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Make a decision for me please...

stevep

stevep

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 13, 2004
876
4
UK
Should I buy a copy of Tiger for my iBook for the edu price, £58.75?
Is it worth upgrading from a perfectly stable 10.3.9?
When the Intel Macs are launched next year will they be running Tiger, and will that be the same version of Tiger that is on the shelves now?
I seem to remember Steve Jobs showing the 'About this Mac' screen at the Developers Keynote speech, which indicated Tiger, but was it a tweaked version?
And, yes, I have tried a search on this forum and others but there is just so much information on the Intel move that I can't isolate the answers to some of the above.
 
The OS will always get updated. No stopping that. Apple doesn't play too many games with the OS. Leopard (10.5) will be out in late 2006. Just wait then.
Here's your decision made for you: Don't buy it. Tiger isn't a super upgrade from Panther. And it sounds like your not having any trouble with Panther. Go buy some more RAM instead with your money.
 
I say yes, go and buy tiger. I love it, the widgets, spotlight, etc..., all are amazing applications that make my daily computing even more enjoyable. BTW I have had (***knocks on wood***) zero problems with tiger- so hopefully you will find it just as stable.
 
here is another vote for upgrading to tiger. it has some nice feat. that panther does not have (that make your daily computing more enjoyable) and if you can get it for the edu price i would not even think twice.

i don't think that the tiger version that is available now will run on an intel based mac in the future. but more power to us if it does!
 
I agree with GimmeSlack12: I'd highly suggest you stick with 10.3.9. 10.4 isn't really that big of a jump to me. I don't use widgets, I rarely use Spotlight (I'm nice and organized :)), Safari 1.3 is just as good as 2.0 since I use NetNewsWire for RSS, Mail 2.0 is nice and faster, but that's about it (ugly UI though), Automator is a joke - too complicated and nothing ever seems to work right, QuickTime 7 is already available for Panther, I use Adium over the bloated iChat, and .Mac sync is not really that great. So yea, it's really not that great, I'd rather have 10.3.9 and have the reliability and stability I once knew then a few features I rarely use (but alas as a developer I must stay up-to-date ;)).

It seems to me that most of the new features in Tiger were things buried deep down in their features to-do list, and they decided to add them to this release.

Tiger was supposed to have a lot of new stuff underneath, but I don't really notice that with all the crashing.

BTW, command-space (to activate Spotlight) really gets in my way a lot more then it is useful :mad:

(ok my Tiger rant is over :))
 
kainjow said:
BTW, command-space (to activate Spotlight) really gets in my way a lot more then it is useful :mad:
Click to expand...
Turn that frown upside down!
You do know that you can disable that key combination, right? System Preferences > Spotlight and just un-click the box beside the key combo. :)
 
i vote that you upgrade to tiger. i have 10.3.9 on my powerbook at home, and tiger 10.4.2 on my work powerbook. when i'm at home, i find i miss spotlight a lot. i have to stop myself from using the command-spacebar keyboard shortcut all the time. i am fairly organized, but i love that i can use that shortcut to find anything on my hard drive, in my emails, anything...

the only thing that's stopping me from upgrading my home powerbook is that i might be putting it up for sale early next year and get a new system to replace it that will have tiger.

marianne
 
Allow me to chip in: I say don't bother. I have 10.3.9 here at home and 10.4.2 at work. The only things I use on Tiger are the calculator widget and a Dilbert widget. Spotlight is useful *occasionally*. I am eligible for the educational version and I haven't bitten yet. I'm a-waiting. 10.2 -> 10.3 is a big jump. Perhaps Tiger's changes are mostly under the hood, but I don't notice any difference between the two computers which are pretty much equaly specc'd.
 
ohcrap said:
How can you say that?

http://www.apple.com/macosx/
http://www.apple.com/macosx/newfeatures/over200.html
Click to expand...

I think it's pretty easy to say Tiger isn't a super upgrade from Panther IMHO. Sure there's a few new features that are cool, but especially considering the substantial issues with enterprise networking, Tiger is pretty disappointing. The only reason why I continue to run Tiger on my PowerBook is because it fixes some OpenGL rendering bugs in X-Plane. When I get my cheapo-Sawtooth G4 later this week, I plan to install 10.3.9.

stevep, if you're asking this question to yourself and you plan to buy a Mactel when they become available, you might as well just wait.
 
