Mac OS X Panther

Mac OS X v10.3 Panther
Part of the Mac OS X family
Screenshot of Mac OS X Panther
Developer
Apple Computer
Website	Archive copy of official website at the Wayback Machine (archived June 8, 2011)
Releases
Initial release	October 24, 2003 [info]
Stable release	10.3.9 (April 15, 2005) [info]
Source model	Closed source (with open source components)
License	Apple Public Source License (APSL) and Apple end-user license agreement (EULA)
Kernel type	Hybrid kernel
Platform support	PowerPC
Preceded by	Mac OS X v10.2 Jaguar
Succeeded by	Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger
Support status
Discontinued

Mac OS X Panther (version 10.3) is the fourth major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server operating system. It followed Mac OS X v10.2 Jaguar and preceded Mac OS X Tiger (version 10.4). Apple released Panther on October 24, 2003.

System requirements

Since a New World ROM is required for Mac OS X Panther, certain older computers (such as beige Power Mac G3s and “Wall Street” PowerBook G3s) are 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 will fail on these older machines.

The system requirements are:

• PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor (at least 233 MHz)
• Built-in USB (indicative of a New World ROM being present)
• At least 128 MB of RAM (512 MB recommended, 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

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 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—New browser made to replace Internet Explorer for Mac, developed when the contract between Apple and Microsoft ended. Internet Explorer for Mac was still available but not supported by Microsoft or Apple. 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.
• Fax support built-in.

Release history

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
	7F28			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)