Mac OS X is a super-modern operating system that combines the power and stability of UNIX with the legendary elegance of the Macintosh.

Mac OS X features a stunning new user interface called Aqua, making work and play on the Mac even more intuitive for new users, while providing powerful, customizable tools for professionals. At the foundation of Mac OS X lies an industrial-strength, UNIX-based core operating system that delivers unprecedented stability and performance.

Key Features:

Aqua user interface

• Simple and elegant design
• Easy to use and intuitive for new users, with powerful features for professionals
• Innovative organizational features such as the Expose and Finder
• Fully customizable to the way you work

Stability and Performance

• UNIX-based core operating system provides industrial-strength foundation
• Protected memory and advanced memory management increase system stability
• Preemptive multitasking boosts system performance and responsiveness
• Symmetric multiprocessing takes advantage of dual processor systems
• Modern, standards-based networking offers seamless network integration
• High-performance I/O architecture provides plug-and-play support for USB and FireWire peripherals

Designed for the Internet

• Built-in best-of-class Internet applications include Mail, Safari, and Internet Connect
• Use a Mac.com email address, iDisk storage space and more
• Get software updates over the Internet to keep your system up to date

Killer Graphics

• Quartz Extreme provides stunning onscreen graphics, PDF imaging, and extensive font support
• OpenGL powers intense 3D graphics
• QuickTime 6 technology streams audio and video on the Internet

Easy transition

• Easy installation and setup help get you up and running in minutes
• Classic technology supports most of your current Mac OS 9 applications
• "Built for Mac OS X" applications benefit from powerful new features

Mac OS X Panther (Single User)

Mac OS X is the world's most advanced operating system, blending the power and stability of UNIX with the legendary simplicity and ease-of-use of the Macintosh. Mac OS X version 10.3 "Panther" contains over 150 new features and provides significant enhancements to its modern, UNIX-based foundation. Panther includes iChat AV for personal video conferencing, Expose for instantly finding any window, and a new Finder for easy access to everything you need. It's like having an all-new Mac.

Finder. Everything you need, just a click away.
With your favorite folders, hard drive, iDisk, servers, and removable media always located at the left of every Finder window, you can work smarter and faster. Color-coded labels make it easy to find and organize important files or folders.

iChat AV. Go face to face. Anyplace.
Personal video conferencing has arrived. Use iChat AV for person-to-person conversations in high-quality, full-screen video over the Internet. Have voice chats with crystal-clear audio. All from anywhere in the world.

Expose. Find the window you need. Now.
Expose gives you instant access to any open window with a single keystroke. Display all open windows as thumbnails, view windows of the current application, or hide all windows to quickly locate a file on your desktop.

FileVault. Safe, secure, and speedy.
At home and away, keep your valuable documents safe with powerful AES-128 bit encryption. FileVault automatically encrypts and decrypts the contents of your home directory on the fly.

Fast User Switching. Share well with others.

Share your Mac with other users quickly and painlessly. With one click, you can switch to your desktop with all documents and applications exactly as you left them. No need to log out from another user's account first.

Mail. Follow the thread of any discussion.
Quickly view, file, or delete related messages with the powerful new threaded view. See perfectly displayed HTML email, thanks to the Safari rendering engine. Simply drag and drop to address messages. Filter out junk mail with advanced spam filtering.

iDisk. Your online hard drive. Available offline.
Now you can access your .Mac iDisk when you're not connected to the Internet. Just work on the copy of your iDisk on your hard drive. Every time you connect to the Internet, all your iDisk files and folders synchronize automatically.

Font Book. Letter-perfect type management.
Make the most of every font you own with Font Book. Locate any font on your system with the search function. Preview and install fonts with just one click. Activate fonts individually or create sets to make them available in groups.

Preview. Tear through PDFs in no time.
Now there's no faster PDF viewer on the planet. Use Preview to open PDFs as well as EPS and PostScript files. Navigate and search text at lightning speed. Easily select and copy text or PDF graphics. View, crop, rotate, and copy images in a wide variety of formats.

Based on UNIX. Solid as a rock.
Beneath the intuitive interface of Mac OS X lies an open-standard, industrial-strength, UNIX-based foundation. X11 for Mac OS X and FreeBSD 5 commands and libraries make Mac OS X Panther the ultimate platform for UNIX users.

Windows. Join the network.
Panther makes your Mac welcome in any Windows network. Files, printers, and network services can easily be shared with Windows users. Microsoft Exchange support makes it easy to access your Exchange email and sync your Address Book entries.

Xcode. The ultimate toolbox.
Xcode is the fastest way to create Mac OS X applications. Combining a groundbreaking user interface with an all-new, high-performance toolkit that includes GCC 3.3, Xcode makes it easy to take advantage of the latest technologies from Apple.

