Panthered
Comments: 22
Speaking of big cats, the ol’ Pismo was Panthered a few days ago. I swore I wasn’t going to install Mac OS 10.3 yet — too busy, deadlines, must develop a sense of responsibility and so on — but, naturally, who could wait?
I cloned the startup disk to two external FireWire drives, installed Panther on one of these, and when I was convinced that it was not going to be a traumatic experience to upgrade, went ahead and put it on the main drive. And I’m glad I did. Apart from a very noticeable speed boost, I think the new Finder is a big improvement over the previous version. I still don’t think it’s great, mind you, but it’s better.
Except for the brushed metal, of course, which sucks.
And threading in Mail — at last. Such a handy thing and well-executed, too.
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Posted to Computers • 2003.11.02 (Sun) • 22:05
Comments
Posted by Jean 2003.11.02, 22:45
If you don’t like the brushed metal effect (I have to say I’m partial to it), you can actually remove it and have your finder look like the normal OS X interface.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens 2003.11.03, 00:11
We installed Panther last night, although I wasn’t sure the upgrades would be worth the $130 price tag. But since AJM wanted to pay for it, I demured.
One thing I really noticed, and it’s not a good thing—I like to view a folder full of jpegs in the column view and down-arrow through the list to find the one I want. In 10.1 and 10.2 I could down-arrow quite rapidly and the preview would display immediately so that I could “flip” through the photos. Not so in 10.3. There is a definite pause between each preview, so that I have to wait (impatiently) while for the preview to display. This feature is now so slow that it’s driving me crazy!
Well, I plan to give it a workout today and see if it adjusts to me or whether I’ll have to adjust to it.
Posted by jh 2003.11.03, 01:18
> There is a definite pause between each preview
Aargh —- yes! I noticed this, too, and definitely agree that the behaviour was better in Jaguar.
I’m trying to offset every negative aspect I find with at least one positive thing (so on balance I’ll know I’ve made the right decision upgrading ;-), so I’ll say here that at least Image Capture now downloads Nikon RAW files properly.
Posted by Erik J. Barzeski 2003.11.03, 01:19
The metal in the Finder allows you to grab a window nearly anywhere to move it, and that’s a plus.
Posted by Thomas Chai 2003.11.03, 02:34
The best part of the treading feature is to able to followup long list of conversation between yourself and the other parties. One of the least mentioned feature I find helpful is to command-click between incoming mailbox and the sent mailbox to follow the whole thread messages.
Posted by Mary Beth 2003.11.03, 06:19
I’m glad to hear that the Pismo is doing well with 10.3. I finally found a good home for mine and I hope he’ll upgrade that fine little machine. Even on my new alum. PB I think the speed is boosted, the best descriptive I can come up with is that everything feels “lighter” to me. While I don’t much care for the metal look, it’s the least of things in my book. I do like the new finder, am playing with the font book. Like the speedy PDF viewing too. And expose (forgive the no accent there) rocks!
Posted by MJ 2003.11.03, 11:33
hee hee I installed it yesterday..couldn’t help myself either…I also don’t care much for the metal look…
Posted by Kristen 2003.11.03, 12:50
Why is it that so many people don’t like the brushed metal look? I for one love it. My first Mac is arriving tomorrow; an iBook G4. Yay for switching!
Posted by jh 2003.11.03, 14:57
It’s really just a matter of taste. That and I think it’s been inconsistently applied, so I never really got a strong sense that Apple knew what it for. Why brushed metal for some applications and not others?
I don’t think it adds anything in terms of providing information about what certain windows or apps can or can’t do (there are other, less obtrusive ways to provide such information), and I can’t help but think that it’s becoming so pervasive simply because Steve Jobs likes it.
It should be an option you can turn on or off.
Posted by 990000 2003.11.03, 15:41
I’ve been holding off on upgrading, and ever since I read the dreaded “deleting-all-files-in-your-external-firewire-drive” issue in Wired, I’ve had seconds thoughts on upgrading altogether.
and I didn’t feel any fancy feature would be worth the upgrade unless it sped up overall performance (why can’t they just find a way to make it as fast as OS9 already?).
I guess you didn’t run into any firewire problems during the upgrade. that’s great news.
Posted by Scott 2003.11.03, 18:43
I initially found the install process rather tedious, around 2 and a half hours on a g3 iBook 700mhz with 384mb ram. This was using the archive and install option.
I was a little baffled by the slow install time and thought I did something wrong, so like a sucker for punishment I did the install again and optioned out the language packs. This time it took around 45 minutes. Weirdness.
Which makes me wonder, how did everyone else do their installs?
As for the brushed metal, I’m not a huge fan. Aqua always had my affection however a hybrid Aqua/Brushed metal might be the way to go.
Posted by Jez 2003.11.03, 19:56
I must admit, I am loving Panther to bits. My G4 has had a very noticeable speed improvement, and when my Dual G5 arrives at the end of the week i’m sure i’ll see an ever bigger one! :)
But seriously I think Apple has outdone themselves again, the Finder is a lot snappier and i’m soooo glad they brought back labels! Why on earth they took them out in the first place is beyond me.
I’ve had my rant :)
Posted by jh 2003.11.03, 20:41
990000 —- No FireWire trouble at all, touch wood. I’m using a couple of old VST tech bus-powered thin drives and a Que M3.
