Mac OS X Panther
Mac OS X Panther is the fourth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system. It followed Mac OS X 10.2 and preceded Mac OS X Tiger. Apple released Panther on October 24, 2003.
System requirements
The system requirements are:- PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
- Built-in USB
- At least 128 MB of RAM
- At least 1.5 GB of available hard disk space
- CD drive
- Internet access requires a compatible service provider; iDisk requires a.Mac account
- 333 MHz or faster PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
- Broadband internet access
- Compatible FireWire DV camera or web camera
Panther still supported the Classic environment fully for running older Mac OS 9 applications but made Classic application windows double-buffered, which interfered with some applications expecting to directly draw to the 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 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
| Version | Build | Date | OS name | Notes |
| 10.3 | 7B85 | October 24, 2003 | Darwin 7.0 | Original retail release set |
| 10.3 | 7B86 | October 24, 2003 | Darwin 7.0 | 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 |
| 10.3.2 | 7D28 | Darwin 7.2 | 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 |
| 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 ; Updated retail release set |
| 10.3.6 | 7R28 | November 5, 2004 | Darwin 7.6 | About the Mac OS X 10.3.6 Update |
| 10.3.7 | 7S215 | December 15, 2004 | Darwin 7.7 | About the Mac OS X 10.3.7 Update |
| 10.3.8 | 7U16 | February 9, 2005 | Darwin 7.8 | About the Mac OS X 10.3.8 Update |
| 10.3.9 | 7W98 | April 15, 2005 | Darwin 7.9 | About the Mac OS X 10.3.9 Update |