"eMac install" on them, but will install any Panther Compatible Mac

FileVault for keeping your valuable documents safe with powerful AES-128 bit encryption

Super-modern operating system combining the strength of UNIX with the elegance of Macintosh

Expose for instant access to any window; displays all open or current-application windows

iChat AV for personal video conferencing in high-quality, full-screen video over the Internet

Average Customer Review: ( 70 customer reviews )
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It is difficult to list every new feature (Apple claims 150 new features). I will describe only the major ones (as well as my personal favorites).

The most significant addition is Exposé, which upon a key press or a mouse gesture, shrinks all running windows so you can see them all. Click on one of the windows, it zooms in to a normal size. It is very cool and very effective, possibly the most revolutionary window management technology since the dawn of windowing graphical user interface. Even more impressive, all the windows continue to update themselves even when they shrink, giving you the "control center" view of running applications. Exposé also lets you hide all the windows (so you can see what's on the desktop) or hide all the windows but the active one. This is a huge addition, especially for those with lower resolution display.

The next most significant addition is rewritten Finder. Although many may not appreciate metallic design, it has received a ton of new feature and much faster to boot (multi-threaded). The new Finder resembles iTunes: the right pane shows mounted drives and volumes as well as "favorite directories" that you can customize. Located on the upper right-hand corner is a search function that returns matched files in real-time. Another welcome feature is color labels. You can organize files by marking them with one of many color labels (e.g., red for work stuff, blue for family stuff). And you can create zip files directly from Finder.

At this point, most people will probably list Fast User Switching as the next most significant feature. Since my PowerBook is used by only me, I don't find this feature personally compelling. I've tried it and it works well. If you have multiple users, the menu bar will list your name towards the end. Clicking will list users you can switch to. Select one and after the password authentication, the entire screen rotates in 3D, switching to the new user's desktop. Very snazzy. Those with very long name (e.g., Arnold Schwartznegger), may not welcome his/her name occupying precious menu bar space, however.

For me, 3rd most compelling addition is upgraded Mail. It is significantly faster than before. Significantly! And it adds several welcome additions, such as threaded view of messages, enhanced anti-spam features, enhanced HTML email rendering (thanks to Safari), and enhanced integration with the Address Book (which can now print labels, by the way).

One disappointment is FileVault. While great in concept (it automatically encrypts files upon logout and automatically decrypts upon login), it is not very stable. Many users have reported preferences getting corrupted.

Significant changes are summarized as follows.

Pros:
- Exposé is one the most revolutionary windows management technologies to date
- Faster faster faster -- Preview (with support for latest Acrobat format), Help, Mail, Finder
- Performance enhancements for G5 processor
- Significantly improved Finder and Mail
- Cool Fast User Switching
- Improved anti-aliasing for LCD displays (and you can enable it all the way down to 4 point fonts)
- System Preferences better organized
- Improved, more professional looking Aqua interface
- Significantly improved DVD Player user interface with new bookmark feature
- TextPad supports Word format
- Emphasis on security with many security fixes, secure empty trash can, and FileVault

Cons:
- Expensive considering Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar is only about a year old
- FileVault has many stability issues (do not use it until Apple offers a fix!)
- iChat AV works with only .Mac and AOL (please open it to support MSN and Yahoo!)
- Improved anti aliasing does not apply to older QuickDraw applications (e.g., Microsoft Office v.X)
- Dock gets none of the much needed enhancements
- DVD Player still lacks support for interactive DVD-ROM contents
- You cannot add/remove features after installing Mac OS X Panther
- Keyboard support is still limited (i.e., cannot directly select the menu item)
- Not high DPI displays friendly (Dots/pixels Per Inch), such as 12.1" iBook and PowerBook -- smaller fonts will be difficult to read still
- Apple menu is still not customizable
- Safari gets only a minor update (still incompatible with many web sites)

80 of 81 found the following review helpful:

Another quantum leap.Oct 11, 2003
By Maine Writer "David"
I've had the pleasure to use Panther over the summer, including the version that is now being released by Apple. There are several things you ought to know. (1) Speed. Every Mac I installed it on, from an iMac 500 DV to a G5 1.8 gHz felt easily twice as fast. It really is like getting a brand new computer. (2) RAM. This beast needs plenty of RAM; 512 MB at the least. (3) Expose. The new feature for dealing with multiple open windows and programs is priceless. Alone worth the expense of this software, I couldn't live without it.

This is the best operating system on the market, bar none.

