Is it worth upgrading from Jaguar to Panther

[slo]

Can anybody tell me how much better performance Panther is than Jaguar?

Obviously it has more features... but what I'm really needing to know is how much faster applications will run within that environment.

I am running a older G4 (400Mhz) and a G4 iMac (800Mhz). Thanks!

slo

 

[BrianKonarsMac]

Can anybody tell me how much better performance Panther is than Jaguar?

Obviously it has more features... but what I'm really needing to know is how much faster applications will run within that environment.

I am running a older G4 (400Mhz) and a G4 iMac (800Mhz). Thanks!

slo

just wait for tiger...about 8 months or so.

o and in case you dont care about my opinion...i'd give panther a 20-30% speed boost OVERALL. some things are minimal, some things are huge, some things won't change. don't expect much on the 400mhz system, but on the 800mhz you'll definitely see it.

WAIT until Panther is $19.95 (if it's not already). Jaguar dropped to $19.95 with the release of Panther (though it may have been AFTER panther's release, not prior to) You'd be a fool to buy Panther at anything close to retail (EDU Discount is near 50% (ala ~$67) if you're a student, which i am).

 

[Sweetfeld28]

i can't exactly say, but it seemed to me that after i installed 10.3 on my ibook and my dual G4 (from 10.2.8) that i did seem to run faster. If i had to guess i'd say that it is maybe 3-4% faster than Jaguar.

Now, if you want to know if you should buy it or not, i say that you should wait and buy Tiger 10.4. Otherwise find yourself a copy or cheaply priced version of Panther and use it, i think you will enjoy its features.

 

[LeeTom]

You're not going to see a whole lot of improvement in speed without upgrading your hardware, I think.

Lee Tom

 

[FredAkbar]

I agree with the other posters about waiting for Tiger. Your 400 MHz computer will run it fairly well (at least, it would run Jag and Panther pretty well, so I'd expect the same from Tiger), and the 800 will run it just fine. You won't get the cool graphics effects but oh well. But yeah Tiger should be coming in just 5 or 6 months or so, if not less, so I'd wait.

edit: but to answer the question, Panther is almost definitely faster than Jaguar. I think with OS X, each release gets faster and faster, even on somewhat old hardware like a 400 MHz G4. My mom's 400 MHz G3 iMac runs Panther decently.

 

[macfreek57]

Panther = faster than Jag…

i have a 500 Mhz G3 iMac, and I definitely noticed a difference in speed between Jaguar and Panther. not that Jaguar was bad, just i'm running on a G3, so every bit counts.
and i would say the change was dramatic. although the one problem that has since iritated me to no end is the fact that i cannot run safari anymore(!!!). even after spending an hour on the phone with quite a few reps from Apple, it still unexpectedly quits before I even see a window.

i do think this is an isolated event, however

 

[macdaddy23]

http://www.apple.com/macosx/

Yes, I did the same thing as the person above me. I put panther on my iMac G3 and it tan much better and a bit faster. Also it includes A LOT of security features, and one of the best (I think) features is Core Audio-great if you do music stuff. (With tiger will be core imaging and core video) but go to the apple site above and you can see for yourself.

 

[decksnap]

I found the improvements in speed and useability very drastic on both my quicksilver and my 450 G4. Jaguar seems extremely frustrating and incomplete when I am forced to use it on someone elses system having been on Panther for a while.

 

[decksnap]

Also, I'm not sure which 'cool graphic effects' they're saying you won't get, but my 450 runs expose, genie effect, transparency, etc, with the same fluidity as my Quicksilver. Quicktime videos even run smoothly when minimized to the dock.

 

[yellow]

Probably referring to the "cube effect" of FUS.

 

[Jovian9]

although the one problem that has since iritated me to no end is the fact that i cannot run safari anymore(!!!). even after spending an hour on the phone with quite a few reps from Apple, it still unexpectedly quits before I even see a window.

i do think this is an isolated event, however

The same thing has happened on my friends iMac G3 500MHz. Strange.

 

[Lylac]

My Opinion

My opinion would be to upgrade. I have both OS 10.2 and 10.3 partitioned on my hard drive and i don't see a difference in speed. I find 10.3 to have less bugs. However, if you wait and upgrade to Tiger, just be careful. Not all peripherals will be supported in Tiger right away, you may lose functionaliy in printers, scanners,etc... By now everything you use should be upgraded to Panther

 

[Hoven]

{...}Now, if you want to know if you should buy it or not, i say that you should wait and buy Tiger 10.4. Otherwise find yourself a copy or cheaply priced version of Panther and use it, i think you will enjoy its features.

