[Silencer]

I posted this in Mac OS X but i thought this would also be a better place, anyway.

What are peoples impressions of panther on their iBooks? I have a 900mhz model and was wondering if apart from the features it was worth it, a while ago i heard it made things feel snappier and faster, anyone else noticed this?

Thanks

[der Kopf]

I noticed it very much on my iBook 600 (which doesn't have Quartz Extreme). Finder turned a lot snappier, and the structural differences in the Finder speed up workflow a lot (important if you often work with many files), startup times literally halved, Expose very nice and smooth (even without the QE), GUI a LOT more refined than Jaguar (I never knew those stripes were such a pain).
I don't think applications themselves, running on Panther, are faster though (such as Photoshop and the like). It's just that many of the base applications that constitute OS X (Finder & Mail e.g.) have gotten much better and faster.

I have an iBook G4 now that can only run Panther, so I can't really speak about that.

[CeRtiFiedSkitZo]

Originally posted by der Kopf:
I noticed it very much on my iBook 600 (which doesn't have Quartz Extreme). Finder turned a lot snappier, and the structural differences in the Finder speed up workflow a lot (important if you often work with many files), startup times literally halved, Expose very nice and smooth (even without the QE), GUI a LOT more refined than Jaguar (I never knew those stripes were such a pain).
I don't think applications themselves, running on Panther, are faster though (such as Photoshop and the like). It's just that many of the base applications that constitute OS X (Finder & Mail e.g.) have gotten much better and faster.

I have an iBook G4 now that can only run Panther, so I can't really speak about that.

I noticed you keep saying that you installed Panther and that Expose works great "even w/out QE" I could be mistaken but QE is built within Panther so in fact you do have QE. Here's a statement from the Apple site itself. "Expos� works hand-in-hand with Quartz (the graphics engine behind everything you see in Panther"

So I think you may have thought that OE was some sort of graphics card or hardware, but in fact it's a software engine built in Panther.

[andreas_g4]

Originally posted by CeRtiFiedSkitZo:
I noticed you keep saying that you installed Panther and that Expose works great "even w/out QE" I could be mistaken but QE is built within Panther so in fact you do have QE. Here's a statement from the Apple site itself. "Expos� works hand-in-hand with Quartz (the graphics engine behind everything you see in Panther"

So I think you may have thought that OE was some sort of graphics card or hardware, but in fact it's a software engine built in Panther.

QE is a technology built in in Panther, but it requires at least a 16 MB Radeon graphix card. He has an iBook with an 8 MB ATI card, and so his iBook is not running QE.

[CeRtiFiedSkitZo]

Originally posted by andreas_g4:
QE is a technology built in in Panther, but it requires at least a 16 MB Radeon graphix card. He has an iBook with an 8 MB ATI card, and so his iBook is not running QE.

Oh OK, I was a little confused there about QE, I thought it would work on any machine that Panther is installed on.

[Dave N]

I didn't really notice any overall speed improvements on my iBook 900 after upgrading to Panther. 10.2 already seemed pretty snappy.

Preview does seem to be faster now, and Expose is nice. I really like what they've done with the new finder window and file navigation too. I never use the fast user switcher since I'm the only user. Other than that, it seems about like 10.2 to me (despite Apple's claim of "...it's like having a whole new Mac". I got 10.3 for $65 with my Gov't employee discount, but I'm not sure I'd pay full retail for it. I'd maybe wait until the next upgrade (or buy 10.3 if they come out with an update to make it worth while).

That said, I'm just a "casual user". Maybe if you're into the OS more you may get more out of 10.3

[OldManMac]

I'm running Panther on a 600Mhz iBook, with 8Mb VRAM, and 256Mb RAM, and it is noticeably snappier. Right now I've got 15 apps loaded, and Expose works fine.

[Robertk2012]

Its worth 60-70 on a ibook 900 but I wouldnt pay 100 or more. It is much improved. Mainly features. expose is nice on the 12".

[NYCFarmboy]

Originally posted by der Kopf:
I noticed it very much on my iBook 600 (which doesn't have Quartz Extreme). Finder turned a lot snappier, and the structural differences in the Finder speed up workflow a lot (important if you often work with many files), startup times literally halved, Expose very nice and smooth (even without the QE), GUI a LOT more refined than Jaguar (I never knew those stripes were such a pain).
I don't think applications themselves, running on Panther, are faster though (such as Photoshop and the like). It's just that many of the base applications that constitute OS X (Finder & Mail e.g.) have gotten much better and faster.

I have an iBook G4 now that can only run Panther, so I can't really speak about that.

I agree with this..I just installed Panther on a 500 mhz ibook... as this quoted post above states, it is definaly snappier to work with. And I'm SO glad the stripes are gone.

As to whether it is worth the upgrade price? If you are not cash strapped..yes. If not..I'd wait until 10.3.2 comes out. (or at this rate 10.4..I'm not wild about being charged for an upgrade very year).

But..expose is nice...and logging in between different users is just totally wicked...ultra cool.




EDIT: Agrees with post below this one... I was considering getting a 12" powerbook, but Panther on the ibook really made me change my mind about upgrading. I have the use of a 17" powerbook for a month before it goes to my brother, I've been using it and it is nice and all, but really too big to use as a laptop/traveling. I just have a 500 mhz ibook, but will keep it as it is for at least another year now. My ibook is 2 years old, so Panther gave it one more year of life at least for me....at or at least until they ship a 12" or similar size powerbook with a G5 chip.

[arclight]

I have an ibook G3/800/640MB and Panther has changed my mind about selling this machine. This machine with Jaguar was just a little too slow for my taste. I had already put it on Ebay when I decided to throw Panther on it just to see if there was a difference. WOW! It is much, much faster than Jaguar. Well worth the $100 IMO. I'm not selling it now and don't plan to anytime soon. The three macs that I have installed Panther on are all much snappier now. It seems that the biggest speed improvements come from older machines. I have Panther running on my old 8600! Try putting XP on a 1997 era PC-

[bimmerphile]

I've ran panther on my iBook G4 800 for a good 3 weeks on this 21" studio display in front of me (Read: using only 16MB VRAM).

Everything is great.

[andreas_g4]

I have to add to my previous posting:

I have an 900 MHz iBook and a friend of mine has the 800 MHz G4 iBook. System-releated tasks are abolutely equal, as far as you can feel. Apps start fast, the user interface is fast, even iPhoto, what I thought to be faster on the G4 iBook, is as fast on my machine as on the G4 iBook. Of couse, Photoshop etc. is noticably faster on the G4.

GET PANTHER. OUT OF QUESTION. IMO.

[ccsccs7]

Originally posted by CeRtiFiedSkitZo:
I noticed you keep saying that you installed Panther and that Expose works great "even w/out QE" I could be mistaken but QE is built within Panther so in fact you do have QE. Here's a statement from the Apple site itself. "Expos� works hand-in-hand with Quartz (the graphics engine behind everything you see in Panther"

So I think you may have thought that OE was some sort of graphics card or hardware, but in fact it's a software engine built in Panther.

Quartz and Quartz Extreme are the same and also different. Quartz is the basic rendering technology used in Mac OS X. Quartz Extreme was introduced in Mac OS X 10.2 that allows Quartz to run with graphics hardware acceleration (with an AGP ATI Radeon with 16MB+ memory or certain NVIDIA cards).