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AlanSteven · Jul 30, 2005, 07:32 AM

I know everyone is talking about Tiger, but I'm still on X.2.8 and very happy with it--except that more and more programs aren't supporting it. So my question is, if I upgrade to Panther [no, not Tiger yet], which version of it has proved most reliable and stable? X.3.what? Thanks for any advice and help.
Alan

Randman · Jul 30, 2005, 07:40 AM

Always go with the last available version. Still, if you are going to upgrade, might as well go to Tiger and get the good stuff. For the vast majority of people, it's been rock solid. Moreso than Panther at the same stage.

Maflynn · Jul 30, 2005, 07:57 AM

May I ask why you don't want to go with Tiger? Your going to run into the problem of compatability if you go the panther route. Perhaps more so then before because apple did a lot of work under the hood, more so then in prior versions so overall you may be better suited going with the latest version.

If you still choose Panther over Tiger just update to the latest release as Randman posted.

Mike

AlanSteven · Jul 30, 2005, 08:32 AM

largely because various sites and forums seem to suggest so many problems that Tiger has caused. Obviously, I could be wrong.
Alan

TheSpaz · Jul 30, 2005, 08:42 AM

Tiger is a big headache... stick with Panther. I love Panther, it's fast and it works right.

TETENAL · Jul 30, 2005, 08:49 AM

Of course those sites report about problems. Nobody reports when everything went fine. As here in the support forum people post when they have problems (it's a support forum after all). When someone has no problem then there's no point going to a support forum or even posting here. And since Tiger is new that's why you are reading most about it here. The reporting and therefore your reception is skewed because of this. I would not expect any significantly more problems with Tiger then when you go to Panther now. I would simply skip Panther and directly update to Tiger.

Randman · Jul 30, 2005, 08:51 AM

Check the recent poll. The vast majority of the people on this forum who have Tiger are quite pleased with it, even if it is only a .2 release. Those who say Panther is faster and better don't know much about Macs and OSX.

AlanSteven · Jul 30, 2005, 11:09 AM

Thanks for all the advice. Most people seem to be recommending Tiger, and I'll think about it before I do anything. But I still wonder--if I were to go with Panther--whether people have had different experiences with different versions? 10.3.7? 10.3.9? 10.3.??

- - e r i k - - · Jul 30, 2005, 12:02 PM

10.4.2 has been rock solid for me. No crashes, no reboots. Nothing. Even Safari seems to be exceptionally reliable for me lately.

Thinine · Jul 30, 2005, 02:07 PM

You have to remember TheSpaz doesn't know what he's talking about, so his opinion is worthless.

Grrr · Jul 30, 2005, 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by Thinine

You have to remember TheSpaz doesn't know what he's talking about, so his opinion is worthless.

Yep

Think of Spaz as Macnn's village idiot. Not to be taken seriously..
10.3.9 is very good. But i'd still go for 10.4.2 It's rock solid here. It isn't such a big change from 10.3, more of a subtle evolution on the scale of things.
Either way, both are lots better than 10.2.8 for a multitude of reasons.

Maflynn · Jul 30, 2005, 05:30 PM

I'm running Tiger on a G5 and a Powerbook. Both computers are rock solid, very stable. The OS is as fast if not faster then Panther. To date I have not incurred any issues with Tiger.

Mike

Salty · Jul 30, 2005, 05:44 PM

Just go with Tiger you shouldn't be disappointed. If possible do a backup just to make yourself feel better when installing. I would be genuinely surprised if you had any problems though.

TheSpaz · Jul 30, 2005, 07:06 PM

Originally Posted by Grrr

Yep

Think of Spaz as Macnn's village idiot. Not to be taken seriously..
10.3.9 is very good. But i'd still go for 10.4.2 It's rock solid here. It isn't such a big change from 10.3, more of a subtle evolution on the scale of things.
Either way, both are lots better than 10.2.8 for a multitude of reasons.

I am not an idiot.
I am not a troll.
I know a lot about OS X and Macs in general.