81 of 83 found the following review helpful:

Panther DeliversNov 09, 2003
By David Kudler
Oops! Hit save twice without meaning to, and I can't seem to edit out the rest of this review. Sorry!

I ordered this product because I was suffering some difficulties with an earlier version of OS X (10.2.8), and because this one promised some nice improvements and a speed jump.

Goodness.

Installation was a snap. Several online news sources strongly recommended running disk and permissions repair from the Disk Utility; that took about a half-hour for both--I have a 40GB drive. Then I ran the installer, clicked maybe four buttons, and another twenty minutes later I was running 10.3. Not only does it look cool and contain some fabulous interface improvements--Exposé alone is one of those OS doodads you wonder how you ever got along without, and I can finally run the HP driver for my home-networked DeskJet--but the speed and responsiveness of my computer has bumped--this is a subjective measure, but I think a good one--probably 15-25%.

It's also quite stable--not that earlier versions of OS X weren't, but this one has run like a dream. Running on my PowerBook G3 (Pismo/FireWire/2000 model) for the past week and a half, no bombs (of course--in a year and a half of running X, I've had two kernel panics), few application crashes (actually, I'm not sure I can remember any), and only one glitch: if the "Wake for system administrator" box was checked in the Energy Saver "options" tab, my computer would occasionally wake from sleep, but the monitor would be irrevocably black. Fortunately, I don't need to have a SysOp diddle with my system--if I did, I'd probably drop the review a star.

The new 'quick user change' option is a godsend, since my kids occasionally use my computer, and I like to be able to leave my email, etc, on while theire doing their thing. It's incredibly smooth--the only drawback being that you can't (apparently) have the same application opened by two different users at the same time. That includes the Classic environment. In order to switch between my daughters' accounts, I needed actually to log out, since both of them primarilly use OS 9 edutainment apps. Ah well. That's the one thing I'd love the Apple geniuses to rethink for 10.4!

The wonderful thing is that this OS actually breathes new life into my 3 1/2 year old laptop--think of the last time an operating system upgrade didn't actually SLOW DOWN your vintage computer. The smoothness and the features--especially the HP IP printing driver--make it possible for me now actually to consider jettisoning Classic. I think that's a strong enough endorsement of how terrific this version of OS X is. If you've been putting off upgrading from OS 9 till the system got a bit more mature, your patience has been rewarded; this is a beatiful, fully-grown operating system.

32 of 33 found the following review helpful:

A great deal ... if you haven't done this in a whileJan 18, 2004
By Eric J. Lyman
I upgraded my G4 Powerbook to Panther about two weeks ago and so far everything's gone off without a hitch. But while this system continues the rock-solid stability I was accustomed to and there are dozens of improvements here as detailed by my fellow reviewers and in The Missing Manual (which I loved), I wonder if this update is a good value for money for those who were already using OS10.2 as I was.

It is a clear (even if incremental) improvement from OS 10.2, and at least one friend who is a Mac user told me that an upgrade to OS 10.3 from OS 10.2 eliminated what had been an annoying software conflict. But I think that anyone who is comfortable with OS 10.2 might be better off sticking with what they have and waiting for OS 10.4 or 10.5 before making the leap.

But for users still using OS10.1 or something older, I think this would be a great investment, adding stability (when I used it OS 10.1's stability was undermined by a lot of bugs that were worked out in the following generations), slick new features like Esposé, and an interface that's easy on the eyes and more intuitive than previous versions.

27 of 29 found the following review helpful:

Proceed with Caution, but...Nov 02, 2003
By tomfromboston
I've installed Panther on 4 different computers and the only one I had trouble with was the one with a non-stock video card. After putting in the original card and doing another install (the first died), it installed. I then had to put in a nVidia GeForce4 card (the ATI 9700 produced a black screen). Many of my Mac-friends have also upgraded Panther and I would say that half had terrible problems while the other half had only minor ones (like myself). This is by far the most problematic upgrade of an Apple OS that I've seen in quite some time. It really needed to be left in the cooker just a little bit longer.

Suggestions: Be sure nothing is loading in your login items (system preferences) before the install. Be sure nothing is in your /Library/StartupItems folder of your main drive and home folder. Be sure you disable any menu bar applications until you know they work with Panther. Be sure you don't have any third party preferencepanes loading until you know they work with Panther (Haxies, etc...). These are in your /Library/PreferencePanes folder of your main drive and your Home folder. And be sure to do a customized install, selecting clean install and preserving your existing username and settings. These are the steps I took with each computer and the problems I encountered were utterly minor.

Hope this helps as Panther is worth it, and you'll notice a significant speed boost a la OS 9, and so many cool, productive features you'll tend to overlook some of the smaller stuff.

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