Poll: Which Panther Feature are you Most Excited About?

[MacRumors]

Vote: Poll: Which Panther Feature are you Most Excited About? (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=216&ref=forums.macrumors.com)

[michaelrjohnson]

I was originally really excited about Expose, and I still am. However, after installing it and using it, i REALLY like the new finder. It's so much more intuitive. Subtle changes make a world of difference.

but i'd still have to say that #2 is Expose. It's an excellent feature, now i just have to train myself to use it regularly

[neutrino23]

There should have been a way to put a ranking or at least a plus or minus next to each feature.

I voted for Expose just because I think I would use it most often. I also think many of the other features are very cool. iChat AV could be a killer app. I won't know till I try it for a while.

The new Finder could be very cool but I have to use it to know.

File vault might be cool. I'd like to see how much of a performance hit it adds.

[Wonder Boy]

I didn't vote. There was no "I'm not excited about Panther" option.

[alset]

Expose is great, but the new Finder has a lot of features that Steve didn't demo. It will simplify the way we work on a grand scale.

Dan

[mac15]

I don't have a favourite but mail (threading) , fast user switching, expose , and the new finder are my favs

[Steradian]

Originally posted by Wonder Boy
I didn't vote. There was no "I'm not excited about Panther" option.
How can you not be excited about paying 129$ ??? ;) Nah i think that this OS release will be great, and if we see this types of speed increases that we got with jag then this should be worth every penny

[MacBandit]

For anyone that uses there computer with more then one person it has to be fast user switching. That alone is worth $100 to me at this point.

[ozubahn]

I would say Expose, but I am afraid it will be disappointing (if not completely unavailable) on my current machine. I have a rev A TiBook, with no Quartz Extreme. Steve noted that Expose uses QE, but I don't know if that means that it won't work at all on non-QE machines, or if it will just be uselessly slow. I'll have a G5 someday, but probably not soon...

[Simon Liquid]

I'm sure all of those features are things I won't be able to conceive living without once I've used them for 5 minutes, but they're not getting me hyped. I'm more excited able the little things, speed and stability improvements as we saw in 10.1 and 10.2.

[MacSlut]

#1 Expose:
Perhaps not as much of a user experience improvement for me and my combined 62" of screen space, but I was surprised at how quickly I incorporated it into my normal use. It's really cool seeing the windows fly past 3 screens! I have it set for the extra buttons on my mouse...I love the way they can toggle or push. Windows users are going to be jealous about this.

#2 New Finder:
I totally love the new finder. I like how the left pane can be closed or scaled down to just the icon. Man it was driving me insane that there was no way to put "Computer" in the Dock...Now there's no need, as all finder windows will show any new mounted volumes...this was a close #2, but the changes were too easy and obvious as compared to Expose.

#3 Fast User Switching:
A much needed feature for those who share their computer, I would've loved to have had this a couple of years ago, when I was sharing my computer.

#4 iChat AV:
I would've rather have seen Apple purchase Proteus or Fire. iChat is not only not cross-system, but the best feature isn't cross-platform....YET. It also would've ranked higher if it wasn't so "1995 only better". This is a technology that I'm still going to have to wait for...mostly for others I know to get it or for communities to develop.

#5 Font Book:
Fast, easy, and much needed since like the 80s. This would've ranked higher if there weren't so many 3rd party apps that Apple stepped on to make this...though I gotta say this is better (for my needs) than any other I've tried.

#5 Xcode:
Sounds great for programmers. Keep the cool apps a'coming!

#7 Preview:
Faster is always better, but I really wasn't complaining with my Dual G4 1.42.

#8 FileVault:
I used to use OS encryption a lot and was surprised Apple didn't have encryption from day one with OSX. I now use Cypher for encrypting individual files. I didn't really want to start encrypting files with early beta software so I'm not sure how this works...background? Is this instant? Do files decrypt on copying/sending? Can you decrypt a file from another Mac?...on Windows?

#9 Mail
Still isn't as good as Entourage but it's getting very close. Still needs more features.

#10 Faxing:
I hate faxes and those who insist upon using them. It will be nice to have something built in when I have to deal with someone needing me to send a file via fax.

#11 iDisk:
No need for iDisk, that's what broadband and older Macs as servers are for.

Honorable mentions:
- Labels
- Toned down stripes
- More Metal...call me crazy, I like metal
- Subtle animations (like in prefs)
- Custom Keyboard Mapping/Scripting

Missing Features:
- Visually compelling startup splash screen...and something that tells us what's happening during the grey spin cycle.

