out expose..."...but come on, its just a gimic, this update has little substance.

jwill · October 27, 2003 6:21PM

Panther's just a bunch of marginal improvements all bottled up into a black box with a gray X. I'm content with it. Maybe it could've been worth less, yeah, but I bought it, and it works.

Your computer shuts off faster.

Yes, Expose is actually good.

Preview is better.

Mail is better.

The Finder is better as well.

.zip compression...

Speed increases

I think that's about it for me that I benefited from. But in general: Worth $129? A dispute. But you won't come out with absolutely nothing if you buy it, and you won't be carrying 10.2's blinding stripes either. So there's a benefit. Maybe not a large one, but it's a benefit.

They do make it larger than it seems though. I admit, I was like "That's it?"

I think it should've been worth around $50-$70.

ethar · October 27, 2003 6:21PM

Increased speed and stability seem pretty damn worthwhile to me

That's not even including all the "gimmicks."

luca · October 27, 2003 6:28PM

People said the exact same thing about Jaguar when it came out. "It's better, but not $129 better..." and so forth. I actually agree with those people, somewhat. Once you get into the OS, you have a hard time going back - but just after the transition I can see how you would think "I spent $129 for this?"

I really do think $99 is a more reasonable price for the OS, and low enough that upgrade pricing wouldn't be necessary. That is what it costs to buy an upgrade to MS Windows, right?

onlooker · October 27, 2003 6:58PM

I think it's worth more, and we got an awesome deal. It's not like we are win-doze users that get an update like this every few years that's twice the price. We got a huge update that comes a few times a year, and it's worth every penny. IMO Most of this is already speeding up my workflow by over 5x which is worth money right there.

sc_markt · October 27, 2003 7:08PM

Well, I've only been using OS X 10.2.8 for about 2 weeks and 10.3 since a few days ago. So far, I like it alot and think it's worth it. (I do miss the option of putting the clock in the dock.)

pensieve · October 27, 2003 7:20PM

troll.

(You are a troll because you don't add to the discussion. Contribute nothing but gripes using inflammatory language and offer no proof but your obviously ridiculous opinion.)

shatteringglass · October 27, 2003 7:22PM

Exposé is not a gimmick.

alecr · October 27, 2003 7:23PM

I have only used expose once, just to see what it was... but I've used user switching a few times and love it. There are a lot of little changes to panther all over the place. I like it. It seems a lot quicker on my 1ghz 17inch laptop. Apps seem to launch the same, but the system feels faster overall. I haven't even used most of the new features, but I am glad I bought it.

rok · October 27, 2003 7:31PM

well, tintin, i get panther for $70 for education discount. i'd say it's at least worth that.

freaktornado · October 27, 2003 7:47PM

Quote:

but everything you list there is just marginal improvements - you gotta admit is not earth shattering...It really is a waste of press, effort and money...everone is saying "oh wow check out expose..."...but come on, its just a gimic, this update has little substance.

I'm curious what 'earthshattering' is in your book.

I'd say it's clear that you don't work on a Mac, because Exposé is a huge hassle-saver for those of us that do. By necessity I have many windows open simultaneously and it can be a pain to sort through them, probably 10+ times a day, to find the one I'm looking for. Exposé obliterates that problem, making it a one-step process.

Lets put it this way, if Exposé were released as a separate utility, I would pay $50 for it, that's how useful it is to me.

So, now all I need to do is justify the other $80 (actually because I own a G5 it was $20 total for me).

Nearly everything in the OS is faster. Yes it's marginal, but it's consistently noticeable, and that's what counts. It's akin to having a CPU boost of 15-20%, that's worth more money, maybe even another $35.

The finder windows are improved, sure the new sidebar seems to be very similar to the old customizable toolbar...and it is, but try adding 10 folders to the toolbar..oops they run off the windows now. Try adding 10 folders to the sidebar, no problem. I'd pay $15 for a utility that did that.

Mail.app, major improvements. I couldn't even use Mail before (in jag) because once I imported ~20,000 messages or so it became a festval of progress bars and spinning color wheels. Not any more. Mail handles my entire 45,000 message database faster than PowerMail (my former email program), it comes with built-in support for Spam Assassin headers, which is a nice touch. It's extremely speedy opening, filtering and downloading mail. In one step it went from unusable by me to the best email app I've thrown that much mail at. Easily worth $20.

Fast user switching...sure it's stolen from Windows, but it's a big improvement over what was there. Have to quit all your apps before someone else could log in was just bad...it's fixed now. Worth $5, IMO.

What else is there: File Vault, complete trash erase, FontBook!, Uber fast searchable Preview.app...

I could go on. The point is that many of us Mac users find a lot of vaue in what Panther offers. Are any of these things "earthshattering"? Well, maybe not, but put them together in one box and I can clearly see justification for the $130.

giaguara · October 27, 2003 7:48PM

tintin just use your 10.0.4 and be happy.

and wait for longhorn so you can update your xp too.

ghost_user_name · October 27, 2003 8:10PM

pensieve has the right idea.

troll (trOl)

n.

1. One who purposely and deliberately (that purpose usually being self-amusement) starts an argument in a manner which attacks other people or issues without fostering logical, meaningful discussion or without listening to the arguments proposed by his or her peers. He will often spark off such an argument via the use of ad hominem attacks (i.e. 'you're nothing but a fanboy' is a popular phrase) with little or no substance or relevance to back them up as well as straw man arguments, which he uses to simply avoid addressing the essence of the issue.

This thread is closed. Move along, folks.

Panther sucks

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