I think the big problem with Panther is the upgrade. I have a laptop and a desktop -- one of them (iBook) I did a scratch wipe and install, and one (iMac) I did an upgrade. The 'book has seen no problems whatsoever with Panther. The desktop has been prone to crashes and several of my apps (mail, iChat) stopped working so I had to copy them over from my (clean install) laptop. So I think perhaps the problem is with the installer not updating all of the files properly. Has anybody who has done a clean install had stability problems?
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Is Panther really worth it???
- Thread starter djtet
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I'm bitterly disappointed. No discernible improvements except for a slight increase in speed. The change in the interface is irritating. But I could live with all that if I could still use iCal, iSync and my PDA to manage my life. Can't do it and therefore can't "like" the new cat.
And I don't "get" Exposé. Please someone explain why having all that stuff on the desktop and then having all of them stacked when one of them is used is an improvement?
And I don't "get" Exposé. Please someone explain why having all that stuff on the desktop and then having all of them stacked when one of them is used is an improvement?
On the contrary, I can't believe how many improvements there are. There are FAR more features and improvements than was ever publicised. Improved Mail and Address Book is worth the price alone IMO. And I'm just glad I can access secure sites in Safari from my uni room (they ought to fix that in Jaguar!)
Stability-wise, it hasn't crashed since my first day and nothing has unexpedely quit yet, not even Safari!
Stability-wise, it hasn't crashed since my first day and nothing has unexpedely quit yet, not even Safari!
I have a stock iBook G4 933, that came with 10.3 installed. I've had nothing but troubles, averaging 1-2 kernel panics a day. I've been trying to bebug all the possible causes, and it's been a bit frustrating.
At first I thought it might be my FW 800 external drive (bought in anticipation of the new PB's - when production stopped while they fixed the screen problems, I bought a iBook as a 3 month stop-gap). But the crashes continued even after I stopped using the drive for a week. Then I thought it might be RAMM related, but the 512 MB RAMM that came installed from macconnection always checks out with the i-Book Hardware Test CD.
I then thought it might be due to Office (esp. Entourage), and seemed to crash less when I shut these down after short usage, but some crashes continued. I'm a little baffled - I've set up the machine with a fair number of high end apps but try not to run more than one at the same time.
Had another kernel panic today when launching Entourage after running the new version of Cumulus (6, just released this last week).
So to sum up, not all problems are due to poorly planned upgrades. While this could all be my machine, it's hard to pin down some recurring problem.
If I were you I'd take it back and ask Apple for a replacement. It seems as though you have a dodgy motherboard. I would have thought a kernel panic a day is unacceptable - that's worse than Windows!
I was going to try to remove the RAM, but then I'd only have 128 MB total. Will OSX even boot on that little RAM?
Anyone have any idea how often bad RAM passes Apple's Hardware Test? Unfortunately I"m in Europe on a job for a couple of months, and it's going to be a bummer to try to replace physical parts.
I haven't tried a clean erase and install - since it took me so much time to load up all my programs, I was hoping to stay away from that. Is there much chance that would solve the kernel panic problems?
Thanks for the ideas.
Yes.
It is possible, though I have seen it detect bad RAM...
It is very possible it will clear up the panics. Also, some software installs .kext files which are kernel extensions, which if not compatible with panther, can, you guesed, cause a kernel panic. Esp. Roxio Toast...among others.
Also, you can back up your program folders to a firewire disc, most of them can just be installed by dragging them back to the applications folder or wherever....
I would suggest, though booting up with just the stock ram 128 and see what happens.
Thanks for the reply! Well, Toast was one of the first apps I put on, so that's a little telling. I used 5.2.1 - is the new version 6 any better? What are people using to replace Toast (one program I use a lot in m work)?
So I'll start with the RAMM and then move on to a clean erase / install.
Its possible toast 6 is better...I haven't used Toast in A LONG TIME, but I read all over about trouble with toast and panics...so that might be a problem to look into.
I just use the finder burning, though limited, it can be read on PC's fine, so I have no problem, though of course toast has a lot more options, and burns faster too...
Good luck.
One of the new features in Toast 6 is sharing your burner. When turned on, other people using Toast 6 can burn with your drive.
To be honest, I dont see the 150 new features. Expose is cool, and mail is better. But the new Finder is sh*t. This doesn't feel like a full upgrade, this is more like Jaguar 10.2.9
I think the Finder is the worst new addition too. It's like they took two steps forward and one back (or one forward and two back, depending on your preference).
Before I upgraded, I thought I'd hate the brushed metal the most about it, but I find I don't, although it does make it slower. It seems a little buggy but now I love the open/save dialogs and the sidebar. There are just some annoying things in it that I hope will be fixed.
Oh, and Netscape tends to make my whole system crash (only recoverable by holding the power button down). Does anyone have any similar problems with Netscape? I only need it for its HTML emailing capabilities...
Before I upgraded, I thought I'd hate the brushed metal the most about it, but I find I don't, although it does make it slower. It seems a little buggy but now I love the open/save dialogs and the sidebar. There are just some annoying things in it that I hope will be fixed.
Oh, and Netscape tends to make my whole system crash (only recoverable by holding the power button down). Does anyone have any similar problems with Netscape? I only need it for its HTML emailing capabilities...
I don't use composer, but it's also available in the latest Mozilla 1.5.1, which seems pretty stable but has almost all of the same functionality as Netscape 7.x.
The Finder sidebar is useful and consistent everywhere. I still wish we were able to do some file operations in the open dialog box.
The Finder sidebar is useful and consistent everywhere.
I still wish we were able to do some file operations in the open dialog box.
What is it about the Finder and Mac OS X? It sounds like they need to completely redo it (with the sidebar again) but as a completely new COCOA app written from scratch. It's one of the most fundamental parts of the OS yet they seem to spend the least amount of work on it.
I love most of its features except that it is not very stable and why does it sometimes spawn a new window when I just switch to another window (it never used to)? It seems much slower now as well.
I love most of its features except that it is not very stable and why does it sometimes spawn a new window when I just switch to another window (it never used to)? It seems much slower now as well.
What a fresh coat of paint can accomplish...
You can always tell a Carbon from a Cocoa app is if you right click one of the window buttons (minimize, zoom, close) and it acts the same as if you left clicked. Some carbon apps dont recognize the difference between left and right click, or don't utilize it properly.
Most carbon apps also have thier "services" grayed out. Copy and pasting is problematic, because of carbon apps not using unicode (which they can)...
Anti aliasing is diferent and very subtle...
The biggest telling thing that shows the finder is still carbon...it has the same bugs as before!
How come then, when I right click the widgets in Safari, nothing happens? I thought Safari was Cocoa?