- Remote Desktop...I know this is sold separately, but I think it would be great if a limited version came included and if it allowed access from Windows...that would be so cool to be able to use my Mac at an office where they only have PCs! BTW Windows XP Remote Desktop has a OSX client.

[backspinner]

My test case is easy: show the new features to my girlfriend and sister in law and measure their excitement...

1. finder: real open/save dialogs at last!
2. address book printing: labels and phonebook, very needed
3. mail improvements: follow reply and forwards
4. expose: well, I don't know if it works on their iMacs
5. faxing: I bought cocoa efax, but this works maybe even better
6: idisk: it's so slow now... every improvement is welcome
7. preview: it's so slow now, every improvement is welcome
8: fast user switching: could be easy, but I think they will not use it
9: font book: maybe easier way to install the hand talk fonts the logopedist uses?
10: ichat: still not cross platform, hello there it's a windows world!?!

[tazo]

the cube user switching blew my mind when i saw it during the keynote. i couldnt believe it.

[ntg]

The one thing not mentioned in the list, which will get my vote every time, is the speed increase on legacy machines!!:)

iMac G3-400s, etc, should get back a bit of the 'snap' which they lost (initially, completely!) in the upgrade from 9.2 to 10.2.:mad:

Here's hoping....

Nig.

[medea]

the improvements to the finder sound good, as does expose, but I'm really interested in seeing how well the fontbook will work. it's great that they keep adding things that you would otherwise have to pay big money on additional software for.

[Centris 650]

I was torn between several but finally decided on the new finder. I've never been a big fan of the new finder in OSX but what I've seen already, between the demoed and nondemoed finder functions, I may just have to shell out that $129.

(Of course I'm looking forward to exposé and the fontbook, which is LONG overdue!)

I just wish iChat was cross
platformed. Most of my friends and relatives use AIM. Buying an iSight would be a waste of time and money.

[Jerry Spoon]

Originally posted by Simon Liquid
I'm sure all of those features are things I won't be able to conceive living without once I've used them for 5 minutes, but they're not getting me hyped. I'm more excited able the little things, speed and stability improvements as we saw in 10.1 and 10.2.
I'm agreeing. I'm definitely upgrading, just to play with the new toys, but I can't say that I'm as excited to upgrade to x.3 as I was to upgrade to x.2 or make the jump to osx with x.1

[whawho]

I am actually pretty excited about all of the new features. I think I will use most on a regular basis. Expose and The new Finder will be great... The font book will be a god send since I don't have a font management tool now (in need of one badly). This alone would be worth the money. I have a .mac account so any speed improvments there would be great. I just hope with this release the UI will speed up even more.

[sedarby]

Xcode gets my vote since compile times can really short circuit your productivity. Any other developers excited about the new development tools?

[logo1234]

At first I have to say that expose will be one big relieve for me and my way of working with windows. That's why I voted for Expose!

But one big thing for the safety of my iBook will be FileVault and the ability to lock the screen at the time the system goes to sleep (or is it at wakeup?)....

For me this has been a big missing feature in Jaguar!!!

[wdlove]

Something not metioned that I'm excited about, it's the first OS designed to handle the new G5 64 bit processor! :cool:

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by Jerry Spoon
I'm agreeing. I'm definitely upgrading, just to play with the new toys, but I can't say that I'm as excited to upgrade to x.3 as I was to upgrade to x.2 or make the jump to osx with x.1

You know people keep saying this but I look back on the transition from 10.1.x to 10.2 and the only things I was hyped about was spring loaded folders, speed, and stability. Well 10.3 is bringing more speed and more stability along with a half dozen other items that I just can't live without so I just have to say personally I just can't wait for panther.

[ouketii]

expose is awesome

[jayscheuerle]

I'm most excited about Panther not being able to run on my beige G3. This will finally force me into upgrading to an AGP G4.

Perhaps a few of you G5 purchasers will be putting your current machines on the block come September?

Oh,
1) Fast user switching
2) Expose

[Mal]

Fast User Switching gets my vote by a long shot. We have several user accounts that we have to switch between regularly, and this will allow us to cut down the time spent switching by a huge amount.

Exposé is next up. Looks great, although I avoid the mouse when possible.

BTW, for those of you saying that Panther is the first OS built for 64-bit processors, that not entirely true. 10.2.7 is optimized for the G5 64-bit processors, although Panther was built for them pretty much.

JW

[badhorsie777]

I was over at osxaudio.com and someone on there brought up a very intriguing application of fast user switching. You could have multiple "users" set up for different uses of your computer (i.e. a "Video" user with a dock, preferences, etc set up for just those video programs, or "Audio"......) Kind of reminds me of the desktop switching idea in Linux Gnome... Now, I've tried forEVER to understand linux, but it just ain't coming, but the desktop switcher was so overly cool (setting up applications that would have a permanent space ona particular desktop) I was thinking there might be a usability advantage to doing the same on OSX... whaddya think?

