PC Magazine Reviews Panther: Hell Hath Truly Frozen Over!

macsrgood4umacsrgood4u
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Quote:

Mac users, prepare to pounce. Panther, the code name for Apple's latest operating system iteration, OS X 10.3, delivers enough useful and eye-catching improvements?like Exposé, fast user switching, and iChat AV?to warrant an upgrade.



Complete the easy, if somewhat lengthy, installation procedure (which took half an hour on a new dual-G5 but nearly an hour on a slower 933-MHz G4) and you'll be ready to start exploring the 150 improvements that Apple has packed in.



The 5 star review is here!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    thunderpoitthunderpoit Posts: 709member
    nearly an hour on a 933??

    my 867 chewed through the installer in 20-30 min...
  • Reply 2 of 14
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ThunderPoit

    nearly an hour on a 933??

    my 867 chewed through the installer in 20-30 min...



    I installed Panther on both a dual G5 and a 1 GHz 12" PowerBook at roughly the same time, starting with the G5 about five minutes earlier than the PB. The PB actually caught up with and surpassed the G5 for a while -- I think that was due purely to the PB's combo drive being faster at plain-ol' CD reading than the G5's SuperDrive.



    Soon enough, however, hard drive speed and processing power while "optimizing" mattered more, and the G5 caught back up and finished about 5-10 minutes before the PB.



    I'm thinking my install times were roughly 40-50 minutes (not counting the Developer Tools) but I'm not certain. Certainly neither install was as fast as 20 minutes. I custom installed everything, even language support for languages I've never heard of (figuring that I have more than enough drive space to cover it), so that might have lengthened my install times.
  • Reply 3 of 14
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    I wonder if it's not the first time that a PC revue ranked 5 stars a major Apple product ?
  • Reply 4 of 14
    macsrgood4umacsrgood4u Posts: 3,007member
    Quote:

    I wonder if it's not the first time that a PC revue ranked 5 stars a major Apple product ?



    I was thinking the same thing. The most I ever saw was 4 or 4 1/2 stars I think, for the iPod. I wonder how long the writer will be employed?
  • Reply 5 of 14
    mcqmcq Posts: 1,543member
    Interesting. C|Net gives it a not too stellar review and a 6.8/10, and I think C|Net and Zdnet are under the same company.



    http://reviews.cnet.com/4505-3513_7-...?tag=cnetfd.sd
  • Reply 6 of 14
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ThunderPoit

    nearly an hour on a 933??

    my 867 chewed through the installer in 20-30 min...



    I'm guessing that the 933 that they tested had a Superdrive, which reads CD-ROMs at slug-like speeds. Your 867 is probably a Combo Drive, am I correct?
  • Reply 7 of 14
    tacojohntacojohn Posts: 980member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by MCQ

    Interesting. C|Net gives it a not too stellar review and a 6.8/10, and I think C|Net and Zdnet are under the same company.



    http://reviews.cnet.com/4505-3513_7-...?tag=cnetfd.sd



    I was just going to say something about this! I was rather shocked at the cNet review this morning! I think the score is a little low. I sure am enjoying panther on my 500 MHz iBook.



    I'd give it an 8 out of 10 at least. What did windows XP get? It has to be better than a 6.8- which panther is waaaaaaaay better than friggen XP man.
  • Reply 8 of 14
    rageousrageous Posts: 2,170member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by tacojohn

    I was just going to say something about this! I was rather shocked at the cNet review this morning! I think the score is a little low. I sure am enjoying panther on my 500 MHz iBook.



    I'd give it an 8 out of 10 at least. What did windows XP get? It has to be better than a 6.8- which panther is waaaaaaaay better than friggen XP man.



    They gave XP professional and Home editions an 8/10. Link
  • Reply 9 of 14
    kecksykecksy Posts: 1,002member
    CNet has such an anti-apple bias it isn't funny. The only way Panther could have scored higher than a six out of ten is if it was made by Microsoft.
  • Reply 10 of 14
    donnydonny Posts: 231member
    Not sure if it might help or not, but I wrote a complaint to the review staff of C/Net. Many things were wrong, and many more things annoyed me in the review. However, Apple does offer free support for 90 days (not $49 per call). I cannot believe they say otherwise.
  • Reply 11 of 14
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    I read the buyer review : most of the cons where the price.



    Apple have done an amazing work with Panther. I doubt that they will be able to do such an improvement in the next coming year. I expect that the new major OS X update will be delayed, and that they will only try to improve Panther.
  • Reply 12 of 14
    thunderpoitthunderpoit Posts: 709member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Placebo

    I'm guessing that the 933 that they tested had a Superdrive, which reads CD-ROMs at slug-like speeds. Your 867 is probably a Combo Drive, am I correct?



    actually, its a pioneer dvdrom, i got pissed as my combo drive died for the 3rd time and this time i was out of warranty
  • Reply 13 of 14
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    Just to let you guys know the installation on my Superdrive powerbook 12" TOOK FOR ING EVER. It was at least an hour and a half and maybe longer.
  • Reply 14 of 14
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    the PCMag review has some inaccuracies as well...



    iTunes is explicitly NOT supported for multiple users during Fast User Switching.



    one iTunes process per computer, regardless of other users



    any other user will get a dialog explaining "iTunes is running for another user" (try it)



    iTunes is (officially) the only app unavailable to multiple users



    multi-user PhotoShop, sure. Logic, yep. Mathematica, fine. FCP, ya.

    but don't try 'em without LOTS of RAM, >1GB. G5 recommended.
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