Panther: Lack of features

M

mightyjlr

Registered
Ok, first off, I am a big fan of Apple, a switcher, and I love the direction Apple is headed. I have used betas of Panther, and everything seems to work very nicely. I do not however see that many new features in Panther.

I don't need to list all of the new features in Panther, we all know what they are. Panther seems a little quicker on my 500mhz Powerbook G4, but not THAT much quicker. It is pretty well known that Apple will not be adding any new features in Panther now, and are just working out the bugs.

My question... is everyone here happy with the number of new features in Panther? To me, Jaguar seemed like an upgrade packed with a lot more features than Panther. I will of course pay the $129 to support Apple, but I had a lot easier time parting with that money to buy Jaguar than I think I will when I buy Panther.
 
Maybe it would help to list the "new" features that 10.2 had over 10.1, and then rating those according to importance. Then you could do the same for 10.3 over 10.2.

I haven't used 10.3 (my systems are too important to my work to test beta-ware on them any more), but I know that Expose, fast user switching, and TextEdit more than qualify as major updates that would be worth the price.

Thing is, I don't remember 10.2 having such drastic feature improvements being included when first released. Mail had a nice update, and all my systems became usable in Mac OS X (even when running games). But beyond those, I can only think of a few features that I use on a daily basis (find in the tool bar being the most notable). Sherlock 3 had promise, but it never ended up replacing Watson (I haven't used Sherlock in over 9 months).

But maybe you could expand on what you think you got (or are not getting) with the two upgrades.
 
What are you talking about?

What have you seen in Panther? What do you need or are you lookg for?

Tell us... I just love Panther... the way it looks... the way it behaves... all the new features, hidden or not...
It is fast... stable... easier and better to use daily for me.

What was so special for Jaguar over 10.1 and what do you need mpre in 10.3 ?

10.3 Server is also going to be really good... Mac OS X is not only for home use...

And it is not expensive too... so what's the problem with a good update? I have a DP 1.25 and it works great and much better for me and for other people I know...

That's all...
 
Here, let me help you out by, yes, listing some of the bigger new features in Panther, and what I'd be willing to pay for them separately if I could (and if I had money for it ;)):
  • Exposé: How can you not love this? $25
  • Fast User Switching: Works quite well, and much faster than Windows. $20
  • Xcode: Considering what you're getting, I'd say this is quite a deal maker. $200
  • Dynamic Find: What, you like it to gather your results in a separate pane? $30
  • The Location Bar: Looks cool, though I don't know that I'd use it that much. $5
  • File Vault: See above response. $15
  • Labels: Finally! $12
  • The Action Menu: Useful for the less-than-literate, but I don't need it that much. $10
  • All brushed-metal interface: What were they thinking? This needs to go, or at least become optional. -$30
And that's just the features I can think of off the top of my head!
So, if I add it all up, I come up with a price of $287. Without Xcode, that's still $87, and that's just for the stuff I've listed; I'm sure you can find many more features that add to the value of Panther.
 
Some more new things:

- X11 server will be included, based on XFree86 4.3 (the betas were released for Jag, but also were only XFree86 4.2)
- Safari 1.1
- iCal update
- iSync update
- Significantly improved Mail.app
- Sherlock 3.6, with some significant improvements

- Enhanced journaled filesystem support
- Very noticable speed improvements (I'm thinking as much as 1.2 over 1.1)
- New Calculator
- Greatly enhanced Process Viewer/resource monitor
- Quite a few Unix improvements (new BSD core stuff, new default shell, etc)
- Improved "Chess"
- Several little "eye candy" improvements, like curling child dialog boxes, etc
- Networking improvements - much updated SMB client (Windows sharing), new SAMBA server, better LDAP/etc capabilities
- Newer version of Apache (web server)
- G5 enhancements
- MUCH better ALT-tab behavior

...And that's just what I can think of off the top of my head.

I'm guessing that most, if not all, of the items in the first group will be available to Jag owners, though perhaps at a fee (like iChat AV)

I also agree with arden about the brushed metal, it bugs me like the cheese grater cases and the one-button mice (which I only use because they look cooler than any other mouse. I'll ditch it when they bring out the brushed-metal mouse...*shudder*). Apple had been on such a roll, design-wise, until the metal thing kicked in. Hey, DeLorean made the same design mistake, and look where they are now =)

Also don't like the dynamic find - it starts searching my entire hard drive as soon as I type the first letter, and is really slow and UNRESPONSIVE, text-entry-wise (a big no-no)
 
I AM looking forward to Panther, I will pre-order it as soon as it is available. There are a decent amount of upgrades, and I like how everything looks (I like brushed metal), and I like expose, and I like the search feature. I just was hoping for something more... revolutionary I guess. I feel bad for complaining, but with Jaguar OS X really became useable, and I was hoping with Panther it would almost re-invent the OS again, but I guess we'll have to wait for a few more versions for that.
 
cf25: I can't remember what it's called, it's the thing on the left of Panther Finder windows that shows your hard drive, Applications folder, etc.

