Clamshell and OS X

I recently purchased a used Clamshell iBook (graphite) and I installed Panther on it. However after reading a few sites I've notice some people recommend the firmware update from Apple (4.1.7?) which can only run in OS 9. My question is does anyone know if i should bother with this update? Some say i need it to run OS X however it runs fine without it. Other people have reported issues with that particluar firmware update which is why im being nervous about it....the update is six years old.
any experiences with this issue?
As always, many thanks in advance!