Mac OS X Panther
Mac OS X Panther (version 10.3) is the fourth major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system. It followed Mac OS X 10.2 and preceded Mac OS X Tiger. It was released on October 24, 2003.
A version of the macOS operating system | |
Screenshot of Mac OS X Panther. Notice how the Finder icon in the Dock has been changed and Internet Explorer has been replaced by Safari. | |
Developer | Apple Computer, Inc. |
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OS family | |
Source model | Closed, with open source components |
Released to manufacturing | October 24, 2003[1] |
Latest release | 10.3.9 / April 15, 2005[2] |
Platforms | PowerPC |
Kernel type | Hybrid (XNU) |
License | Apple Public Source License (APSL) and Apple end-user license agreement (EULA) |
Preceded by | Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar |
Succeeded by | Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger |
Official website | Apple - Mac OS X at the Wayback Machine (archived January 11, 2005) |
Support status | |
Unsupported as of March 22, 2008 |
Part of a series on |
macOS |
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System requirements
Panther's system requirements are:[3]
- PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor (at least 233 MHz)
- Built-in USB
- At least 128 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended, minimum of 96 MB supported unofficially)
- At least 1.5 GB of available hard disk space
- CD drive
- Internet access requires a compatible service provider; iDisk requires a .Mac account
Video conferencing requires:
- 333 MHz or faster PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
- Broadband internet access (100 kbit/s or faster)
- Compatible FireWire DV camera or web camera
Since a New World ROM was required for Mac OS X Panther, certain older computers (such as beige Power Mac G3s and 'Wall Street' PowerBook G3s) were unable to run Panther by default. Third-party software (such as XPostFacto) can, however, override checks made during the install process; otherwise, installation or upgrades from Jaguar fails on these older machines.
Panther still fully supported the Classic environment for running older Mac OS 9 applications, but made Classic application windows double-buffered, interfering with some applications written to draw directly to screen.
New and changed features
End-user features
Apple advertised that Mac OS X Panther had over 150 new features, including:
- Finder: Updated with a brushed-metal interface, a new live search engine, customizable Sidebar, secure deletion, File labels and Zip support built in. The Finder icon was also changed.
- Fast User Switching: Allows a user to remain logged in while another user logs in
- Exposé: Helps the user manage windows by showing them all as thumbnails.
- TextEdit: TextEdit now is also compatible with Microsoft Word (.doc) documents.
- Xcode developer tools: Faster compile times with gcc 3.3.
- Preview: Increased speed with PDF rendering
- QuickTime: Now supports the Pixlet high definition video codec
New applications in Panther
- Font Book: Font Book, Apple's font manager, simplifies viewing character maps and installing fonts. It also allows the user to sort fonts into categories.
- FileVault: On the fly encryption and decryption of a user's home folder
- iChat AV: The new version of iChat. Now with built-in Audio- and video-conferencing.
- X11: X11 is built into Panther
- Safari: A new web browser that was developed to replace Internet Explorer for Mac when the contract between Apple and Microsoft ended, although Internet Explorer for Mac was still available. Safari 1.0 was included in an update in Jaguar but was used as the default browser in Panther.
Other
- Microsoft Windows interoperability improvements, including out-of-the-box support for Active Directory and SecurID-based VPNs.
- Built-in fax support.
Release history
Unsupported |
Version | Build | Date | OS name | Notes |
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10.3 | 7B85 | October 24, 2003 | Darwin 7.0 | Original retail release set |
7B86 | Server Edition | |||
10.3.1 | 7C107 | November 10, 2003 | Darwin 7.1 | Mac OS X Update 10.3.1: Information and Download |
10.3.2 | 7D24 | December 17, 2003 | Darwin 7.2 | Mac OS X: About the Mac OS X 10.3.2 Update |
7D28 | Updated retail release | |||
10.3.3 | 7F44 | March 15, 2004 | Darwin 7.3 | Mac OS X: About the Mac OS X 10.3.3 Update (Combo) |
10.3.4 | 7H63 | May 26, 2004 | Darwin 7.4 | About the Mac OS X 10.3.4 Update |
10.3.5 | 7M34 | August 9, 2004 | Darwin 7.5 | About the Mac OS X 10.3.5 Update (Delta); Updated retail release set |
10.3.6 | 7R28 | November 5, 2004 | Darwin 7.6 | About the Mac OS X 10.3.6 Update (Delta) |
10.3.7 | 7S215 | December 15, 2004 | Darwin 7.7 | About the Mac OS X 10.3.7 Update (Delta) |
10.3.8 | 7U16 | February 9, 2005 | Darwin 7.8 | About the Mac OS X 10.3.8 Update (Delta) |
10.3.9 | 7W98 | April 15, 2005 | Darwin 7.9 | About the Mac OS X 10.3.9 Update (Delta) |
References
- ""Night of the Panther" Kicks Off at 8:00 p.m. Tomorrow" (Press release). Apple Inc. October 23, 2003.
- "Mac OS X Combined Update 10.3.9". Apple Inc. Archived from the original on April 19, 2005.
- "Mac OS X Panther: System requirements". Apple. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
Preceded by Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) |
Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) 2003 |
Succeeded by Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) |