Panther's end when Tiger is out? Tiger in iBook?

[keirius]

Hi. I'm intending to switch over (i'm a MS user) to a 12" iBook G4 very soon. However, I feel uneasy that Tiger will be out soon and Panther will be outdated and left behind (perhaps support wise?)

I'm sure Tiger's features like Spotlight will never be incorporated in perhaps an update for Panther right?

Should I just carry on with the switch as I've planned or wait for the next (who knows how many months?) iBook revision/release that will support Tiger?

P/s: I can only get a 12" iBook, PBs and desktops Macs are not for me...

 

[jsw]

Well, first of all, it'll likely be months before Tiger comes out. Months. So you'll be waiting quite a while. Second, even after Tiger comes out, you'll need to wait for iBooks that have it pre-installed to ship (otherwise, you'll be able to upgrade for free or $20 or some such, but it won't be pre-installed). So you're likely looking at June or July (or January 11th, but hey, that's essentially impossible - it'll likely be early summer).

I'd get the iBook now (read "as soon as Steve's keynote on 1/11 ensures nothing better is announced") and enjoy it, then buy Tiger later in 2005.

 

[Daveway]

Apple doesn't take features from a current OS and transfer them to an older version. Meaning Tigers features will not be in Panther because it wouldn't give a reason to buy the new OS. Tiger will run fine on your ibook however some of the heavy graphics will be scaled back.
I go with the belief that if you wait on the next best thing you will wait forever. I would go ahead and buy it and wait that Maybe by the grace of computer angels, Tiger will be released within 30 days of your purchase and you can get a free upgrade.

 

[jsw]

And you're right about Tiger features: Panther's features are essentially locked, and any updates before Tiger will be bug fixes and tweaks, not new features.

However, again, Tiger will take a while to arrive, and Panther is a really nice version of OS X. If it were me, I'd pick being able to use the iBook for half a year over getting Tiger for free.

However, as iLife '05 and other things will likely be announced in two weeks, I strongly advise waiting until after MacWorld to buy anything - for example, you might get a free upgrade to iLife '05 if you buy a Mac after it's announced.

Edit: or what daveway00 wrote while I was typing....

 

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says...also, when Tiger is released support for Panther will not cease completely either....they have still been releasing the Security Update patches for 10.2.x as recently as December 2004.....oh yeah!

 

[Littleodie914]

Duff-Man says...also, when Tiger is released support for Panther will not cease completely either....they have still been releasing the Security Update patches for 10.2.x as recently as December 2004.....oh yeah!

Yea. But even if it does, you've still got the MR crowd! We're kinda your.... Online genius bar!

 

[keirius]

Yeah. You guys are right. But, the way Apple puts it on its website, its kinda like Tiger isn't meant for G4's and faint hearted graphic cards.

Come to think of it, should people with the iBook even give a 2nd thought to upgrade to Tiger when it is out?
No point having Tiger if things turn out to be slow and sluggish or even ugly right? Better stick to Panther if this is the case, no?

 

[maya]

Yeah. You guys are right. But, the way Apple puts it on its website, its kinda like Tiger isn't meant for G4's and faint hearted graphic cards.

Come to think of it, should people with the iBook even give a 2nd thought to upgrade to Tiger when it is out?
No point having Tiger if things turn out to be slow and sluggish or even ugly right? Better stick to Panther if this is the case, no?

Marketing , that is all.

It's to promote the new Chip and all its benefits from the prior.

 

[Darwin]

Yeah. You guys are right. But, the way Apple puts it on its website, its kinda like Tiger isn't meant for G4's and faint hearted graphic cards.

Come to think of it, should people with the iBook even give a 2nd thought to upgrade to Tiger when it is out?
No point having Tiger if things turn out to be slow and sluggish or even ugly right? Better stick to Panther if this is the case, no?

If it was a case of the OS needed more power to run Apple wouldn't have the first of the iMac Models on the OS X compatibility list (This is for Panther but Tiger should have something similar)

At home we have a G4 Cube (450Mhz) and that gets faster with each of these major releases even though at first it didn't do Quartz Extreme, so you shouldn't worry to much about your iBook

 

[Mechcozmo]

If anything, your iBook will get slightly faster when you upgrade to Tiger. A few minor things, like Core Video might use your CPU more than the GPU, but otherwise you should be fine. After Steve Jobs tells you the final word, BUY BUY BUY!

And in the future, welcome to the light side of computing.