Sage
Staff Emeritus
- 12,533
- United States
- GTP_Sage
On October 30th, I bought Panther (aka OS X 10.3) from the Apple Store in Northridge, California. What follows is my unnecessarily long write-up of everything pertaining to getting and using Panther (with some random thoughts that have nothing to do with Panther).
So, we get ready... it's 2:30 on the 30th, and I'm backing up some of my important documents from Jaguar onto a USB pocket drive thingie, because I plan on doing a clean install (read: wiping my HD). My mom and I get in the car, and we're off first to the Facey clinic in Mission Hills to get my flu shot. The fire in the Newhall pass was still going at that time though, so we were stuck in traffic for about a half hour while smoke engulfed the freeway. We eventually get to Mission Hills though and I get my flu shot without much wait.
And now off to the Apple Store! I'm a bit inimidated on the way there, because my mom has the awful combination of not being a very good driver and getting lost easily, but we go through without too much incident, though I had to explain to her how to navigate through the mall parking lot (she got lost).
We walk into the mall, and the Apple Store is near the entrance. The first thing I see is their display for the 3 new versions of Office for X... the lighting and display is almost obsessive in its technicality. This is the first time I've ever been to an Apple Store, believe it or not - So when I walk in, I want to just run up and play with everything. I spot a 12" Aluminum PowerBook, and the first thing I try out is Exposé, Apple's way of managing windows [more information here]. I assign one of the corners to Exposé, open up a dozen windows or so, then try it out. Beautiful! It's incredibly smooth, even with that many windows open.
My dad has my money, so while we wait for him to come, I play with an iPod (so much smaller in person than what it looks like on the website), then a G5 hooked up to a 23 inch Cinema display on the other side of the store. Finally, my dad arrives, and I grab a Panther box off from the shelf (ooh, the X is embossed!), pay for it, and we go eat dinner at one of the restaurants in the mall.
On the way back, there's a huge backup, so I decide to open the box. Now, for those of you who have bought a Mac in the past few years, you know that opening a box from Apple is almost a work of art in itself. I was expecting the CD to be package like most software is (a Cd thrown into a plastic/paper case with an instruction booklet), but I apparently didn't realize that Apple like to package its software the same way as its hardware. When I open the box, out comes a thick, white cardboard box, with a slit down the center and a hole to open it like a door. and when you open this nice little setup, a booklet with the title "Welcome to Panther" greets you.
When we *finally* get home, I take a shower, then put the first installation disk into my computer (there are 3 installation disks in all, plus an Xcode disk for developers). It takes a long time to do this clean install, but by 10 PM I'm rewarded with the Welcome screen. I input my information, and when it goes to the next screen (the Internet setup one, I think), it does the rotating cube effect... cool!
When it's all said and done, I'm brought to the desktop. I try out the new Finder... some people absolutely loathe the fact that it's now Brushed Metal, but I don't mind. The new sidebar works nicely, and there are a lot of neat effects (some people hate eye candy, but I love it).
I try Exposé, not nearly in an optimistic mood - my iBook just barely support Quartz Extreme, the technology used in Exposé... so, I was expecting the effect to be jagged and rough, but still work. Thankfully, I was wrong, because it worked just as smoothly as the Macs at the Apple Store. 👍
I try out Fast User Switching with a test account, and it works very nicely. The cube effect is just too cool.
Next up are my impressions of the GUI and my experience with some of the apps. (I need a break right now)
So, we get ready... it's 2:30 on the 30th, and I'm backing up some of my important documents from Jaguar onto a USB pocket drive thingie, because I plan on doing a clean install (read: wiping my HD). My mom and I get in the car, and we're off first to the Facey clinic in Mission Hills to get my flu shot. The fire in the Newhall pass was still going at that time though, so we were stuck in traffic for about a half hour while smoke engulfed the freeway. We eventually get to Mission Hills though and I get my flu shot without much wait.
And now off to the Apple Store! I'm a bit inimidated on the way there, because my mom has the awful combination of not being a very good driver and getting lost easily, but we go through without too much incident, though I had to explain to her how to navigate through the mall parking lot (she got lost).
We walk into the mall, and the Apple Store is near the entrance. The first thing I see is their display for the 3 new versions of Office for X... the lighting and display is almost obsessive in its technicality. This is the first time I've ever been to an Apple Store, believe it or not - So when I walk in, I want to just run up and play with everything. I spot a 12" Aluminum PowerBook, and the first thing I try out is Exposé, Apple's way of managing windows [more information here]. I assign one of the corners to Exposé, open up a dozen windows or so, then try it out. Beautiful! It's incredibly smooth, even with that many windows open.
My dad has my money, so while we wait for him to come, I play with an iPod (so much smaller in person than what it looks like on the website), then a G5 hooked up to a 23 inch Cinema display on the other side of the store. Finally, my dad arrives, and I grab a Panther box off from the shelf (ooh, the X is embossed!), pay for it, and we go eat dinner at one of the restaurants in the mall.
On the way back, there's a huge backup, so I decide to open the box. Now, for those of you who have bought a Mac in the past few years, you know that opening a box from Apple is almost a work of art in itself. I was expecting the CD to be package like most software is (a Cd thrown into a plastic/paper case with an instruction booklet), but I apparently didn't realize that Apple like to package its software the same way as its hardware. When I open the box, out comes a thick, white cardboard box, with a slit down the center and a hole to open it like a door. and when you open this nice little setup, a booklet with the title "Welcome to Panther" greets you.
When we *finally* get home, I take a shower, then put the first installation disk into my computer (there are 3 installation disks in all, plus an Xcode disk for developers). It takes a long time to do this clean install, but by 10 PM I'm rewarded with the Welcome screen. I input my information, and when it goes to the next screen (the Internet setup one, I think), it does the rotating cube effect... cool!
When it's all said and done, I'm brought to the desktop. I try out the new Finder... some people absolutely loathe the fact that it's now Brushed Metal, but I don't mind. The new sidebar works nicely, and there are a lot of neat effects (some people hate eye candy, but I love it).
I try Exposé, not nearly in an optimistic mood - my iBook just barely support Quartz Extreme, the technology used in Exposé... so, I was expecting the effect to be jagged and rough, but still work. Thankfully, I was wrong, because it worked just as smoothly as the Macs at the Apple Store. 👍
I try out Fast User Switching with a test account, and it works very nicely. The cube effect is just too cool.
Next up are my impressions of the GUI and my experience with some of the apps. (I need a break right now)
), menus come down faster, the computer's boot time is significantly shorter (as well as shut down), applications in general seem faster... it's a big step forward speed-wise, and is comparable to OS 9.
). Now I'm totally hooked on the stability of UNIX/Linux---I can go a whole week without reboot. I think my next comp will be a G5, but I have a few questions.
I have XP Pro Corp. Edition and I can go 2 weeks without a reboot and hardly notice a slowdown. 
. Really easy and clean to use.
