RSS'Panther' Set for October 24 Launch
By Nate Mook | Published October 9, 2003, 8:10 PM
Apple is gearing up to launch the next version of its Mac OS X operating system, code-named Panther, later this month - just days before Microsoft debuts the first public build of Longhorn.
The new release, which brings Mac OS X to version 10.3, will be available at 8pm on October 24. Apple retail stores nationwide will hold special events to celebrate Panther's long-awaited arrival.
Three days after Panther jumps on the scene, Microsoft will issue to Professional Developers Conference attendees a development build of Longhorn, the next release of Windows expected in 2006.
Although Longhorn won't reach beta status until 2004, developers and industry watchers have waited anxiously for the first official look at Microsoft next-generation operating system following numerous leaks of alpha builds over the past year.
Likewise, Apple has worked hard to squash bugs and finalize interface elements in Panther, as development builds have come fast and furious in the last month. Build 7b85 is expected to serve as the final release of the Panther client, with 7b86 as the server edition.
Mac OS X Server version 10.3, dubbed Panther Server, is designed to run in server environments -- namely on Apple's Xserve -- and will debut alongside the Panther client.
Apple is touting 150 new features in Panther, including a redesigned Finder and fast user switching. A feature called Exposé allows Panther users to instantly see all open windows at once and slide all windows off the screen for quick desktop access.
The much-hyped second version of iChat will also ship with Panther, complete with video conferencing support and buddy lists - a critical feature missing in the initial release. However, buddies still cannot be viewed as groups in a single window, unlike most of iChat's rival IM clients. iChat AV 2.0 will be available to Jaguar users who opt to skip the 10.3 upgrade for $29.95 USD.
Panther will retail for $129 USD, with a "Family Pack" five-user license available for $199 USD. All Power Mac G5 customers can receive a Panther upgrade for $19.95 USD to cover shipping and handling.
Hello,
I just thought I'd actually sign up for an account here (after being a reader of this website for two years). First, a bit about myself. I'm fifteen years old, blind, and use a 4-year-old Compaq twith two hard drives, running Windows 98 SE and Slackware 9.0, without any graphical interfaces or anything (just a good ol' BASH prompt with the built-in screen reader provided on the system).
As far as the debate over which is better, Windows or OSx, it's pretty pointless. People have their preferences for computer type and OS that they like to use--granted, an astonishing majority use Windows in some form or another. I have never used a Mac, nor do I intend to. I personally don't care for them, but I have no problem with people that use them. Data Rat, I use a screen reading program for Windows, JAWS, which has a user base of only about 70,000 worldwide. By your logic, then, it isn't a good product, given it's market share (of course, that's among the non-blind majority also). Even so, the same type of debate rages on in the blind community between people who use JFW and people who use Window-Eyes, a competitor (which I personally don't care for). But anyway, I just thought I'd (hopefully) bring some sanity to this thread.
BTW, can anyone think of a reason why backspaced characters aren't being announced in the comment field? And speaking of the comment field, it's labeled incorrectly (JAWS says, "Subject: Edit").
Garrett
Score: 0
|You know, just a couple years ago this feature
would've been ~swarming~ with Apple fanatics
insisting that their fav computer was on the
verge of leaping from it's pathetically tiny
market share to overtake Microsoft and turn Bill
Gates into a pauper !
Now you guys are like Hitler in his Berlin bunker
during 1945 ...waiting for the inevitable end.
This is all reminiscent of "Team OS/2" (anybody
remember THEM?).
Apple has been dying the SLOW DEATH, and their
only hope of survival is iTunes !
Coming out with an equivalent to Windows 95 in
the year 2000 never bode well for Apple.
Apple couldn't -and never can- destroy Microsoft.
So, WHO will slay the giant ?
Microsoft shall be defeated by ...Microsoft !
Yes, they're fatally infected with 'IBM Disease'.
Major symptoms include tens of thousands of
employees accomplishing almost NOTHING in the
way of products.
While it ~won't~ be Apple (or Linux) replacing
Microsoft Windows, it will be SOMEBODY.
Just thought you'd want to know.
Your Buddy,
The DataRat
Score: 0
|The Computer Rodent wishes apologize to all the
Mac fans offended by El Raton saying that Apple
has "less than a 4% market share".
THAT data is in error.
According to market research firm IDC, Apple has
a 2.9% share of the desktop OS market.