JLR: They can't reinvent the wheel every year. I'm sorry you're disappointed, but compared to OS 9, which was built up on top of the same basic technologies over 16 years, OS X is still a wee baby, and I don't know what kind of revolution you were expecting, but it'll be a while yet. It'll come, don't lose hope; it's just not coming right now. Panther is a solid step forward in OS X evolution, and a good notch taken out of Windows.
 
Originally posted by arden
cf25: I can't remember what it's called, it's the thing on the left of Panther Finder windows that shows your hard drive, Applications folder, etc.
Click to expand...

I don't know what Apple is calling it now, but back in NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP it was call the shelf. Back then it was at the top of every window.

Things that were once old are new again. :D
 
I can understand your concern about the lack of features. There really are a lot of great things about Panther, but it's not so much that they are new features, but that they are features that have been greatly improved over the previous version.

For example, we've been able to search in OS X since the start. But with the journaled search now in Panther, searching will take on a whole new dimension of speed. Same goes for Preview and it's ability to rip through PDFs.

Expose, File Vault, Fast User Switching, Pixlet and the new improved Finder are the marque items, but the entire OS has been given a spit shine and it shows.

Personally, there are several features that I have grown accustomed to during my last couple weeks of use. I've been using builds on my production machines since b59, and they have been rock solid.
 
And don't forget, you don't HAVE to buy Panther. It's not mandatory. Heck, I know plenty of people still very happy with 9.2.2.
 
It's not a shelf, RacerX... It doesn't act as a clipboard, for example... Well, maybe some features missing from the shelf are replaced by the 'Sidebar' (that's what Apple calls it)...

Panther offers many new features. Some will be useful to many, some to few, but overall, this is a big upgrade, I think. It's not revolutionary, it's evolutionary. But good. Well worth the money.
 
Originally posted by fryke
It doesn't act as a clipboard, for example...
Click to expand...

Clipboard? Maybe I'm missing something here. As I sit in front of a system running OPENSTEP, how would I cut and paste to the shelf? Why would I do that?

The shelf did most of the things that we used the desktop for. And when Apple dropped the shelf (and the dock) in Rhapsody, they added a desktop with shelf-like abilities (which I also have never used as a clipboard).

Well, maybe some features missing from the shelf are replaced by the 'Sidebar' (that's what Apple calls it)...
Click to expand...

From the way that I used NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP, the sidebar does exactly the same thing that I used the shelf for so I wouldn't have to open up more than one window. I can drop folders onto it that appear in every window after that. Mounted volumes appear in it. Click on a folder/volume and the navigation area shows the contents of that folder/volume.

:rolleyes:

Other than not being a space hog and not being able to place documents in it (which you can do with both the dock and the desktop, so it isn't really needed), it sure looks and acts like the shelf to me. :p
 
Originally posted by adambyte
lol. The dock, the shelf... is it just me, or is OS X more like OpenStep than Mac OS 9?
Click to expand...

I don't think that my Mac OS X and OPENSTEP systems look anything alike. ;)
 

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Hehe... I sure as hell hope you're kidding, RacerX. Seems like OS X took almost ALL its cues from OPENSTEP, with the exception of a highly improved and beautiful GUI... ;)
 
Here's another one that I just noticed that Classic users will probably like:

I don't know if you guys noticed it, but Classic apps often had a hard time playing with OS X GUI features. Moving windows is often jerky and ugly, redrawing windows can be ugly (like the way Windows does it). Most noticably, there is an awful "tearing" effect that occurs when you move windows and things around ON TOP of a Classic app (like when using the Dock "Zoom" feature, and it goes over a Classic app window. Transparency over a classic app also didn't work (try bringing up one of the semi-transparent volume controls or eject box by hitting one of the appropriate keys, and you'll see what I mean. It's horrible.)

Most of this is gone - there is definitely no longer any visual "tearing" with the classic apps, they update just like a native app would. Transparency works great Some of the other visual problems have been solved/improved. As a result, Classic integration is even more seamless. (Now, if I can just stop it from switching to the stupid OS 9 bar whenever I have a Classic app running, I'll be extremely satisfied)
 
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