My question would be more along the lines of....
Should I buy 10.3 (Jaguar) now?
or
Should I wait and buy 10.3 after 10.4 comes out?
or
Should I wait and just buy 10.4 (Tiger) when it comes out and skip 10.3 altogether?

What I don't want to do is spend full retail for 10.3, only to have to turn around and pay full price for 10.4. (I'm way past being a student! ).

FYI... I'm on a eMac (about a year old... don't know the CPU speed).

 

[wordmunger]

My question would be more along the lines of....
Should I buy 10.3 (Jaguar) now?
or
Should I wait and buy 10.3 after 10.4 comes out?
or
Should I wait and just buy 10.4 (Tiger) when it comes out and skip 10.3 altogether?

What I don't want to do is spend full retail for 10.3, only to have to turn around and pay full price for 10.4. (I'm way past being a student! ).

FYI... I'm on a eMac (about a year old... don't know the CPU speed).

Is there an app that you want to use that requires Panther? Garageband, perhaps, or the newest release of Safari? It seems to me at this point if your computer is functioning adequately you might as well wait until Tiger and save yourself the trouble of double-dipping. I didn't find the performance increase from Jag-Tiger particularly awesome.

 

[Peyote]

Why not upgrade to 10.3, then skip 10.4? That's what I plan on doing. I don't see any big features in 10.4 yet that I really want.

 

[wwooden]

I thought the same things....until

Why not upgrade to 10.3, then skip 10.4? That's what I plan on doing. I don't see any big features in 10.4 yet that I really want.

I felt the same way when Panther came out, I didn't need expose´ or iChat AV at the time. But now that I have used it for almost a year, I can't go back to jaguar. Some of the computers at my school are still running jaguar and it's it soo frustrating to be on them. The finder is all wrong and and everything looks different. I can't easily get to the window I need to or see stuff on the desktop in an instant. Now I do video chat my dad, sister and aunt, so it will be really cool to do it all together when Tiger is released.

 

[WCat]

I've found that Panther works better, faster, and smoother on everything I've tried. That even includes my old clamshell iBook. I also would find it hard to go back to Jaguar 'cause I'd miss a number of the Panther features. Better Safari, iChat, and especially Finder.

My $.02,

WCat

 

[igucl]

Definitely worth it. Just for expose alone. But why not wait for Tiger?

 

[veedubdrew]

I had an iMac G4 800 and the speed difference between Jag and Panther was huge. The biggest improvement was in the user interface, which sped up in such a manner that it made boring daily tasks seem like they were being performed on a newer, faster machine.

Dunno if this will help persuade you, but through Jan 5th, 2005 if you buy Panther and iLife '04 together, you get iLife '04 for free (a $50 discount). If you use iPhoto or iMovie at all, the difference in speed in those two apps alone will be well worth the $129 (less if you're a student or government employee). iPhoto 4 on my old iMac just flew compared to the old version.

I say go for it and wait for Tiger to have a few 10.4.x updates before jumping to that ship.

-Drew

 

[iShater]

I got your answer!

I just upgraded to Panther over the weekend on my G3 800 iBook.

I have been thinking about it for a while, then a friend of mine who upgraded his system to OSX Server, gave me his old copy of Panther that he does not use.

I cloned my HD to an external FW drive and did a test run there. All my apps ran great, the system seemed faster, but I thought it might be the 7200RPM external HD. The test I did was with 10.3.0.

Once I felt comfortable with it, I installed it as my main system after cloning and backing up my Jaguar system and all my files. I did a system upgrade (not erase and install, or preserve old system), let the installer optimize my system, and got 10.3.6 installed.

The conclusion? holy cow! It rox! My system is at least 10% faster, is way more responsive, all the little changes in Finder and the control panels are great, and Expose is a marvel. I would never go back!!! ok, if I feel nostalgic I might

But I think it was a great thing to do, and my system feels like a new machine because of the speed and all the nifty little extras.

Keep in mind that I got the copy for free, but I was looking around and tried to buy a used copy for $60 or so. For that, I think it is more than worth it.

If you are going to pay full price, then I say wait, just because I think buying Tiger for $129 in the next 6 months or so will definitely be a smarter move money wise, etc. If you can get a cheap copy of Panther, then do it do it do it.

Disclaimer : I am very careful with my system so I cloned it and tested Panther with all my apps and files, and I still have a clone backup of my HD with Jaguar. I suggest you do the same thing with any OS install, or at least backup all your user files.

