Some Panther Details?

[MacRumors]

Rosai Group posts some details regarding the upcoming Panther upgrade.

Panther 10.3 will, as Jaguar 10.2 did, introduce and enable a lot of new functionality for both users and in network servers.

They describe improved Quicktime performance, focus on Directory Services, new open file system features, network browsing and printing improvements... along with the multiple (graphical) user login.

The source of these details is unclear, as no previous information has come from Rosai.

 

[MacManiac1224]

sounds good to me, I think that these features are well needed to make an inudstrial strength operating system comparable to things like Solaris and other Unix variants.

 

[Windowlicker]

oh please, please let the multiple user login be there!! I need it almost every day!

 

[Laslo Panaflex]

I think that all of the rumor talk has overshadowed how exciting Panther is and how good it should be. I can't wait for the show of Panther on Monday, anything else is just a bonus.

 

[shadowfax]

the most interesting thing to me in all this is the finder improvements. smart folders... sounds pretty cool to me!

 

[michaelrjohnson]

They make a very good point about staggered releases.. However, I still think WWDC is a great place for Steve to show off. I am very excited to see panther, I wonder when it will ship??? Anyhow, i think Panther is going to be very exciting, i would love to see a revolutionized finder "departing" from the system 7 approach. I think from this point on our ease of use and productivity will only go up!!!

 

[shadowfax]

what did they mean by Apple updating OS X every year-and-a-half? it's been less than a year since Jaguar, and I can't imagine that they will wait much past september to put Panther on the shelves.... i hope.... at any rate, it darn well better come before February of 2004, when this article seems to suggest it will.

 

[richard5mith]

Any previous report has expected it in September.

 

[emdezet]

print center

i sure hope they really beefed up the printer interfacing. just this week i had to install MacOS 9 back onto my 10GB X-only-iBookHD just to be able to print the paper i had to hand in that day.

network panel told me apple talk was active and print center told me it wasn't. servers on the lan were available, but print center wouldn't let me add network apple talk printers.

fortunately appleworks still runs on OS9.

 

[heathpitts]

I agree that the printer features need updating. That is the biggest weakness that I can see with Jaguar.

 

[Ja Di ksw]

Piles?

I didn't see anything about Piles. Are they still a possibility? People seemed to be really excited about them for awhile, but then a tiny blurb about them possibly not be included came out, and the Pile talk just died

 

[oliverlubin]

i like this part...

"Attend WWDC and you can walk away with your own preview copy..."

is this considered fact?

 

[macnews]

Printer and scanner support are the weakest items in OS X right now in my opinion. I have had HP,Microtek and Umax scanners that have worked off and on with different versions of OS X. I would like to know that they will just work - like the other parts of the digital hub. The same happens with printers! I have one Apple laser writer that will not work over airport (not extreme) on OS 10.4 or higher. PLEASE FIX printers and scanners with Panther. I don't like the short upgrade time frame but am hoping they will give Jaguar buyers a discounted upgrade price.

 

[richard5mith]

Re: i like this part...

Originally posted by oliverlubin
"Attend WWDC and you can walk away with your own preview copy..."

is this considered fact?

Yes, Apple already announced that all conference attendees would get a copy.

 

[AppleMatt]

I'm really excited about this:

QuickTime performance from a revised architecture featuring reentrant code (so multiple applications or threads can make calls to QuickTime simultaneously). Since the existing QuickTime is based on--and contains much of--the classic Mac OS, it can't make use of Mac OS X's multithreaded features. New conferencing and collaboration features will tightly integrate QuickTime with existing iApps, and of course, enable some new ones.

I use QuickTime a lot, and had no idea it was still based so much on OS9 code. Also QT performance is pretty impressive already, so better performance

I wonder what the tighter integration will entail aswell. Panther's gonna be good!

Matt

 

[emdezet]

Re: Piles?

Originally posted by Ja Di ksw
the Pile talk just died

true. i was super-psyched by the idea of Piles and the iPod-dial-Mouse constituting a new interface paradigm.

i really hate Apple for stubbornly shipping one button mice only. i know, there are tons of usb-mice out there. but why register a patent like that dial-mouse and not market it.

 

[richard5mith]

Re: Piles?

Originally posted by Ja Di ksw
I didn't see anything about Piles. Are they still a possibility? People seemed to be really excited about them for awhile, but then a tiny blurb about them possibly not be included came out, and the Pile talk just died

The Smart Folders that the article talks about is kind of like how Piles were being described, where you specified something like an iTunes Smart Playlist (like give me all files updated in the last week from these folders) and you got a pile of documents made up with the result of that query. As the documents on your disk changed, the pile changed automagically.

So this sounds the same, just without the pile part, but displaying as a normal folder.

 

[AppleMatt]

new APIs for Text

Maybe this will bring improvements to the 'blurry text' that a lot of people don't like.

AppleMatt

 

[maradong]

oh, where ar my piles.. I really need them ;-)

 

[michaelrjohnson]

Gosh... I hadn't realized that attendees would recieve a copy!!! that's SO amazing... we can get feature-laden threads in this forum.. (somebody MUST be going).

I too am excited about "Smart" folders, could prove helpful.

 

[shadowfax]

just a reminder--this article doesn't encompass all new Panther features, i hope. if it failed to mention one, that shouldn't be taken as meaning that it won't be there

 

[iShater]

Inevitable question, paid upgrade for Jaguar users? any discounts? I know I got some kind of proof of 10.2 coupon like forms in the iBook box.

Any information about that anywhere?

 

[strider42]

Originally posted by iShater
Inevitable question, paid upgrade for Jaguar users? any discounts? I know I got some kind of proof of 10.2 coupon like forms in the iBook box.

Any information about that anywhere?

Obviously no info out there since 10.3 isn't released yet.

As for the coupons in the iBook box, apple always does this. its usually for if you buy a machine directly before an OS upgrade. SO they won't be any good to you at all.

As for discounts, why would apple offer discounts to 10.2 users. If they are going to charge for it (I think they probably will), they are going to charge everyone full price. They've never offered upgrade pricing before, probably because most people upgrading already have 10.2, so they don't need to offer the incentive and lose money because of it.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Finally some attention to Panther!

10.3 speed improvements....hmmmm no need for a 970 now

 

[iShater]

Originally posted by strider42
Obviously no info out there since 10.3 isn't released yet.

As for the coupons in the iBook box, apple always does this. its usually for if you buy a machine directly before an OS upgrade. SO they won't be any good to you at all.

As for discounts, why would apple offer discounts to 10.2 users. If they are going to charge for it (I think they probably will), they are going to charge everyone full price. They've never offered upgrade pricing before, probably because most people upgrading already have 10.2, so they don't need to offer the incentive and lose money because of it.

Ah, so that is what those are for. Oh well, I couldn't wait.

Other OS vendors (mainly MS) charge an upgrade price and full price. So if you bought Windows XP, you would get an upgrade price for Longhorn, but if you have NT, you don't get the upgrade pricing.

If they stick to the $129 or even less, it would be worth it.