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Early Panther Thoughts |
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 This was written earlier in the day, but we had no 'Net connection then, so here it is now!
Before leaving on vacation this morning, Slackin and I were pleasantly surprised to find a package on our doorstep. It included a preview copy of OS X 10.3 Panther and a bag of Sour Cream and Onion Sesame Sticks, no doubt left by our secret agent who goes by the code name "Wacky Jackie". Don't ask. It's better for you if you don't know.
So of course we had to install it and play around with it on our trip. Here are our thoughts on the new OS as we hop on the Ohio Turnpike headed for New York.
We installed Panther on Slackin's 800Mhz iBook that has 384MB of RAM, and it performs really well - there's no noticeable difference between it and Jaguar. All the features that Steve talked about on Monday are present, although I couldn't find out how to turn on encryption/decryption for your home folder (also called FileVault). Maybe it's on by default and/or I'm just a big dumbass. Although that second one is probably true in any case.
Perhaps the coolest visual feature, Expose, is simply amazing! It's fun to do, looks great, and should really optimize workflow. It's come a long way from Minimize in place, if indeed that's where the roots of it's programming lie.
The new Finder is much better than it's predecessor, although maybe not perfect. For instance, if you click your home folder, there's no way to go 'up' a directory (see below for example). Again, maybe it's the dumbass factor here, or I just need to play around with it more, but this is the only fault I can find with the Finder.
In the System Preferences, "Desktop & Screen Saver" are now grouped together as are "Keyboard and Mouse". But see for yourself:
There's some other cool stuff too, like highlighting files, and labels. Check out how a Virtual PC alias looks when it's highlighted:
X11 is now also an option to be added if you customize your Panther install. Terminal is still the only application that comes "built-in" to X11. Process Viewer is now called Activity Monitor as it monitors a lot more stuff, like memory and disk usage, when you need to shave, and when you need to drop the kids off at the pool (both meanings apply here).
So all in all, Panther is pretty cool, and the final retail version will be even better.
However, I have to say that the $129 price tag is pretty damn hefty. I understand that Apple needs to make money and that they've put a lot of man-hours into the 10.3 upgrade. But, as HTML Samurai pointed out to me earlier this week, not even Microsoft charges you that much yearly just to stay up-to-date. Microsoft does charge about the same price for their OSes, but they don't come out every year.
Now arguably, Apple offers much more 'per update' and you're getting more for your buck, but I still feel that paying $129 every year is just Ludacris...er...ludicrous.
Also, I think some type of upgrade path should exist for owners of previous Apple OSes. And yes, I know Apple usually does have some type of a discount, but it's like what, $20 or $30 bucks? I think a fair price for Panther would be $70 - or $50 if you have a previous OS from Apple. That price would most likely cut down on the amount of piracy.
So now is the part where I ask for your opinions. From what you've seen, heard and read, is Panther worth the $129 bucks Apple will be charging? Will you be taking the less-than-legal route? Will you be living la vida loca and slapping one-eyed midgets with small trout while drinking Pina Coladas in the Caribbean? Has Steve gone mad with power and overcharging all of us fine upstanding Mac citizens? If you're outraged, vent here! Alternately, if you can't get that $129 out of your pocket quick enough, let us know why.
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June 27 2003, 5:03 PM EDT, by
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Comments:
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| iKen |
6/27/03, 5:24 PM EDT |
the $129 price is good for the OS, windows XP hoome costs $199, and pro costs $299, but there needs to be a $70 upgrade from jaguar, or something of that nature.
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| Amirk |
6/27/03, 10:55 PM EDT |
yeah, as a student, upgrading for $130 is a little outside of my range, and who wants to spend that on upgrades, the way I see it, $80 on Panther, $50 on beer and pizza
-Mirk
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| Wasabe |
6/28/03, 12:55 AM EDT |
Heyyyyy. I'm going to New York this coming tuesday. Maybe i'll see you there. LOL.
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| Wasabe |
6/28/03, 12:56 AM EDT |
I'm gonna hafta check out a real live apple store (as opposed to baillos, which has 1 mac for sale and a broken copy of 10.1.)
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| va1entino |
6/28/03, 1:11 PM EDT |
Good review so far...could you show us some screens though?
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| Bill Palmer |
6/28/03, 7:18 PM EDT |
Damn you fools for getting ahold of Panther before I did!
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| stickman67 |
6/28/03, 8:27 PM EDT |
You think $129 is bad -- convert it to Australian dollars, and we pay more than $200. OK, so it's just an exchange-rate thing, and it's exactly the same price, really. That doesn't stop me from being outraged -- *outraged*, I tells ya! Nurse, get away from me with that needle ...
Aaaaaahhhhhhh ...
I would like to see a sensible upgrade pricing structure, but am able to see why Apple is charging what they do. I will be paying full price for this, as I did for Jaguar, and will consider it a privilege. Nurse, remove those corsets and release your heaving bosoms, s'il vous plais! And just a little more of the tranquiliser...
Aaaaaahhhh ...
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| Rotax |
6/28/03, 8:42 PM EDT |
Uh... what about the multiple user capabilites that allow you to have more than one user logged in with open applications. this to me, and the cool rotating cube between users is what I'd like to get your feedback on.
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| Jonathan |
6/29/03, 11:31 AM EDT |
The rotating user thing is hands down the neatest thing in panther. Well that and expose. It works exactly like Steve showed. It takes a second the first time you switch to a new user but after that it's instant.
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| rlhamon |
6/29/03, 4:11 PM EDT |
upgrades prices are nice but anyone who uses microsoft upgrades know the trouble that happens when you try to upgrade. Sooner than later you'll hack a full version or steal one from some one else. $129.99 isn't a bad price to pay for a full version that you can install on more than one of your macs unlike windows XP.