-Badhorsie777

[jayscheuerle]

Originally posted by badhorsie777
I was over at osxaudio.com and someone on there brought up a very intriguing application of fast user switching. You could have multiple "users" set up for different uses of your computer (i.e. a "Video" user with a dock, preferences, etc set up for just those video programs, or "Audio"......) Kind of reminds me of the desktop switching idea in Linux Gnome... Now, I've tried forEVER to understand linux, but it just ain't coming, but the desktop switcher was so overly cool (setting up applications that would have a permanent space ona particular desktop) I was thinking there might be a usability advantage to doing the same on OSX... whaddya think?

-Badhorsie777

I think the speed of that switch would be dependent on how much RAM you have and the speed of your hard disks. You may get to the desktop view instantaneously, but it's still pulling all that info up from a giant swap file (I'd imagine). I'm anxious to see how well it handles switching fully loaded environments. - j

[Catfish_Man]

1) Fast user switching
2) Fast user switching
3) Fixed Open/Save dialogs
4) Did I say fast user switching yet?


this is going to save me sooooo much time , trouble, and snapping at people who quit my apps. 2 out of my 3 top requests fixed/implemented in Panther... I think Apple deserves a couple of thumbs ups here.


<edit> in relation to the posts above: I plan to do just that. I almost never do other stuff when I'm doing dev work, I use different apps, and run at a different resolution. Having a 'dev' user makes perfect sense for me. Perhaps a '3d' user as well, so I don't have to explain to my parents that, no, I haven't just made the whole machine unusable for the next 36 hours while it renders, you really can multitask </edit>

[Flickta]

I voted for Preview. Why? Because it is so damn slow (PB G4 800) when opening multiple files. [Windows is so much faster when you watch slideshow in ACDsee or just open/close windows...] I want speed. And I use preview to... preview pictures, opening them 30-40 at once. So...

[jayscheuerle]

Originally posted by Catfish_Man
Perhaps a '3d' user as well, so I don't have to explain to my parents that, no, I haven't just made the whole machine unusable for the next 36 hours while it renders, you really can multitask </edit>

I was under the impression that all processes would be put in an inactive state when a user was switched out.

Am I wrong? Will things like renders or email checking or iTunes playing continue when I'm switched out? That seems like an unfair way to hog the processor power...

[Doctor Q]

Exposé (can't anybody here type accent marks?) will come in very handy. Even with a 20" monitor, I have many overlapping windows most of the time.

Despite all the Panther conveniences, I still think Apple should have added windowshading.

[macdong]

Originally posted by sedarby
Xcode gets my vote since compile times can really short circuit your productivity. Any other developers excited about the new development tools?


Xcode is on top of my list as well.

[Wonder Boy]

Originally posted by Steradian
How can you not be excited about paying 129$ ??? ;) Nah i think that this OS release will be great, and if we see this types of speed increases that we got with jag then this should be worth every penny


Good points, but you hit it dead on with the having to pay 130$ comment. I paid that last Aug, and i aint about to do it again.

[scem0]

I must say expose because it looks like it'll save a lot of time, but I am also looking forward to Xcode, because I plan on messing around with it here and there, but I don't plan on using it that much.

scem0

[jayscheuerle]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
Exposé (can't anybody here type accent marks?) will come in very handy.

Your confusing Exposé with Expose, the x-ray feature of the new iChat.

That's what everyone's excited about.

[rueyeet]

I have to say, Apple's got a knack for making people drool over their new stuff. Expose (imagine the accent) is the most whiz-bang of those, but the Finder and Mail improvements, the Print & Fax in System Prefs, the Font Book, printing labels and envelopes from the Addess Book, the multi-user support...all not only cool, but useful! Taken all together, my wanting all these new features is most likely going to be enough to make me pony up the $129.

This is really different from Microsoft, let me tell you....when they update Windows, I've never said to myself, "Oooh! I wonder what neat new things will be in the new version!" It's much more of a "Oh God, what have they done to me THIS time?" sort of feeling, followed immediately by, "And where the heck did they PUT it?" Sorry. Been trying to configure my friend's XP for my AirPort using PPPoE instead of TCP/IP. :cough:

Time for some pointless generalization!

Apple = anticipation. Microsoft = dread. (so far, Linux = confusion, but that's a whole 'nother topic there.)

