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Panther OS X .3, is it worth it right now?

Submitted by mutant_pie on February 10, 2004 - 5:16pm. PowerPC Macs

I usually try to keep my Mac(s) running the latest/greatest OS and upgrades. However, as far as I can tell, there doesn't seem to be an immediate advantage to getting OS 10.3. Noting a previous post on this site, that the latest Safari upgrade is only for 10.3, I realize that the company's policy is to push the new and ditch the old (I was going to type ASAR (As Soon As Reasonable) but who is going to define the term "reasonable" here?). Therefore if I want to stay with the newest upgrades, I have to get it. If I don't, and I don't, I'll probably wait for 10.3.2.

Any dissenting advice/thoughts? Am I missing out on some great application that will only run on 10.3 ?

Mutant_Pie

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rael9's picture

I like it

Submitted by rael9 on February 10, 2004 - 6:13pm.

I don't know if there are any deal-breakers insofar as programs that'll only work in 10.3, but there definitely some good parts about it. Expose, built-in fax stuff, btter printing support, better Windows networking, speed, bugfixes, etc. Unless you have some compelling reason NOT to upgrade, I would just go ahead and get it over with. Just my $2 (2 cents won't buy crap anymore).

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Hmmm. . .

Submitted by mutant_pie on February 10, 2004 - 7:20pm.

Better speed, bug fixes, and better fax functionality are three points that might sell me on it. Thanks. Anyone else?

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rael9's picture

Keep in mind

Submitted by rael9 on February 10, 2004 - 7:56pm.

Keep in mind, though, that to see any speed gains, you'll probably have to do at least an "Archive and Install" or maybe even a "Wipe and Install". Doing a straight upgrade probably will leave you with about the same speed, or maybe even worse, than 10.2.X.

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That's good to know . . .

Submitted by mutant_pie on February 11, 2004 - 5:45am.

Hmmm. . . that's good to know, thanks. Do you know why that is that way?

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Not my experience

Submitted by elefant on February 11, 2004 - 9:21am.

That is not my experience, after I've done a plain upgrade (no archive, didn't have the HD space) my PowerBook did gain some speed, although I think the speed gain is largest on older machines.

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rael9's picture

Well...

Submitted by rael9 on February 11, 2004 - 4:49pm.

It is more of a rule of thumb than a solid fact. YMMV. However, going by the majority of reports online, it seems to be the general concensus. The reason behind it is that OS X's system files are a bit more complex in their interrelations, and upgrading it cleanly can be difficult. The upgrader has to determine what files are OK to replace, and which ones aren't. If it messes up with a few, it won't exactly break the system, but it won't be optimized, either.

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applemachome's picture

Er...

Submitted by applemachome on February 14, 2004 - 4:34am.

I would say expose is the greatest feature, besides windows networking on which i serve all my backup and itunes files. I have not really noticed speed gains, but then again mi on a 1ghz G4. If you got the 130 bucks, go ahead, you will love the upgrade, if not, just wait till next year. :)90

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DrBunsen's picture

I've read that it's not "supp

Submitted by DrBunsen on February 14, 2004 - 7:30pm.

I've read that it's not "supported" on the beige, but will it install and run? Anyone got any experience?

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g3head's picture

XPF

Submitted by g3head on February 14, 2004 - 8:41pm.

XPF was working on those unsupported G3s last I knew. I saw a couple of Wallstreet success stories a while back but don't know about beige G3s yet.

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I believe the status is that

Submitted by dead_elvis on February 14, 2004 - 9:58pm.

I believe the status is that it works, but only with a PCI video card, he is working on internal video.

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rael9's picture

yeah

Submitted by rael9 on February 16, 2004 - 6:08pm.

It definitely isn't OFFICIALLY supported, but it does work with XPostFacto if you have a PCI video card installed. Well it works with my Radeon 7000 anyway. Sort of. I have had some problems getting it to run reliably.

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u should get it it has alot o

Submitted by macgamer22 on February 17, 2004 - 1:48pm.

u should get it it has alot of cool fetures and you can get ilife 04' and it comes with garage band and is very fun to play with and would be very good profetionaly.

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applemachome's picture

GARAGEBAND

Submitted by applemachome on February 20, 2004 - 2:25am.

i know garageband is fun, but its really useless unless you practice guitar or actually need it

you cant really do much without a keyboard or guitar Smiling

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rael9's picture

Finally got it working

Submitted by rael9 on February 20, 2004 - 5:05pm.

Well, I finally have X.3 working on my Beige fairly well. It took some doing, but this was mostly the logistics involved when you can't find your damn OS 9.x CD. Here are the basic steps:

1: Make sure you have either a) OS 9 installed somewhere or b) at the very least an OS 9 CD. Or preferably both.

2: Make sure that you have a partition within the first 8GB of the HD to install X.3 to. If not, boot from Your OS 9 CD and repartition so that you do.

3: Install OS 9 on some partition and boot into it.

4: Put in the X.3 CD. Get XPostFacto from the internet or somewhere and start it.

5: At the top of the XPF screen, select the partition you want to install X.3 on.

6: Down at the bottom of the XPF window is a button to start from the install CD. Click that, and your computer should start up from the CD and start the install. Install away.

7: When it restarts after the first CD finishes, boot back into OS 9 by holding down the Option key while starting up.

8: Start XPostFacto and select your X.3 partition as your startup, and click Restart.

9: It should continue your installation from Disc 2, after it finishes, you are all set.

10: use XPostFacto to switch from X.3 to OS 9 and vice versa whenever you need to.

You should be all set now. Hopefully. A couple of things to keep in mind, though: Internal video does NOT work. You need a PCI Radeon or some such. L2/L3 cache doesn't seem to work correctly yet on upgrade cards. These are both known issues that the XPF author is working on, but as of the current Alpha (11) they are outstanding.

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