CNET and fair judgement?

I agree that home users are perfectly fine with Jaguar, and that Panther isn't as big an upgrade as say 10 - 10.1, however I think CNET's review is a little lame. Professionals will see Panther as a must have and the old "why pay money for a service pack" argument is ill-informed and getting a bit tired.

Btw wiz, don't mean to be pedantic but it's "fair". :)
 
monktus said:
I agree that home users are perfectly fine with Jaguar, and that Panther isn't as big an upgrade as say 10 - 10.1, however I think CNET's review is a little lame. Professionals will see Panther as a must have and the old "why pay money for a service pack" argument is ill-informed and getting a bit tired.

Btw wiz, don't mean to be pedantic but it's "fair". :)
Click to expand...

I thought their overall score was low, but who really cares...since when does c|net know anything at all about computing..nevermind Apple computers. Blah@their whole site and their reviews. I'm sure if it were a M$ operating system it would have gotten an 8..just because it has "great software compatibility" Blah
 
It's a strange review that seems quite eager _not_ to understand new features. Example: Inconsistent interface when removing the sidebar/buttonbar of Finder windows. This is a MODE change. You _do_ things differently in both modes, and the two modes need differentiation. It gives the user a clear clue that "something has changed". It's sad that Apple doesn't _document_ this anywhere, but it's still quite clear...

I also don't get why it took them 1.5 hours to install Panther. They must have had faulty CD-ROMs, an original iMac _and_ a faulty harddrive that it took them so long...

I dunno. Maybe they just read too many _good_ Panther reviews and thought they'd add some contra.
 
Cnet, over the years, has not been kind to Apple. In fact, their experts will give some models good grades, and on the other hand poor ones for software. Never made much sense to me. It is hard to find a non-bias opinion. In the end, we are the real experts, who use Apple products everyday.

P.S. I heard at one time that Cnet was sponsored some how by M$, not sure if this is true.
 
It took me about 1.5 hours to install panther on my iBook 800, 384mb ram. The only thing that I don't really care about in Panther is the brushed metal in Finder. Mainly because I consider finder to be part of the operating system (not a program) so I think it thould be the grayish aqua. Other than that; the added speed and mail.app 1.3 made it worth the upgrade. Besides, I get about 5-10 more service packs that make this "service pack" worth it even more.
 
I think most Panther users will disagree with C|Net's conclusion...

Who here thinks Panther is a must-have?

Thought so.
 
My big drawback is the OS9 problems that did not exist with Jag.

I'll explain. Before, I used the SysPrefs to switch from OSX boot to OS9 boot. And it was fine. Now, it always crashes OS9 (dFSerr) and loses my screen settings (geometry gets badly screwed). I have to zap PRAM each time I launch Unreal Tournament, damn ! I hate that.

Otherwise, Panther is 100% improvements.
 
Oh heck yeah.. Panther is a must have. The speed difference between Jaguar and Panther is cleary noticable. Apps do start faster, the expose stuff is really cool and the fast user switching is great when your kids and wife also use the Mac to do their stuff. I don't regret paying the $69 for Panther.

Thomas
 
arden said:
I think most Panther users will disagree with C|Net's conclusion...

Who here thinks Panther is a must-have?
Click to expand...

We might be just the tiniest bit biased, though... ;)
 
Everyone is biased, leave the un-bias to the computers themselves.
People were more than happy to get away from the stripes. Home users will be doing themselves a favor by upgrading to Panther. Applications that you had to download or buy come with Panther. Speed does wonders for an old mac. The additional features that Panther offers are the little ones. I like the updated DVD player the most. The Finder preferences are great too.
 
Yes... What I don't get is that anyone sees Panther as a regression. I see evolution. No revolution, as Steve certainly might want us to see it, but evolution. Most things I care about have evolved from Jaguar to Panther. The things that were dropped (like DiskCopy) have been merged into other utilities (DiskUtility & Finder). That's part of simplifying the UI, which is a good thing, as long as there are no lost functions.
Btw.: I guess I would have to reinstall Jaguar somewhere to actually still see the differences. I'm so much used to Panther now that I often don't remember how it was before. Which is a good sign, I think.
 
I agree, Panther has evolved. In my opinion, Apple listened to our requests. The interface speed is a welcome feature, especially on aging Macs. The folder labels are very useful and I glad to see them return. The new finder, although took me a bit to get used to, I like. I wish you could drag icons to the title bar like prior versions.
It does seem the trend is to spend $$ to upgrade every year, we have to remember that Apple has to pay its developers, etc. Perhaps with hardware sales increasing, the next version will be cheaper. Moreover, maybe Apple can offer an upgrade price path for people who have bought new hardware or been buying their products for years.
 
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