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by jayscheuerle
I was under the impression that all processes would be put in an inactive state when a user was switched out.

Am I wrong? Will things like renders or email checking or iTunes playing continue when I'm switched out? That seems like an unfair way to hog the processor power...

No all tasks continue working that's what's so great about it. If it were the way you were suggesting there would be very little difference between what we have now with loging out and back in except with your suggesting your windows and stuff woul still be open. No all the apps keep cranking away while you switch. I can't wait.

Oh, and to those complaining about $129 find a student and get it for $69.

[Nermal]

Where's "Other"?

I'm most excited about the new networking features (Samba printing, network browsing). I'm also looking forward to fast user switching, and I'll probably wonder how I ever did without Exposé once I've used it.

[Pete_Hoover]

Expose and the new finder.

[Doctor Q]

Originally posted by jayscheuerle
Your confusing Exposé with Expose, the x-ray feature of the new iChat.I guess the iSight camera is a little more powerful than I thought! How convenient: My dentist can check out my teeth while I stay at my computer.

[jayscheuerle]

Originally posted by MacBandit
No all tasks continue working that's what's so great about it. If it were the way you were suggesting there would be very little difference between what we have now with loging out and back in except with your suggesting your windows and stuff would still be open. No all the apps keep cranking away while you switch. I can't wait.


I guess I'll have to see how I feel about it when I see it, because I don't like the idea of someone else being able to steal processing/RAM/disk accessing power away from me when I need it. Perhaps the new G5s can be maxed out enough not to notice a performance hit from something as intensive as a rendering taking place in the background when you're doing Photoshop work or playing a game, but I can't say the same for my present machines. OSX seems to be geared for increasingly demanding machines. That's progress perhaps, but it's also the drive into obsolescence of relatively new machines. Apple seems to keep their OSX requirement to feel satisfactorily "zippy" just beyond the reach of any current machine. It seems to me that this new multi-user system sharing fits into all categories.

If it works well, it will be a very good thing! :cool:

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally posted by MacBandit
Oh, and to those complaining about $129 find a student and get it for $69.

or find someone else who has it and get it from them?


i think exposé is cool because it's slick looking while being useful, as opposed ot the genie effect or something..

i'd have voted for ichat av, but since i'm using that now with jaguar, i figured it doesn't count really.

[jayscheuerle]

Originally posted by jelloshotsrule
or find someone else who has it and get it from them?


Will the irony be missed? Sweet... - j

[KershMan]

I am looking forward to all the new apps and improvements in existing ones. And, I am looking forward to the little commented on UNIX upgrades. You have to like that Apple is not sitting still with the UNIX side and is upgrading to FreeBSD 5.0.

There are some nifty things coming in Panther. File encryption is a huge plus. This could make the OS X very appealing to Government customers.

And, the $129 price tag is just fine by me. This is not like a Windows Service Pack. It is a full OS upgrade. $129 is not bad for that. Hopefully they keep the 5-license for families at $199. If so, I will be so happy:-)

[PowerBook User]

1) Expose - This looks great for people who often have many windows open.
2) Fast user switching - This will be very handy and save a lot of time with multiple users.

It's hard to judge on things like the new Finder without actually seeing it in action in person.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by jayscheuerle
I guess I'll have to see how I feel about it when I see it, because I don't like the idea of someone else being able to steal processing/RAM/disk accessing power away from me when I need it. Perhaps the new G5s can be maxed out enough not to notice a performance hit from something as intensive as a rendering taking place in the background when you're doing Photoshop work or playing a game, but I can't say the same for my present machines. OSX seems to be geared for increasingly demanding machines. That's progress perhaps, but it's also the drive into obsolescence of relatively new machines. Apple seems to keep their OSX requirement to feel satisfactorily "zippy" just beyond the reach of any current machine. It seems to me that this new multi-user system sharing fits into all categories.

If it works well, it will be a very good thing! :cool:

The idea isn't for someone to hog cpu resources when you are doing a particularly cpu intensive task it is so that the computer isn't tied up and others can still check there email type a letter, etc. all from there own desktop.

Personally I think Apple is doing very well with OSX. OSX is infinitely faster and more powerful on a dual processor machine then it was with OS9. Now I am not talkinb about the GUI because the GUI doesn't get the work done I'm talking about actual behind the scenes processing. Also with each update it gets faster. Also with each update the GUI speed improves too. So in affect and actually quite honestly my Dual/GHz/DDR PowerMac that I bought last August is faster then the day I bought it and will get faster with the final release of Panther this year. That's saying something for a machine that's going to be over a year old. In the PC world with each system release the computer gets slower and slower and slower.