So -from now on- your favorite rodent won't say
that Apple has only under 4% market share ...he'll
say they have less than a 3% market share !
The DataRat
Score: 0
|And, oh, by the way: IDC forecasts that Linux
(currently with a 2.3% market share) will overtake
Apple soon.
So, how it looks is the Apple OS shriveling away
to nothing. ( And Linux leaping into Apple's
former pathetic very distant second-place ! )
But iTunes is doing good ! Your favorite rodent
predicts that -in a few years- Apple will be a
Internet music company instead of a computer
company.
When that happens, remember to tell everybody
El Raton foresaw it occurring !
El Raton de los Datos
Score: 0
|And Microsoft still cares.
Score: 0
|"And Microsoft still cares"
Microsoft is Apples' biggest booster.
Why ? Not because Apples' infinitesimal
market share means ~that~ many sales
for Microsoft software products like
MS Office.
No. Microsoft cares because Apple (and
Linux) are the only things standing between
Microsoft and antitrust violations.
Apples' real rationale for existence is as
a token competitor so -in court- Microsoft
can point to 'em and say: "We're NOT a
monopoly. Look, Apple competes against us !".
Everybody knows that Apple isn't real
competition. Yet, if Apple didn't exist,
Microsoft would have to invent them.
This explains why Microsoft makes applications
to run on Mac's. NOT to sell software to Apples'
puny 2.9% market share ...but for strategic
legal purposes !
Your Friend,
The DataRat
Score: 0
|(from posts below). 4% is a small number, but that is millions of people. I have just purchased a new powerbook and its designed better than any laptop pc i've used.
I use a variety of OSes. From linux, freebsd, to windows, and OS X. I like them all. FreeBSD is GREAT and what is its market share? That is not important. What IS important is that apple makes good products that are reliable and some people like that idea.
Not everything popular is great. In fact, the 4% that apple has encourages them to develop to their best ability. Doing so will show people they are doing good software and win people based on quality. With microsoft having over 90 percent what do you get? VIRUSES, VIRUSES, BUGS, Security holes, and the list goes on. In microsofts world, quantity rules over quality. And many people, including myself will go with quality over quantity I think.
But...if you want to look at pure numbers, go with microsoft and leave the people using other oses alone.
Score: 0
|having used MacOS since.. 1992 (i used the classic, then skipped to 7.x a couple years later), I actually like OS X even thoguh I'm a windows guy. Problem is, games are an issue. And prodycr availability.
Other than that, it's all good. Next compy may be a powerbook, but we'll see.
Score: 0
|Apple is a niche-player with less than 4% market share.
It's sole rationale for existence is to protect Microsoft
from antitrust charges !
Apple ain't anything more than hype and translucent
tangerine colored computer cases. But, as the Computer
Rodent stated, they need to stay in business so
Microsoft can claim that competitors exist.
The DataRat
Score: 0
|You really have no clue do you?
Score: 0
|It's a shame to see people talk with authority who have never used a Mac, or experienced how Apple continues to innovate (real innovation, not kind that Microsoft uses when they market other companies ideas as their own).
Bill Gates is a brilliant business and marketing person, but if it were not for Apple, everyone would still be using fix width fonts.
Not to mention the difference in the company interface experience.
For example, what happens when you report a bug?
Apple: You receive a response like "Thank you for bringing this problem to our attention..." followed by details (usable by anyone - not in 'abort, retry, ignore' language) on how to provide Apple more information to eliminate the problem.
Microsoft: You get this "Please provide your credit card number so that we can charge you $245 to assist you"
Score: 0
|Well I am using computer since 1982 and I have the opportunity to use all versions of Windows and also I run a small computer business selling Microsoft products as Microsoft OEM partner, Six months back I was on the apple site just browsing and I don't know why it came in my mind and I purchased a powerbook just for fun I never thought at that time I am going to use it for good and today I regret why I never paid attention towards Apple. I am glad that I switched to apple and today all our office is using MACs and we are selling windows. So I believe it is not a good practice to issue any comments for anything you don't know.
Score: 0
|"how Apple continues to innovate ...real innovation"
Yeah, those translucent tangerine-colored computer
cases were REAL innovation !
Face it: Apple didn't have a Windows95-comparable OS
until the year 2000 !
"Bill Gates is a brilliant business and marketing
person"
Oh, right, like Steve Jobs is some software genius !
Give us a break. Steve Jobs is all fluff and no
substance.
