Panther

Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther"
(Part of the Mac OS X family)
Screenshot
Screenshot of Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther"
Developer
Apple Computer
Web site: www.apple.com/support/panther/
Release information
Release date:	October 24, 2003 info
Current version:	10.3.9, April 15, 2005 info
Source model:	Closed source (with open source components)
License:	APSL and Apple EULA
Kernel type:	Hybrid kernel (XNU)
Support status
Security updates only

Mac OS X version 10.3 "Panther" was the fourth major release of Apple Computer's Mac OS X operating system. It followed Mac OS X v10.2 "Jaguar" and preceded Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger". Apple released Panther on October 24, 2003 and was last updated April 15, 2005. The cost from Apple was US$129 for a single-user license and US$199 for a Family Pack (5 user, 1 household) license.

System requirements

• Supported Computers: Power Mac G3, G4, G5, iMac, eMac, PowerBook G3 (bronze keyboard models only) or G4, or iBook G3 or G4
• RAM required: 128 megabytes
• Hard Drive Space: 1.5 gigabytes

Since Panther requires a computer with a built-in USB port, certain older computers (beige Power Mac G3s and "Wall Street" PowerBook G3s) are unable to run 10.3 by default. Third party software (such as XPostFacto) can override checks made during the install process; otherwise, installation or upgrades from 10.2 will fail on these older machines.

New features

Apple advertised that Panther had at least 150 new features compared to the previous version, including:

• Finder updated interface
  • Brushed-metal interface
  • Real-time searching (like iTunes)
  • Customizable sidebar (like iTunes)
  • Modified Icon
• Fast User Switching, which allows a user to remain logged in while another user logs in; the "switch" between users was animated by putting the desktop windows of the users on the faces of a cube which rotated to the loggin-in user (the effect is only seen on systems with Quartz Extreme).
• Exposé, a program to help the user manage windows, especially large numbers of them.
• Fax support built-in.
• Zip support built in.
• X11 support built-in.
• TextEdit support for Microsoft Word (*.doc) documents.
• Microsoft Windows interoperability improvements, including support for SecurID-based VPNs.
• Security
  • FileVault: on the fly encryption and decryption of a user's home folder
  • Secure deletion
• Xcode Developer Tools, which speeds compile times greatly with gcc 3.3.
• iChat AV video-conferencing software
• PDF rendering speed increase
• File labels
• Pixlet high definition video codec
• CoreAudio and Audio Units
• Font Book font manager

Version history

• Mac OS X v10.3.0 (build 7B85), released October 24, 2003 (retail)
• Mac OS X v10.3.1 (build 7C107), released November 10, 2003 (Apple Download Page)
• Mac OS X v10.3.2 (build 7D24), released December 17, 2003 (Apple Download Page)
• Mac OS X v10.3.3 (build 7F44), released March 15, 2004 (Apple Download Page)
• Mac OS X v10.3.4 (build 7H63), released May 26, 2004 (Apple Download Page)
• Mac OS X v10.3.5 (build 7M34), released August 8, 2004 (Apple Download Page)
• Mac OS X v10.3.6 (build 7R28), released November 5, 2004 (Apple Download Page)
• Mac OS X v10.3.7 (build 7S215), released December 15, 2004 (Apple Download Page)
• Mac OS X v10.3.8 (build 7U16), released February 9, 2005 (Apple Download Page)
• Mac OS X v10.3.9 (build 7W98), released April 15, 2005 (Apple Download Page)

External links

• Apple: Mac OS X 10.3: Chart of available Mac OS software updates
• Ars Technica: Mac OS X 10.3 Panther

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