Panther STILL Rules Over Tiger?

Amie

Amie

Mac Convert for Life
Hello, my fellow (and fellowette) Mac users!

I just bought an iBook G4 about four weeks ago (been a PC user my whole life and this is my first Mac, by the way--never going back to PCs!) and it came with Panther already installed. However, it also came with a Tiger software CD, so I have it and can install it anytime I wish, but I'm not so sure I want to. After doing extensive research and reading consumer reviews, technical problems, compatibility errors, and the pros vs. cons of Tiger ... it sounds to me that while Tiger does have some pretty neat, cutesy little features, Panther is still superior over Tiger as far as stability, function, practicality and relability.

Please share your thoughts on this issue...

Have a MACnificent day,
Amie :)
 
Personally, my experience with Panther was better than Tiger. On my system (and many others'), Tiger is dog slow. The only reason I haven't downgraded is because I'm a software developer, so I like to be on the cutting edge of these things.

I have no way of saying if Tiger would be slow for you, though. Some people have great experience with it. RAM is definitely a factor — Tiger is NOT happy with 256, maybe not even 512 — but many users with 2+gigs of RAM report similar performance problems, too. It's a mystery to me.

As for compatibility and reliablity, Tiger's been great for me. I haven't had any trouble with apps or peripherals, and my system is as stable as it's ever been.

If you're not dying for some of Tiger's more prominent new features (Spotlight, Dashboard, Automator), I'd say hold off for a while. That seems like the safest route at this point, since Tiger still has some kinks (which will hopefully be worked out soon in 10.4.2 or 10.4.3). Just my 2¢.
 
Tiger works great for me, faster than Panther. Haven't had any problems.
 
I'm with randman and bobw. I've had no problems when moving to Tiger, aside from UT2K4 not installing (fixed with an update, btw). I'd say go for Tiger.
 
Irrelevant post, just depends on the Machine spec RAM etc and what software you are running.
I can imagine that Tiger will be a more stable platform, but when we are talking about OS X here - how many crashes do you get on any of the released 10.2+ and up?...not many. Wouldn’t loose sleep over the stability issues :) And as with all new software games etc… you need better hardware to run at optimal speed, as I am sure many notice with Mac users far to many people upgrade there OS because they can not because the _Need_ to.

This is not a situation similar to where Windows 2000 Is still the most stable OS out of M$'s range- muhaha.
 
i found that, recently at least, tiger is good, a lot better than when i first upgraded. but my memory was that panther was a perfect system - ain't broke, don't fix it.
 
Panther is great, and Tiger in my view is smoother. I did not hesitate to upgrade, and have not regretted it yet. Mikuro said it, if you are not interested in what Tiger has to offer, then hold off. Certainly, Panther is a great OS.
 
Mikuro said:
Personally, my experience with Panther was better than Tiger. On my system (and many others'), Tiger is dog slow. The only reason I haven't downgraded is because I'm a software developer, so I like to be on the cutting edge of these things.

I have no way of saying if Tiger would be slow for you, though. Some people have great experience with it. RAM is definitely a factor — Tiger is NOT happy with 256, maybe not even 512 — but many users with 2+gigs of RAM report similar performance problems, too. It's a mystery to me.

As for compatibility and reliablity, Tiger's been great for me. I haven't had any trouble with apps or peripherals, and my system is as stable as it's ever been.

If you're not dying for some of Tiger's more prominent new features (Spotlight, Dashboard, Automator), I'd say hold off for a while. That seems like the safest route at this point, since Tiger still has some kinks (which will hopefully be worked out soon in 10.4.2 or 10.4.3). Just my 2¢.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much, Mikuro! That was a very enlightening post! I'm really glad you mentioned the RAM factor because I haven't added more RAM to my iBook, so Tiger probably wouldn't run too swift for me. On the other hand, I just LOVE Panther. No problems whatsoever ... and it's lightning fast! I think I'll hold off on installing Tiger. For two mains reasons: 1) Because it's so new and I'm sure they're still working on it and ironing out a few things. And 2) Truth be told, I'm not really impressed with all the new features ... dashboard widgets are cute, sure, but I would probably never use them; same goes for three-way conference chat and all the other features. The only thing I WAS impressed with was the Spotlight feature. Now THAT'S a great thing ... practical, too, not just cosmetic, and that's what I like.