As for pure marketing, Jobs got Gates beat ~any~
day of the week. But, Gates is a businessman
...which Jobs ain't.
"For example, what happens when you report a bug?
Apple: You receive a response like 'Thank you for
bringing this problem to our attention'..."
Yeah, yeah. When you've got a tiny installed base of
users, you can send out nice notes !
And, don't forget that nobody writes viruses for an
OS with less than a 4% market share.
Oh, the joys of using an obscure OS !
As for the fixed vs. variable fonts ...so what ?
Apple was ~still~ using one button mice when PC
users had three button mice. It more than comes
out in the favor of Pc's when you look at the
Big Picture.
But, Apple users NEVER had a grasp of the Big
Picture !
Your Friend,
The DataRat
Score: 0
|"You really have no clue do you"
Typical attitude of an Apple user.
In their own little (and, El Raton
means LITTLE) world ! Effete elitist
snobs.
The Apple OS is the next OS/2.
The Computer Rodent can recall when
they had 10% market share (never was
more than ~that~ !) ...a LONG time
ago.
Then, 7%. Developers stopped writing
software for it at this point.
Now it's below 4% market share. Can't
go much below THAT and stay in the
personal computing business !
The DataRat thinks in a few years
Apple will be selling music on-line
but not selling computers.
El Raton de los Datos
Score: 0
|>>>For example, what happens when you report a bug?
Microsoft: You get this "Please provide your credit card number so that we can charge you $245 to assist you"
Score: 0
|"I switched to apple"
One guy. Proves zero.
There's always been traitors. Benedict Arnold.
The Rosenbergs. Sean Penn.
Why is the Apple installed base less than 4%
if it's so wonderful ?
Facts are, Apple's market share decreased from
10% to under 4% over the years because people
have been abandoning it ...NOT because people
have been going to it !
Your favorite rodent can recall five years ago
hearing Apple users brag about how their OS was
going to overtake Pc's 'any day now'.
Don't hear that anymore. ( It's the Linux fanatics
saying it today. Another second-rate OS with
delusions of grandeur ! )
No place to go with a less than 4% market share
except out of the computer business.
DR
Score: 0
|Nice Expose feature, isn't that like the show desktop thing in windows? Wut kind of innovation is that? Oh yeah, and the G5 looks strikingly similar to the Opteron that available 6+ months earlier..hmm..i wonder.
Score: 0
|Apparently Microsoft does. Otherwise ther woldn't be MS Office, MSN Messenger, IE, etc. for Mac would it?
Score: 0
|"Nice Expose feature, isn't that like the show desktop thing
in windows? Wut kind of innovation is that?"
The Computer Rodent pronounces Apple: 'Behind the Curve !'.
Yes, Steve Jobs is a hapless twit, and Apple lost all
pretense of superiority after Windows 95.
Apple was really good at PREMATURE release of software
~unsupported~ by existing hardware. Now that hardware
has caught up with software ...Apple only falls ~more~
behind !
The genius of Bill Gates has always been synching software
with existing hardware. With 128-k of RAM, the Macintosh
was only a bad joke. ANYBODY can create an Operating System
existing hardware ~won't~ support !
DOS was a major success because it paralleled 1-meg RAM
systems.
Now that hardware ~exceeds~ OS standards, the Apple OS
only falls further behind.
The fatal problem with Apple was they never could synch
their OS with existing hardware capabilities. Thus they
have always been a FAD rather than a STANDARD.
Today they're ~not~ even that. Apple is about trivialities
of the color and shape of computer cases !
So, we find Apple fanatics revealing in PAST GLORY and a
supposed superiority of premature feature release.
The DataRat
Score: 0
|You are a Class A troll. But it's painfully obvious you've never used OS X. And you haven't even looked at a Mac for years(backed up by your references to their colored designs), Apple hasn't had colored Macs for years.
I almost feel pity for you, you fear Apple so much your first instinct is to post consecutive flames against them where there is nary a person here on the defending side. Either that or you have an agenda since your posts are nothing more than over-confident spewing of ignorance instead of fact.
I suggest anyone who reads these comments and doesn't want to be lead around by The DataRat like some sheep go check out the Panther section on Apple's site [ http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/index.html/ ]
Especially check out the section on Expose since it's a very cool feature, DataRat and his friend(or maybe it's just his second account) tried to set up a small portion of what it can do as a Strawman since it's the only thing that they could rip on without looking like complete fools.
Proud Mac switcher who is glad to be off of Windows after 8 years.
