Mac OS X Panther (version 10.3) is the fourth
major release
Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
of
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
,
Apple's desktop and server
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
. It followed
Mac OS X Jaguar
Mac OS X Jaguar (version 10.2) is the third major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system. It superseded Mac OS X 10.1 and preceded Mac OS X Panther. The operating system was released on August 23, 2002 either for sing ...
and preceded
Mac OS X Tiger. It was released on October 24, 2003.
System requirements
Panther's system requirements are:
*
PowerPC G3,
G4, or
G5 processor (at least 233
MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
)
*Built-in
USB
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad v ...
*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
In computing, an optical disc drive is a disc drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic waves within or near the visible light spectrum as part of the process of reading or writing data to or from optical discs. Some drives can only r ...
*Internet access requires a compatible service provider; iDisk requires a
.Mac
MobileMe (branded iTools between 2000 and 2002; .Mac until 2008) is a discontinued subscription-based collection of online services and software offered by Apple Inc. All services were gradually transitioned to and eventually replaced by the ...
account
Video conferencing requires:
*333 MHz or faster PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
*Broadband internet access (100
kbit/s
In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multi ...
or faster)
*Compatible
FireWire
IEEE 1394 is an interface standard for a serial bus for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Apple in cooperation with a number of companies, primarily Sony an ...
DV camera or
web camera
A webcam is a video camera which is designed to record or stream to a computer or computer network. They are primarily used in videotelephony, livestreaming and social media, and security. Webcams can be built-in computer hardware or peripheral de ...
Since a
New World ROM
New World ROM computers are Macintosh models that do not use a Macintosh Toolbox ROM on the logic board. Due to Mac OS X not requiring the availability of the Toolbox, this allowed ROM sizes to shrink dramatically (typically from to ), and facilit ...
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
{{Rewrite, date=June 2022
XPostFacto is an open source utility that enables the installation of PowerPC versions of Mac OS X up to Mac OS X v10.4 (Tiger), and Darwin on some PowerPC-based Apple Macintosh systems that are not officially supporte ...
) 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,
colored labels (resurrected from
classic Mac OS
Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and ending with Mac OS 9. The ...
) in the filesystem and
Zip
Zip, Zips or ZIP may refer to:
Common uses
* ZIP Code, USPS postal code
* Zipper or zip, clothing fastener
Science and technology Computing
* ZIP (file format), a compressed archive file format
** zip, a command-line program from Info-ZIP
* Zi ...
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
Expose, exposé, or exposed may refer to:
News sources
* Exposé (journalism), a form of investigative journalism
* '' The Exposé'', a British conspiracist website
Film and TV Film
* ''Exposé'' (film), a 1976 thriller film
* ''Exposed'' (1932 ...
: Helps the user manage windows by showing them all as thumbnails.
*
TextEdit: TextEdit now is also compatible with
Microsoft Word (.doc) documents.
*
Xcode
Xcode is Apple's integrated development environment (IDE) for macOS, used to develop software for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS. It was initially released in late 2003; the latest stable release is version 14.2, released on December 13, ...
developer tools: Faster
compile
In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...
times with
gcc 3.3.
*
Preview: Increased speed of
PDF
Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
rendering.
*
QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...
: Now supports the
Pixlet
Pixlet is a video codec created by Apple and based on wavelets, designed to enable viewing of full-resolution, HD movies in real time at low DV data rates. According to Apple's claims, it allows for a 20–25:1 compression ratio. Similar to DV, ...
high-definition
video codec
A video codec is software or hardware that compresses and decompresses digital video. In the context of video compression, ''codec'' is a portmanteau of ''encoder'' and ''decoder'', while a device that only compresses is typically called an '' ...
.
New applications in Panther
*
Font Book
Font Book is a font manager by Apple Inc. for its macOS operating system. It was first released with Mac OS X Panther in 2003.
Features
It is opened by default whenever the user clicks on a new .otf or .ttf font file. The user can view the ...
: 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
FileVault is a disk encryption program in Mac OS X 10.3 (2003) and later. It performs on-the-fly encryption with volumes on Mac computers.
Versions and key features
FileVault was introduced with Mac OS X Panther (10.3), and could only be ap ...
: On-the-fly
encryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decip ...
and decryption of a user's
home folder.
*
iChat AV
iChat (previously iChat AV) is a discontinued instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. for use on its macOS, Mac OS X operating system. It supported instant text messaging over Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, XM ...
: The new version of iChat. Now with built-in audio- and
video conferencing.
*
X11: X11 is built into Panther.
*
Safari
A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...
: A new
web browser
A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...
that was developed to replace
Internet Explorer for Mac when the contract between Apple and
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
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
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
interoperability improvements, including out-of-the-box support for
Active Directory
Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems as a set of processes and services. Initially, Active Directory was used only for centralize ...
and
SecurID
RSA SecurID, formerly referred to as SecurID, is a mechanism developed by RSA for performing two-factor authentication for a user to a network resource.
Description
The RSA SecurID authentication mechanism consists of a " token"—either ...
-based
VPNs.
*Built-in
fax support.
Release history
Timeline
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mac OS X V10.3
3
PowerPC operating systems
2003 software
Computer-related introductions in 2003