Mac OS X Panther

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mac OS X 10.3 Panther
A version of the macOS operating system
Mac OS X Panther (logo).png
AM MacOSX Panther.png
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.
DeveloperApple Computer, Inc.
OS family
  • Macintosh
  • Unix-like
Source modelClosed, with open source components
Released to
manufacturing		October 24, 2003; 17 years ago (2003-10-24)[1]
Latest release10.3.9 / April 15, 2005; 16 years ago (2005-04-15)[2]
PlatformsPowerPC
Kernel typeHybrid (XNU)
LicenseApple Public Source License (APSL) and Apple end-user license agreement (EULA)
Preceded byMac OS X 10.2 Jaguar
Succeeded byMac OS X 10.4 Tiger
Official websiteApple - Mac OS X at the Wayback Machine (archived January 11, 2005)
Support status
Unsupported as of March 4, 2007
Part of a series on
macOS
Features
Versions
Applications
Utilities
Related
  • v
  • t

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.

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, and quickly switch among several sessions.
  • 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 of PDF rendering.
  • QuickTime: Now supports the Pixlet high-definition video codec.

New applications in Panther[]

  • Font Book: A font manager which simplifies viewing character maps, and adding new fonts that can be used systemwide. The app also allows the user to organize fonts into collections.
  • 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
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[]

  1. ^ ""Night of the Panther" Kicks Off at 8:00 p.m. Tomorrow" (Press release). Apple Inc. October 23, 2003.
  2. ^ "Mac OS X Combined Update 10.3.9". Apple Inc. Archived from the original on April 19, 2005.
  3. ^ "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)
Retrieved from ""