Macintosh OS X 10.3 Panther

[LoudMusic]

Has anyone here used Panther yet? I installed it today on a guy's 12" PowerBook and it seems pretty nice. They brought back color-coding folders and changed the Finder window configuration. The options for sorting through windows and applications are interesting, though I think the F9 option is the only one I'd use.

User switching is a much needed option. Not necasarily for everyone, but I find it useful in my office environment. It makes it easy for me to administrat someone's computer without having to log them out. Eventually I'll get my server in (damn Apple's slowness) and get Mac Manager running. Weeee.

 

[Flerbizky]

Nope.. But I should be installing it on an old(ish) Mac early next week...

And now a question (I'm being seriously lazy here) - Do you have any idea how the X-Serve performs as fileserver in a Windows environment ?

 

[LoudMusic]

No, but I should be finding out soon. What is your use? I have about 60 employees currently being served by a Dell running Windows 2000. I have about 25 Macs and the rest are Windows. In Windows 2000 the 'Services for Macintosh' app works quite well - siginificantly better than in NT 4 at least.

They say, well Apple says, that OS X Server does a mighty good job of serving the Windows platform. I won't be doing that with my G5 XServe, but I will do some tests with it just for kicks. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Sage]

Yup, I got Panther about a week after it came out (I think I even did an unfinished write-up of it in this forum... I'm so damned lazy). Come to think of it, am I the only GTPer with Panther?

Anyway, I love the sucker. Actually, one of the best improvements (IMO) is how they refined Aqua... significantly toned down those stupid pinstripes, and made the lighter alternating color a gray instead of pure white. It makes an amazing difference in being able to stare at the screen compared to Jaguar's pinstripes. Though, I'm ridiculously anal about GUI perfection, so I go so far as to install Max's theme to fix some of the inherent inconsistencies in Aqua (those ugly progressbars and scrollbars that Apple hasn't updated since the 10.0 PB, the oversize Apple menu, the rotting widgets, the Jaguar-style push-buttons, etc. etc.)

Exposé is absolutely great, though I admit that I haven't really gotten into using it all the time yet... I still instinctively press Option when clicking on the dock to hide the windows. There was a poll at MacNN, and it seems like it's easier for people new to OS X to get used to using Exposé full-time, while the seasoned OS X users still use the Dock, Command+tilde, Command+tab, or arrange the windows so you can click on any one at any time. I must say though - Exposé becomes significantly more useful if you also assign it to a screen hot corner or to a mouse button, because the F buttons are rather inconvenient, since that means hitting the button and then going to the mouse. With hot corners, you just flick it over and it works.

I really need to start using Fast User switching before my mom finds a way to fudge up my system, but I need to find a way to easily transfer all of the Keychain settings to a new account. I'll do it someday. Fast User switching is so cool though.

Um, let's see... Finder's way better (I'm surprised by how much I've, um, "embraced" the sidebar), I don't really use Labels too much yet but I have a little bit (I'm more in the habit of using a million and one folders to organize everything). Oh, and, it's faster. Panther's Mail is good enough to switch me from Entourage (combined with the fact that updating to Office .5 caused my Entourage database to blow up).

So... yeah.

 

[LoudMusic]

I don't know about that sidebar thing. It's rather weird. I don't use XP's sidebar, though it has a different purpose.

Fast User switching is near useless in an office environment as everyone has their own computer. But I can see in a home environment where it would be really cool. I was at a friend's house the other day and they have I believe six accounts on their Dell XP machine. I don't think it has enough memory to have all of them logged on at the same time, but two or three work pretty well. The fact that, in OS X, you can jump straight to another user's desktop without going to a "user selection screen" is pretty nice. But it's only one step and a bit moot at that point.

The GUI ... well take it or leave it. It is improved I suppose. The return of the folder labels is a good thing in my opinion. But no one comes close to Nautalus. What an amazing file manager.

You, like most Mac users ... users in general, seem to be more concerned with how it looks. Where as I, on the other hand, am more concerned with how it works and what it's good for. User switching allows me to log onto someone's computer as an administrator and do things without logging them off first. And the Expose stuff allows me to scoot around on their desktop without changing the arrangement of their windows too much. But I usually just hide everything anyway. And my favorite thing so far was the addition of the damn printer monitor in the System Preferances. That should have been there from day one! And they renamed something ... I forget what it was, but the original name was dumb and the new one is good.

More later. I need to play with it more to find out what I like. I do know that on that tiny 12" low resolution screen all the "pretty stuff" becomes near-unbareable clutter for an efficiency person like myself. In Windows I used to change the 'window border size' to one pixel, where it used to be two. I think this has become the standard, or I just run such high resolution it doesn't matter anymore.

 

[Sage]

Originally posted by LoudMusic
I don't know about that sidebar thing. It's rather weird.

How so? It seems to me a lot like the normal toolbar from Jaguar, except that it shows that directory as the highest level instead of jumping between columns like the toolbar does. And, being a GUI freak, I like that it's more consistent with their other apps with the whole sidebar analogy.

You, like most Mac users ... users in general, seem to be more concerned with how it looks.

I'll be the first to admit that. Interface design has always interested me for whatever reason, which is why I rant on incessantly about it.

And they renamed something ... I forget what it was, but the original name was dumb and the new one is good.

"Screen Saver" instead of "Screen Effects"? "Appearance" instead of "General"? (At least, I *think* it was named General...)

I do know that on that tiny 12" low resolution screen all the "pretty stuff" becomes near-unbareable clutter for an efficiency person like myself. In Windows I used to change the 'window border size' to one pixel, where it used to be two. I think this has become the standard, or I just run such high resolution it doesn't matter anymore.

Yeah, I'm on a 12" iBook, and it's definitely not enough... I'd love to get my hands on a 15" or 17" PB. Working in Dreamweaver and FIreworks in particular is a PITA, with all of those extra palettes and inspectors.

BTW, since you have those G5s, aren't you eligible for the $25 upgrade CD of Panther?

 

[LoudMusic]

Originally posted by Sage How so? It seems to me a lot like the normal toolbar from Jaguar, except that it shows that directory as the highest level instead of jumping between columns like the toolbar does. And, being a GUI freak, I like that it's more consistent with their other apps with the whole sidebar analogy.

It's the learning curve that goes with having to get used to changing from my menu stuff being on top of the window to having it on the side, I suppose.

"Screen Saver" instead of "Screen Effects"? "Appearance" instead of "General"? (At least, I *think* it was named General...)

Screen Saver! Yes. "Screen Effects" ... what a dumb name.

Yeah, I'm on a 12" iBook, and it's definitely not enough... I'd love to get my hands on a 15" or 17" PB. Working in Dreamweaver and FIreworks in particular is a PITA, with all of those extra palettes and inspectors.

A friend of mine has a 17". He says it's "God awful big". It's really too much laptop - 15" is near perfect.

BTW, since you have those G5s, aren't you eligible for the $25 upgrade CD of Panther?

... I'll be checking that out.

 

[LoudMusic]

Hey man, I'm not finding anything on a Panther upgrade. Did you see that somewhere?

 

[Sage]

Here ya go: http://www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate/

 

[LoudMusic]

Oh yeah, Up-To-Date.

Well I emailed my CDW guy about a promo they're doing right now with free upgrades to Panther on new G5s and basically said "WTF?!?" and he shipped me five copies for $5 each (:

Thanks for the info - I wouldn't have even thought to ask otherwise.

 

[Sage]

You're welcome.