 

[Hoven]

Wow, too many replies to "quote" back and reply directly to all of them.
Thanks for all the replies/opinions!
So, Let's see... how do I do this…

I just upgraded to Panther over the weekend on my G3 800 iBook.
I have been thinking about it for a while, then a friend of mine who upgraded his system to OSX Server, gave me his old copy of Panther that he does not use.
I cloned my HD to an external FW drive and did a test run there. {...}
Once I felt comfortable with it, I installed it as my main system {...}
The conclusion? holy cow! It rox! {...}

Well, since I only have the 1 eMac, doing a "safety" test install makes good sense. I'm not sure how I'll handle that. Just out of curiosity, how did you "clone" your HD? Once you installed Panther on the cloned external HD, how did you boot from it?

From Peyote: Why not upgrade to 10.3, then skip 10.4? That's what I plan on doing. I don't see any big features in 10.4 yet that I really want.
From wwooden: I felt the same way when Panther came out, I didn't need expose´ or iChat AV at the time. But now that I have used it for almost a year, I can't go back to jaguar.
From WCat: I've found that Panther works better, faster, and smoother on everything I've tried. That even includes my old clamshell iBook. I also would find it hard to go back to Jaguar 'cause I'd miss a number of the Panther features. Better Safari, iChat, and especially Finder.

These are all good thoughts. It wasn't so much that I felt I needed Panther as much as I just don't want to get too far behind the curve. It sounds pretty much like I should upgrade. I just need to find it at a good price. And, since I've waited this long for Panther, I'll likely wait as long to upgrade to Tiger (I'll just pay Arlo Rose & Perry Clarke for Konfabulator, which is one of the cool features Tiger will have... I won't get into how I think Apple should pay them for the idea they're stealing {oh! Did I say that out loud!?} ).

Now my concern is that I have an external LaCie firewire drive and I remember when Panther came out there was some talk about it having problems with some drivers. I don't know if that means I need still need to find a driver update.

Dunno if this will help persuade you, but through Jan 5th, 2005 if you buy Panther and iLife '04 together, you get iLife '04 for free (a $50 discount). If you use iPhoto or iMovie at all, the difference in speed in those two apps alone will be well worth the $129 (less if you're a student or government employee). iPhoto 4 on my old iMac just flew compared to the old version.
I say go for it and wait for Tiger to have a few 10.4.x updates before jumping to that ship. -Drew

Well, I already bought iLife '04. {as an aside, I hate that iPhoto4 has no "search" or "find" feature. It's a photo database… who would build a freakin' database without a "search" or "find" function?!? It's stupid to have to build a Smart Album just to put in search criteria so I can find a pic and then delete the Smart Album… way too many steps!… sorry I'll get off that soapbox now.}

At any rate, I'd love to find Panther at a discount. Then I'll just sit out Tiger for a year and see what happens.
Thanks to all for your input!!

 

[decksnap]

If you believe Apple stole the idea for Dashboard from Konfab, I'm not sure you understand how Dashboard works or the history of widgets and accessories. Dashboard is quite a different beast.

 

[Peyote]

If you believe Apple stole the idea for Dashboard from Konfab, I'm not sure you understand how Dashboard works or the history of widgets and accessories. Dashboard is quite a different beast.

I believe Apple had a product similar to Dashboard a looong time ago, much before Konfabulator too. I think to most people though, they don't care 'how' it works, only how you use it, and in that respect Konfabulator and Dashboard are the same. But people just need to remember that Apple did it before Konfabulator.

 

[Hoven]

If you believe Apple stole the idea for Dashboard from Konfab, I'm not sure you understand how Dashboard works or the history of widgets and accessories. Dashboard is quite a different beast.

I believe Apple had a product similar to Dashboard a looong time ago, much before Konfabulator too. I think to most people though, they don't care 'how' it works, only how you use it, and in that respect Konfabulator and Dashboard are the same. But people just need to remember that Apple did it before Konfabulator.

Well, OK then. I stand corrected
I remember reading somewhere (maybe MacUser Mag?) a while back about the 'copy' of Konfabulator in Tiger, including the name 'widgets' for the little programmie thingies. Just trying to make sure I support the independent developers as well as the big Apple corporate machine. They often provide the most useful and fun toys & tools.

 

[iShater]

Wow, too many replies to "quote" back and reply directly to all of them.
Thanks for all the replies/opinions!
So, Let's see... how do I do this…



Well, since I only have the 1 eMac, doing a "safety" test install makes good sense. I'm not sure how I'll handle that. Just out of curiosity, how did you "clone" your HD? Once you installed Panther on the cloned external HD, how did you boot from it?

On my external HD, I have reserved a partition that is equal in size to the external HD. Using CarbonCopyCloner, I made a clone of the internal HD and made the external bootable. Restart your Mac, hold the OPTION key, and it allows you to select your boot drive.

This is one way I backup my system, I like to take care of my main system considering I have all my photos, videos, garageband, email, etc. etc. files on it.