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“The long-awaited much-vaunted Apple OS X 10.3 Panther....”

written by redbaron on 19/11/2003

Good Points
Much faster on startup & shutdown. Printer setup improved. Nice extra features

Bad Points
Networking unclear, lack of compatibility with AppleShare IP

General Comments
The long-awaited much-vaunted Apple OS X 10.3 Panther. The first thing that strikes you is the speed of startup, the whole initialisation of setup is about 5 times faster and shutdown is much the same. This is a significant improvement and if you have a G5 is magnified but G4 users will notice considerable improvement. Those critics of the Print Centre under 10.2 will be pleased that it is now more like the old days with an automatic spooler. This is definitely an improvement as the previous version was scant on features. The extra features are nice -Expose is really good and quite useful but it is a glorified gimmick..but a good gimmick nonetheless. The Font Manager is handy for those who don't really use the full features of Suitcase but just want fonts to load when they're on the machine.

The big drawback is the networking, it has completely changed so maybe it's just a familiarity issue but it not only takes getting used to but seems incomplete. It is difficult to detirmine whether you are connected to a server and practically impossible to disconnect when you are, there either needs to be some serious training manual on this or it needs slickening up. There is a major problem if you have an AppleShare IP server ie it won't work from the 10.3 client. Your options connect from server to client. Or if your server is G3 or later upgrade to OS X server all client and use sharing in that.

Other than that it is worth the money and the upgrade and home users particularly will find many of their prayers answered.