Scott —- don’t hate me, but all I did with the installation was dump Panther onto what was already there. No reinitialising anything, no Archive & Install … just dumped it on. I have to say that it was actually about the smoothest system upgrade I’ve ever done (I had bad trouble with Jaguar and got bitten by the Archive & Install problems that plagued it. Ended up having to wipe everything and start from scratch).
Jez —- There are some astonishing touches. Check out 3D colour profiles in ColorSync. And the way the images icon rotates as you download pictures in Image Capture (a la fast user switching).
Although there are still some glaring points of confusion (why is the colour I select as my highlight colour not the colour I see when I highlight something…? And why are there multiple versions of the highlight colour used in different places for that matter?), I get the sense that Apple has really given Panther a lot of thought.
I think this whole OS X thing might work out after all. ;-)
Posted by eff 2003.11.03, 20:46
You’ve probably all read about this already - but just in case: Be very, very careful with Panther and external Firewire drives. Apple already acknowledged that Panther can destroy all your data on FW 800 drives, but there are also plenty of reports (link 1, link 2) from FW 400 drive owners who had their drives hosed. This seems to affect Oxford-based FW bridges only (FW 800 - Oxford 922, FW 400 - Oxford 911)
Until an update becomes available, I’ll keep all my external FW drives disconnected while using Panther - better to be safe than …
Posted by eff 2003.11.03, 20:47
pfffff … I guess I should have reloaded the comments page at least once before hitting “post” :-)
Posted by jh 2003.11.03, 21:33
eff —- no problem. This is the sort of thing you can never be reminded of too much. Thanks for those links.
Posted by Garrett 2003.11.04, 01:07
Since Panther only destroys drives over 137GB, most people will be safe (including me with my LaCie 80GB FW400 drive which is working perfectly). The Panther clean install on my Dual G5 took about 12 minutes or so, which included all the language packs (why I keep choosing to install these is beyond me, especially since I customize the install every time).
The combination of the Dual G5 and Panther is unbelievable. Everything is zippy and, as Mary Beth said, feels “lighter” (good description). Running Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Mail, Safari, and iChat AV with a running two-way video chat doesn’t even break a sweat, and all the while Expose looks like butter. It’s fantastic.
Posted by eff 2003.11.04, 03:52
Garrett,
I wouldn’t be too sure about the size limit - I myself lost all data on a WD 80GB drive inside an IceCube FW400 enclosure. While I can’t vouch that my data loss was caused by the FireWire bug, it happened the same day I installed Panther and directly following a restart - just like it happened to all the other “victims”.
Also, Oxford issued a statement (see my macintouch link above) that the problem is not necessarily restricted to FW800 enclosures. IMHO, if you own a FW drive of any flavor and are using Panther, you should be exercising caution when using the drive - e.g., don’t start (connect) the drive before the computer’s boot process has completed, always unmount (disconnect) the drive before shutting down the computer. I’m not sure that this is a valid work-around but as stated above - better to be safe than without your data. :-)
Posted by Scott 2003.11.04, 12:34
Jeremy - yes I do hate you (not seriously). The only drive I have is the one sitting on the iBook. Time for second drive I think.
Posted by Alex 2003.11.04, 22:56
Its appears that only large FW800 drives have a problem. The real sleeper problem is Fire Vault. People have been reporting problems, lost data, preferences etc. Apple is allegedly looking into it as well. Personally, I think that implementation is a little poor. - Why entire home directory by default? - Why not just Fire Vault folder w/in the home directory? - SLOW and EATS UP DISK SPACE (because encrypts cache files etc. hence can eat up unlimited amount of space if a user does not logout / restart on a regular basis - took 2-3 GB on my disk after only 4 hours of continuous use on my system) - bad if you are streaming Video / Music out of your home directory … G4 does not have enough power to do this at once … not sure about G5s - writing anything to the home directory takes significantly LONGER … I mean copying from FW400 drive directly to the home dir, feels like you are using a USB 1.1 drive. - need to be more refined and configurable … for people that don’t want to encrypt cache files, mp3s, videos in the home directory, but only Documents, Mail and “Special” and perhaps Images (but even iView craws at rebuilding thumnails in a fairly small catalog … saving a catalog is a bitch too).
Also File Vault seems to corrupt JPGs / TIFFs / PSDs that has their icons created by pic2icon and such … odd!
Posted by eff 2003.11.04, 23:32
“Its appears that only large FW800 drives have a problem. (…)”
That is incorrect - Oxford Semiconductor states on their site that
“As there is currently no evidence that this issue is purely related to Oxford’s 922 based drives, Oxford Semiconductor is advising all FireWire drive users to take advantage of further Panther revisions as they arise.”
Also, a german Mac dealer (Format) released a firmware update for their FW400 enclosures this morning. However, I would refrain from using it since the ReadMe states in no uncertain terms that it’s beta-level software.
This should be sufficient proof that the problem does affect all FireWire enclosures with Oxford bridges (maybe the chips from other bridge manufacturers as well - dunno), regardless of whether it’s using the 911 (FW400) or the 922 (FW800) chip.
The problem might be more prevalent on FW800 enclosures w/ large drives (personally, I doubt that) but it is not restricted to that particular enclosure/drive combination.
Posted by Jess 2003.11.05, 00:00
the accented e in Exposé will appear by typing Option+e and e. Voilà ;)
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