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| Zack |
6/29/03, 4:38 PM EDT |
Rotax - The rotating cube might be cool and look neat - but it's useless. And having open applications by different users? This sucks up resources. If that works anything like Windows XP fast user switching, only one user at a time can have one instance of an application open - like only one user could have Safari open, or Mail, etc.
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| stickman67 |
6/29/03, 11:16 PM EDT |
I'm the only one who uses my computer, so I don't care! Fwahahahahahaha! Fwahahahaha ... *hack! hack! caaaaark!* Goddamn these Ulysses butterflies!
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| Dale |
6/30/03, 6:20 AM EDT |
Here in Australia an upgrade to XP Pro costs AUD$415 and the full price of XP Pro is AUD$595. Mac OS X only costs $229 retail. Paying Apple $229 each 12 - 18 months is roughly the same as buying a Windows OS every 2 years. That's not too bad of a deal really.
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| HTML Samurai |
6/30/03, 9:13 AM EDT |
What about starting some type of "buy-back" program where loyal users of OS X can offer their "legal" copy of Jaguar to receive half off on the purchase of Panther?
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| Zack |
6/30/03, 7:24 PM EDT |
You know, now that I think about it - my comment about "sucking up resources" is pointless.
The G5 has cycles to spare! Who cares? hehe
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| Wasabe |
6/30/03, 7:34 PM EDT |
Darth: Luke. I am your mother's cousins best friend's first lover.
Luke: NOOOOOOOO. It can't be!
Darth: Yes. Join me in the fight against microsoft.
Luke: Well. Sure. Y not?
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| Megers |
6/30/03, 10:35 PM EDT |
Well I just wanted to say that I definately know of the "wacky Jackie" and thought that was seriously funny!!!!
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| KlarkKent007 |
7/1/03, 1:01 AM EDT |
$129 for a newer better OSX? Gladly. By paying for my Mac software I am allowing apple to make better software (e.g.: iApps, QT, and all of the pretty widgets they add to make my life easier).
"You take credit cards, right?"
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| Jonahan |
7/1/03, 8:18 AM EDT |
Hey guys! About the fast user switching: yeah it looks phenomenal, but how often will you use it? Well, other than just doing it to see the cool effect? ;)
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| HTML Samurai |
7/1/03, 8:29 AM EDT |
I remember hearing something about "Piles," did anything ever happen with that?
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| stickman67 |
7/1/03, 9:05 AM EDT |
Check out MacRumors. Piles was a mix-up with Ekspozay (spelt fonetikly). It goes a little bit like this (but I reserve the right to be utterly incorrect). Someone saw the patent details for Ekspozay, had seen the concept for Piles around in the past, noted the similarity. put two and two together and got the radius of the sum of the right angles and a twenty-cent tip, plus half a bottle of red wine that the customers didn't finish. Bonus!
So Piles (or "Rrhoids", as I fondly like to think of them), are not to be, it would seem -- or at least not in this incarnation of the OS.
I, for one, am bitterly, bitterly -- *bitterly*, I say, not once, not twice, but thrice -- disappointed. A lot of people don't see the point of them, but I deal with long documents full of text files, scans, tables and so on, all of which involve subfolders that require navigation via the layout app. Piles would have simplified things mightily for me. Alas, no one seems to know whether they'll ever become reality.
Will I never have Piles? The agony! The *agony!*
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| stickman67 |
7/1/03, 9:07 AM EDT |
PS: A tip to the wise -- never, ever, *ever* expose yourself to a panther, or you could lose your dongle!
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| Megers |
7/1/03, 7:12 PM EDT |
Another thought on "Wacky Jackie". Be thankful it was pre-packaged food and not home made cookies :D At least you may be able to eat the pretzels
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| Jonahan |
7/2/03, 9:19 AM EDT |
Heheheeeeeee....how true Megers. I usually bring in any baked goods to work for my co-workers to test out.
And stickman, you are just too durned funny. I've always felt that PC users need for dongles was to compensate for not having something else.
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| HTML Samurai |
7/2/03, 9:34 AM EDT |
Jonahan is just mad because my dongle is bigger than his... ya know... stuff.
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| Jonahan |
7/2/03, 4:00 PM EDT |
Samurai, you're not a PC user, you're a Linux user. Big difference! You're MUCH smarter than those Windoids. Just not as enlightened as full-fledged Mac-Users. :-D
But yeah, I did lose that bet didn't I? That was embarrasing........
* crying *
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| Rotax |
7/5/03, 10:36 PM EDT |
OK I found a copy and played with it myself. The muli user bit is quite cool if you ask me. Here are some details. Yes you can have multiple copies of the same app open, this could be a good thing or a bad thing. An example I tried was iTunes, yes it worked, and two iTunes apps pumoing music through the same speakers is rather useless. Sound issues between users needs to be addressed. That aside, the way I had it configured I had to log back into other users to get back to their desktop which is nice for security. I can personally see uses for it when my kid wants to use the machine or other family members and I am working on things I do not wish to close out or have something rendering or a KDX server running etc. I would be a nice place to put services based apps that currently require a gui version rather than command line.
What intruiges me is what seems to be possible in the future.. to log into another machne and start a gui session as if you were sitting there. I know this works under linux and other unix OSs and would be nice for OS X
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Despair is like a cable that is buried just under the surface of the ground. You pull it up and pull it up, but that cable just keeps right on going, clear across a field, until you come to a bunch of guys who are burying the cable. Then just walk up to them and go, "Hey, have you seen Fred?" And they'll say, "Fred who?" And you say, "Fred of snakes?" Then cover your ears, because big laughs are coming.
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