Use the money for pints...

dops7107 said:
Allow me to chip in: I say don't bother. I have 10.3.9 here at home and 10.4.2 at work. The only things I use on Tiger are the calculator widget and a Dilbert widget. Spotlight is useful *occasionally*. I am eligible for the educational version and I haven't bitten yet. I'm a-waiting. 10.2 -> 10.3 is a big jump. Perhaps Tiger's changes are mostly under the hood, but I don't notice any difference between the two computers which are pretty much equaly specc'd.
Click to expand...


I mostly agree. Smart folders are nice and Spotlight is nice, but if I were spending my own money (rather than using an institutional license) I'd head to the pub instead. 200 *new* features? Fine, but how many of them are useful? Widgets blow.
 
I would save my money, also. Their are some cool things in Tiger, but they aren't worth spending your money on.
 
Aquajet read my mind:
stevep, if you're asking this question to yourself and you plan to buy a Mactel when they become available, you might as well just wait.
Click to expand...
I want to get a Mac mini, and in preparation for the update bought a Belkin KVM switch and a 1Gb stick from Crucial. But when the update came I thought it was complete pants (esp in the UK where it pushed the price up). So I'm now thinking about waiting until the mini goes Intel (and I bet the 1Gb ram doesn't fit the Intel m/b....).
Perhaps I should just get a mini now, with 10.4, and stick with 10.3 on the the iBook. Decisions, decisions.......
Thanks for all the comments though - pretty even voting at 5 for and 6 against so far.
 
stevep said:
Perhaps I should just get a mini now, with 10.4, and stick with 10.3 on the the iBook. Decisions, decisions...
Click to expand...
Ok I'll add my little bit. I had an older PB that came w/ Panther and then got the new iMac running Tiger-- w/in two weeks, I was inexplicably drawn to 'FS:Tiger discs' on the MR Marketplace. :p Even though it's simple enough to live w/out Dashboard/widgets and Spotlight-- the thing is, those little doodads make things more convenient and simple; and isn't that what a computer should do for you? That said, I could have lived w/out Tiger, but it's so nice... :D
 
Well, you have to ask yourself, how will Tiger increase my productivity? If you don't have any major problems with 10.3, then why upgrade? If you think you'll use Spotlight, Dashboard, etc often, then upgrade. But do realize, it is proven that Tiger is buggy. The 10.4.3 update supposedly has over 400 bug fixes in it!
 
Well I'm glad there are some people that agree with me. I use Tiger just the same as I used Panther. Any of these 200 features that are added in Tiger are very much lost on me. I can count "maybe" 20. Maybe.
 
I use Tiger on my PowerBook, which is my primary computer. I still run Panther (10.3.9) on my Power Mac G5, which is the machine I use for video editing, DVD authoring, etc. I don't miss Tiger when I'm on my Power Mac, with the possible exception of Spotlight. On the other hand, when I have to use Jaguar, I really find myself missing Panther, especially Exposé and the Panther Finder. Some features on Tiger that I don't find to be absolutely must-haves, but still find very useful are Spotlight, Burn Folders, Automator (too buggy to be great), and Dashboard.

It's up to you to decide if you want to upgrade. I'm glad I did, but I don't consider it an essential upgrade, whereas Panther was definitely essential compared to Jaguar.
 
Not quite sure if you've made up your mind yet, but another opinion:

It depends. In part on whether you've already got at least 512MB RAM in your 'Book (if not RAM is a FAR better use of your money), and whether any of the new features sound good to you.

Personally, I'm on balance quite happy with it; the burn folders are awesome and a half, Dashboard is very useful (enough that I've mapped it to one of the buttons on my mouse--that's premium treatment), I quite like the new Mail.app, Keychain search is great, but my favorite feature is actually the new graphics subsystem--on my G5, the elimination of tearing on an LCD is HUGE, particularly when watching videos. The improved graphics alone were worth the price of the upgrade for me.

Also worh noting that Tiger provides some minor power management improvements on laptops--more options in the menu item. And better external monitor handling, but that's mostly useful on a PB.

On the flip side, I'm not all that big on Spotlight (I actually miss the old search for some things--wish there was a half/half solution), and though a few annoying issues from 10.3 are finally gone, there have been some stability issues. 10.4.2 has been acceptable, but it's still not as stable as 10.3.8 or .9.

So basically, do the new features sound worth the potential for some minor glitches and the cost of upgrading? 10.4.3 will probably resolve most issues, but that's still an unknown quantity.

Some folks will find it worthwhile for their needs, others just don't get fired up about anything Tiger offers. Read through the big, ol' feature list; if you don't see anything that sounds killer, pass. If you do, decide if it's worth the cost and hassle.
 
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