Panther Pre Release

[Rivak]

http://panther.knite.net

[~clean]

very cool ... i wish i had a mac .. got panther sitting on me desktop right now !

[aaron901]

It's actually alt + tab on the PC. 

I wish I knew how to get my hands on Panther...

You do. You can order it at around September at the Apple store. Just be patient. :rofl:

are you sure about that? 'coz i was freaking out when i heard "before the end of the year"... would be great if it's available in sep. :)

[kryptonik]

are you sure about that? 'coz i was freaking out when i heard "before the end of the year"... would be great if it's available in sep. :)

Well, I'm not positive, but that is what I heard. :unsure:

[Cara Veteran]

August is what I've read.......somewhere. ;)

[Gator]

I'm truly impressed. So many visual enhancements and more. Observations so far:

- Finder. It is definitely faster and I wasn't too keen on the brushed metal but with with the new features it's growing on me. For those that were wondering you can hide the new side bar and you can still add icons like get info, delete, ect. to the titlebar.

-Expos? is officially the coolest thing on an OS ever. The video doesn't even come close to doing it justice. It's fast, flawless movement. I will never need to minimize a window to the dock again.

-System Preferences is getting a big visual overhaul. News tabs are beautiful and each preference pane is sporting a new look that is much easier to use, especially the desktops/screen effects. The only pane that hasn't changed is the "General" appearance one. Apple's probablly saving this for last.

(Y))(Y)

[Cara Veteran]

The question I have, is the Developer's Preview Time Limited?

I know Internal Builds are not time-bombed and I'm curious if the build you guys have is?

[wtmcgee]

from what i gathered, it looks like it's going to be pushed back a little bit for now. who knows, maybe it'll be pushed up ... but right now i think it's shooting for a later in the year date (NOT sept.)

[Gator]

The question I have, is the Developer's Preview Time Limited?

I know Internal Builds are not time-bombed and I'm curious if the build you guys have is?

No, there is no time limit.

[blackice912 Veteran]

I so want to order my iBook, right now.

I'd charge it onto my credit card, but then I'd have more debt and pay more in total than I would by just waiting and saving up the cash.

Bloody interest. Die.

[Bizkit]

I know what you mean.

[iCe|]

http://idisk.mac.com/mikeabrahams/Public/expo.jpg

[Fusion]

Gator, how does it seem to be running on your iBook? Does it seem sluggish at all on the G3 or does it run just as fast and smooth as 10.2 did?

btw, nice change on your name, how come?

[Gator]

Gator, how does it seem to be running on your iBook? Does it seem sluggish at all on the G3 or does it run just as fast and smooth as 10.2 did?

btw, nice change on your name, how come?

It isn't sluggish at all. The Finder is faster, and everything else is really the same as Jaguar as far as speed goes.

[Chad]

It's great to hear about the finder speed updates. Keep reporting your impressions people!

[kryptonik]

Damn, I can't wait until they finally decide to upgrade the PowerBook, at this rate I can't decide on the upgraded 15" or the upgraded iMac. :geek:

[aristotle-dude]

You have a long wait for G5 laptops unless if the underclock a 1.8 ghz part to 1.6 Ghz maybe.

[Nova_rock]

You have a long wait for G5 laptops unless if the underclock a 1.8 ghz part to 1.6 Ghz maybe.

i'm sure it will be quite a while and in the mean time the older ppc chips will power the lappys and budget apples

[the evn show]

I'll write a complete review later. Here are my thoughts after a few hours.

They finally fixed SMB networking. In jaguar if you connected to an SMB share, then unplugged your network cable and then tried to use the finder you'd get beach-balled to death. Now you can safely unplug, it tries for about 15 seconds to establish the connection then gives up and unmounts the drive. Excellent.

The connect to server box is stripped. I liked the old one much better. Clicking browse takes you to the finder servers window which would be great if SMB or NFS server showed up there (but they dont) so you have to know the IP or name of the server you want to connect to. Kinda sucks but I'm sure they'll get to that.

Speed is much better. I don't know if they just made the animations run twice as fast or if killing the shadows on buttons and such makes that big a difference but the interface feels more responsive.

The finder is much faster. Click on applications is instant, almost like it was cached at startup. Clicking on utils had a brief delay (<.5 seconds) and since then no mater what folder I got to has been fast.

New Icons. They're a little more muted than the standard aqua ones - more grey.

I don't like the blue outline around items in the finder when you drag drop etc. Lables also look a little cheap. Reminds me more of Windows XP than it does of OS X.

Expos? is the best task switching system ever. It's fast, elegant, and it works. There is no reason to go any other way anymore - it's just so darn good. If the Linux/Windows folks are listening THIS IS THE FEATURE TO COPY. You really get a feel for where your documents are coming from and going to. It makes it much easier to track numerous documents and easier to find ones you lost.

Itunes searching is increadibly fast. Not as fast as itunes but I've never had to wait more than half a second for results to appear on full harddisk searches. Wow.

File vault: where the heck is the settings for this?

Quicktime, itunes, etc all have matching buttons again. About bloody time!

I'm willing to ignore the interface uglies because it is pre-release software that's up to a 6 months from shipping. Can't expect perfection.

iChat pulls your login photo and uses as your avatar. I thought that was pretty cool. It's also synced to the photo for "me" in your address book. I thought it was pretty slick, its just one of the apple details we've all come to love.

The new finder (while ugly) does make navigating and file management a lot easier. I hate the brushed metal look but it's just so damn useful.

This is definetly a pre-order / first possible day purchase.

[gravel5839]

i am about to install the panther preview... wish me luck

[aristotle-dude]

i'm sure it will be quite a while and in the mean time the older ppc chips will power the lappys and budget apples

Maybe IBM will move the G3 beyond 1 Ghz and add a vector processing unit to make a mobile processor for laptops?

[the evn show]

they did - it's called the G4 ;)

[Bizkit]

i am about to install the panther preview... wish me luck

Good luck.

[Gator]

New ftp/server icon:

[Gator]

Another little tidbit. For .Mac members, Panther has a new iDisk feature. You can set it to keep a "copy" of your iDisk on your hard drive and when you add/remove a file to it it will automatically sync it to your iDisk online automatically in the background.

As you can see, I only have 6 MB left on my iDisk and need to clean out the old stuff.