For now, I'm sticking with the Panther kitty!
 
Interesting! Seems to be about half and half: half Tiger lovers, half Panther lovers. I've found this to be the same in other message boards as well. Thanks for all the replies, folks!
 
I have Tiger 10.4.1 on this 1 Ghz 12" PowerBook with only the
256 MB built-in RAM and it runs fine - i have had no problems
aside from an initial problem with a hang on reboot anytime i restarted, and an archive and install fixed that.

My dual 1.25 Ghz PowerMac with 768 MB RAM is running Tiger Server 10.4.1 without a single issue.
 
I'm an early adopter, and I've never regretted updating OS X. Tiger for me is as fast or faster with potential to be much faster (Quartz 2d Extreme--when they get it working).

I loooooooooooooooooove Spotlight. I hate waiting forever for a search and having to refine the search and start over.

The widgets are fun. Maybe not incredibly practical right now, but fun.

Bottom line for me, more toys to play with. But I wouldn't want to run Panther OR Tiger with only 256 MB.

Doug
 
Guess the thing is older Macs having most Tiger issues, if your machine is new off the line then it should handle Tiger no problems such as my eMac does (it won't install anything under as i've mentioned before)

My mothers MacMini had Panther installed with the Tiger installation DVD. I jumped from OS9 to Panther and only looked at Panther for 10 mins or so before updating it to Tiger.

And I think TIGER is the BEST!!
 
For me Tiger is it. Could never go back. Spotlight is incredible once you learn it's tricks, Dashboard, lots of fun. Overall my system has been very stable with Tiger. GL!
 
Just to put in my comments,

My 2004 1.33Ghz G4 PB 12" with 512Mb of ram ran great with panther...

..however Tiger runs even quicker! I hvae notices good speed gains in general tasks, the only area where it seems slower is with the Spotlight Search and Find functions. I would guess that i only notice this because when previously pressing <apple key> F you got the find window, then a blank window and progress indication, after which everything popped up.

Maybe spotlight just seems slower because you can see it all happening :p

BTW: 512Mb of ram has been totally fine, including for playing wolfenstein enemy territory (go get it, its free and its great!), but Crucial now sell a 1Gb chip for £123 inc vat...bargain!! i think ill have one simply because im power hungry
 
Weird. I've been hearing different things: Some people say Tiger speeds up performance and others say that Tiger actually slowed things down on their computer. In my case, my computer is brand new (just bought it four weeks ago, right after the factory upgrade--lucky me, a week before I bought it, Apple decided to ship all iBook G4s with Tiger software), so it shouldn't be a problem if it only negatively affects older models. Guess the only way to find out is to install it! *sigh* Not sure if I'm ready for that yet. Panther is just so ... puuurrrrfect! (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
 
I loved Panther, and had no problems with it at all.

However, when I upgraded to Tiger I noticed a definite speed jump, and even though it probably doesn't have all the 'bells and whistles' of the Jaguar-Panther upgrade, for productivity it's second to none.

Spotlight, Automator, Smart Folders and the new Mail have all saved me huge amounts of time.
 
i think that that's the thing - Panther is every bit the pinacle of a robust, usable, stylish, powerful stable OS, and by 10.3.9 there was practically nothing wrong with it, and it was still way ahead of the curve.

the fact that 10.4 was released shouldn't taint 10.3, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

10.4 was a problem for apple - how do you appeal to a userbase so completely happy with their OS? has it ever happened before? hense dashboard etc - gimmicky features to get people to buy it for the underlying changes they were putting in.

also, 10.3.0 and 10.3.1 i remember were not perfect, by any means. 10.3.9 was good, very good, and had 9 upgrades to get it there. 10.3.5 i think was when it was at it's peak. it had reached stability, and this was the standard install on factory machine right up until tiger.
 
True, Tiger to me is the next logical step. The tools in Tiger, like jonparadise mentioned, are very useful, and do cut down on time. I purchased Tiger when it came out, and my old PB died. Since I purchased a new one, and it came with Tiger installed. I am pleased with it. I feel it is smoother through out. Certainly I am seeing some speed increase, but this is a new PB over my old 800 DVI. Even on that Tiger was clearly faster.
 
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