Why can't I be taken seriously? I'm a Mac user that has an opinion. I gave my advice and you flame me about it. I just happen to be more pleased with Panther at the moment... I'll give Tiger some time to get the bugs ironed out and then I'll switch but, for the meantime, I'm a Panther user. GOSH!

TETENAL · Jul 31, 2005, 05:35 AM

Originally Posted by TheSpaz

Why can't I be taken seriously?

Because you say you have problems with Tiger and therefore claim everybody must have them and should switch back to Panther. That's typical troll behavior.

Grrr · Jul 31, 2005, 09:54 AM

Originally Posted by TheSpaz

Why can't I be taken seriously?

Hmm lets see.. You call yourself 'TheSpaz' Then report bugs that only you seem to suffer significantly from, then do your best to make everyone else here suffer from them too, by posting endless poorly typed drivel about it. As if that wasn't enough, you make matters worse for yourself by thrusting your ill founded beliefs on others.

Krypton · Jul 31, 2005, 10:50 AM

It depends on which machine you are running; with a G3 mac I would say go with 10.3.9, otherwise 10.4.2 is quite snappy

[Spotlight is pants though!]

TheSpaz · Jul 31, 2005, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by AlanSteven

I know everyone is talking about Tiger, but I'm still on X.2.8 and very happy with it--except that more and more programs aren't supporting it. So my question is, if I upgrade to Panther [no, not Tiger yet], which version of it has proved most reliable and stable? X.3.what? Thanks for any advice and help.
Alan

Go with Tiger... I take back my previous post. Tiger has features that Panther doesn't have such as Dashboard and Spotlight (which is pretty darn cool). I seem to be the only one who suffers from minor Tiger problems (stuff that is sooo small that I'm the only one that notices them) so if you aren't bother by really really small mundane details, then Tiger is right for you.

By the way... I booted into Tiger today and I tried printing via Airport and it worked (it would not work correctly in 10.4.1, it would stop in the middle of the page and waste my paper and ink).

All and all, Tiger is a pretty solid OS and I'm sure you will be happy with it.

And for the rest of you all... I apologize for complainging and ranting so much, and I'll only post for now on if I have useful discoveries or questions about Mac OS X. I want to be liked... it sucks when people call me an idiot and say I don't know what I'm talking about.

AlanSteven · Aug 1, 2005, 02:24 PM

My thanks to everyone for all the good advice.
AlanSteven

Appleman · Aug 1, 2005, 02:46 PM

Originally Posted by Thinine

You have to remember TheSpaz doesn't know what he's talking about, so his opinion is worthless.

for the same reasons others have mentioned already

@AlanSteven: I have Tiger running on a PowerMac Dual 2GHz with 2.5 GB RAM, so that should "obviously" run well. However, on an old iMac G3 SE 400 Mhz with 1 GB RAM it runs great as well, never problems, smoothly though a bit slower than the PM (strange, maybe that's a bug?

).

Go ahead with Tiger, why spent the same amount for Panther if you can get Tiger, which is rock solid, faster, has more features, and not very unimportant: it will provide you with the latest compatibility with other programs.
Have fun!

ShotgunEd · Aug 1, 2005, 05:23 PM

10.3.9 was really solid. I remember some problems between 10.3.7 and 10.3.8 that were sorted out.

10.4.2 has proved to be equally solid, maybe slightly faster and I've already been using dashboard and spotlight a lot. Bearing in mind I've only had it running for a few days, I'm really happy.

I did a backup over firewire disk mode and did an erase and install. On reboot I ran software update and reinstated my backup.

No mythical repairing of permissions or running disk first aid or fixing prebindings. Plus indexing didn't take too long. Downloading all the small 3rd party apps and prefpanes again to be sure i have the latest version took slighly longer.

Randman · Aug 1, 2005, 08:33 PM

10.3.9 has the Safari bookmarks bug.

No OS is going to be perfectly safe, but if you look around the forum (we even did a poll recently), you'll see that Tiger has been pretty stable for most people. And considering it's only at 10.4.2, that's a pretty good start.