Score: 0
|Make that http://www.apple.com/macosx/
not techtv.com...
Score: 0
|I have used the OS and it is the only os that i know of that when it updates it downgrades the OS. I am not a Mac hater at all, the OS used to be good at what it did, but since Linux versions (OS X) the mac is more and more a pc.
Why dont they get off their high horse and just run windows already. They could be a very good hardware vendor.
Score: 0
|Sorry but you sound bogus, or should I say, "I smell a Rat".
You almost make it sound like you're a Mac user, but you aren't really.
Old world Mac users would never advocate for them to "just run windows already" and would see Panther as a welcome UPGRADE since it's OS9-like snappiness and has brought back some features from 9.
New World Mac users love OS X and would not give a second though about 9.
You're obviously not familiar with Mac, nor with Panther in particular so please don't make factual sounding statements when you don't know what you're talking about.
And FYI, OS X is built upon BSD, which isn't Linux it's UNIX. Please come back when you're more informed.
Score: 0
|"Facts are, Apple's market share decreased from
10% to under 4% over the years because people
have been abandoning it ...NOT because people
have been going to it !"
WHere are you getting this information?
Can you please post a site?
If you knew anythign about market share and %s. you would know that apple could be gaining more and more mac users a year and still have a descline in market share. It is not based on thier level of users as much as thier level of users compared to other companies.
Since you seem very young and uneducated, I will educate you with a simple example.
*EXAMPLE*
John has 10 apples.
Lisa has 90 apples.
John has 10% of the apples between them both.
John baught 90 more apples bringing him to 100 apples.
Lisa baught 1810 more apples bringing her number to 1900
John now has 5% of the total apples between them both.
FACT IS..
JOHN NEVER LOST APPLES.
JOHN HAS INCREASED HIS APPLES by 10 times.
I thin kyou need to revaluate that statement about people LEAVING THEM.
Score: 0
|"Apple, everyone would still be using fix width fonts."
Uhh You mean Adobe.
Score: 0
|"apple could be gaining more and more mac users a year
and still have a descline in market share"
Sort of like more people are being murdered every year
but the murder rate is decreasing ?
The point remains that Apple products are in decline.
They're niche products like Linux. (Except that Linux
has even ~fewer~ users than Apple!)
This shall probably come as a shock to a lot of you,
but a corporation ISN'T successful by having a smaller
market share.
The DataRat
Score: 0
|http://www.macobserver.c...icle/2003/04/28.6.shtml
Score: 0
|I've used MacOS X before and it's nice but not really useful if you're outside of graphics design. It is true that os x is catered toward a niche group. At work we have an employee computer purchase program from both apple and dell. Guess who has the biggest font? Yeah that's right Apple. Why? cause the web master is an apple zealot. I'm not kidding you. The url taking you to apples web site is made up of 20 points font and the one from dell is 12 points in the intranet's web page. If I were looking for it I certainly would not be able to find it. Is this the general attitude of apple users? I hope not because if it was I certainly would not be buying it.
Score: 0
|"suggest anyone who reads these comments and doesn't
want to be lead around by The DataRat like some sheep
go check out the Panther section on Apple's site"
Yes, all Apple Drones: Don't listen to the Truth.
Instead proceed immediately to your nearest Apple
site.
Repeat: Ignore the Truth, and go to the nearest
Apple site for instructions on what to think !
The DataRat
Score: 0
|"I almost feel pity for you, you fear Apple so much your
first instinct is to post consecutive flames against them"
Oh, yeah, right ! The Computer Rodent is in abject FEAR
of Apple's whopping less than 4% market share.
Aaah, it's ~so~ scary !
Ha ! Ha ! Ha ! Under 4% market share, and YOU think we're
"afraid" of Apple.
You guys are tripping !
El Raton de los Datos
Score: 0
|"Uhh You mean Adobe"
Hey, if Apple can take credit for GUI from PARC,
it can certainly claim to have invented variable
fonts from Adobe.
In the convoluted, delusional world of "All Things
Mac", Steve Jobs (and Al Gore) invented EVERYTHING
from the Internet to fonts !
Who are you to dispute that Apple didn't invent the
air we breathe ?
Reality for Apple Zombies is what Steve Jobs says it
is. Don't get confused by the Truth.
Just click your heals together like Dorothy and say:
"There's no place like Apple, there's no place like Apple,
there's no place like Apple !".
The DataRat
Score: 0
|