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Mac OS X Panther
Fourth major release of macOS

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 Jaguar and preceded Mac OS X Tiger. It was released on October 24, 2003, with the retail price of US$129 for a single user and US$199 for a five user, family license.

The main features of Panther included a refined Aqua theme, Exposé, Fast user switching, and a new Finder. Panther also included Safari as its default browser, as a change from Internet Explorer in Jaguar.

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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

Because 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

Apple advertised that Mac OS X Panther had over 150 new features, including:

  • Finder was updated with a brushed-metal interface, and given a new live search engine, a customizable Sidebar, secure deletion, colored labels (resurrected from classic Mac OS4) in the filesystem and Zip support built in. The Finder icon was also changed.
  • Fast user switching was introduced; it allows a user to remain logged in while another user logs in, and supports quickly switching among several sessions.
  • Exposé is a new feature that helps the user manage windows by showing them all as thumbnails.
  • TextEdit is now compatible with Microsoft Word (.doc) documents.
  • Xcode developer tools have faster compile times with gcc 3.3.
  • Preview has increased speed of PDF rendering.5
  • QuickTime now supports the Pixlet high-definition video codec.6
  • Font Book is a font manager which simplifies viewing character maps, and adding new fonts that can be used systemwide.7 The app also allows the user to organize fonts into collections.
  • FileVault is a new app that has on-the-fly encryption and decryption of a user's home folder.8
  • iChat AV now has built-in audio- and video conferencing.9
  • X11: Compatibility10 for applications based on the X Window System, commonly used for UNIX applications, is available through an optional install, found in the install disk. Mac OS X Panther is the first macOS version to officially support X11. It utilizes Quartz to provide hardware accelerated graphics11 and is based on the XFree86 implementation12 of X Window System.
  • Safari is 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 browser13 in Panther.
  • Microsoft Windows interoperability improvements were made, including out-of-the-box support for Active Directory and SecurID-based VPNs.
  • Built-in fax support.14: 1  Sending a fax can be done using the native Print dialog.15: 2  To receive faxes, users must pre-configure in System Preferences on how the system should handle an incoming fax, with options16: 4  including selecting a folder to save the incoming faxes, to automatically email to an address or to print via a selected printer, upon receiving of the fax.
  • Secure Empty Trash is a feature added in Mac OS X Panther17 to ensure, through the use of data erasure techniques, that deleted files cannot be recovered.18
  • Panther added support for WPA and WPA2 level security on wireless networks (with the AirPort 4.2 software update).

Release history

VersionBuildDateDarwin versionNotes
10.37B85October 24, 20037.0Original retail release set
7B86Server Edition
10.3.17C107November 10, 20037.1Mac OS X Update 10.3.1: Information and Download
10.3.27D24December 17, 20037.2Mac OS X: About the Mac OS X 10.3.2 Update
7D28Updated retail release
10.3.37F44March 15, 20047.3Added network volumes available on the finder sidebar and the desktop; updated applications.19
10.3.47H63May 26, 20047.4About the Mac OS X 10.3.4 Update
10.3.57M34August 9, 20047.5About the Mac OS X 10.3.5 Update (Delta); Updated retail release set
10.3.67R28November 5, 20047.6About the Mac OS X 10.3.6 Update (Delta)
10.3.77S215December 15, 20047.7About the Mac OS X 10.3.7 Update (Delta)
10.3.87U16February 9, 20057.8About the Mac OS X 10.3.8 Update (Delta)
10.3.97W98April 15, 20057.9About the Mac OS X 10.3.9 Update (Delta)

Timeline

Timeline of Mac operating systems
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References

  1. "Apple Announces Mac OS X "Panther"". Apple Newsroom (Press release). October 8, 2003. Archived from the original on May 4, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2023. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2003/10/08Apple-Announces-Mac-OS-X-Panther/ ↩

  2. "Apple Announces Mac OS X "Panther"". Apple Newsroom (Press release). October 8, 2003. Archived from the original on May 4, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2023. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2003/10/08Apple-Announces-Mac-OS-X-Panther/ ↩

  3. "Mac OS X Panther: System requirements". Apple. Archived from the original on April 22, 2014. Retrieved February 22, 2010. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2176 ↩

  4. "One more cool cat". The Baltimore Sun. October 30, 2003. Archived from the original on October 8, 2021. Retrieved October 8, 2021. Those nostalgic for Mac OS 9 will celebrate the return of colored file labels in this menu. https://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-mac103003-column.html ↩

  5. "Apple Previews Mac OS X "Panther"" (Press release). Apple. June 23, 2003. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2023. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2003/06/23Apple-Previews-Mac-OS-X-Panther/ ↩

  6. "Apple Previews Mac OS X "Panther"" (Press release). Apple. June 23, 2003. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2023. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2003/06/23Apple-Previews-Mac-OS-X-Panther/ ↩

  7. "Apple Previews Mac OS X "Panther"" (Press release). Apple. June 23, 2003. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2023. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2003/06/23Apple-Previews-Mac-OS-X-Panther/ ↩

  8. "Apple Previews Mac OS X "Panther"" (Press release). Apple. June 23, 2003. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2023. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2003/06/23Apple-Previews-Mac-OS-X-Panther/ ↩

  9. "Apple Previews Mac OS X "Panther"" (Press release). Apple. June 23, 2003. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2023. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2003/06/23Apple-Previews-Mac-OS-X-Panther/ ↩

  10. "Apple Previews Mac OS X "Panther"" (Press release). Apple. June 23, 2003. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2023. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2003/06/23Apple-Previews-Mac-OS-X-Panther/ ↩

  11. Sellers, Dennis (October 27, 2003). "X11 for Panther available". Macworld. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023. https://www.macworld.com/article/168570/x11-4.html ↩

  12. "X11 for Mac OS X 1.0". Apple. October 28, 2003. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023. Based on the open source XFree86 project — the most common implementation of X11... https://support.apple.com/kb/dl641?locale=en_US ↩

  13. "Apple Announces Mac OS X "Panther"". Apple Newsroom (Press release). October 8, 2003. Archived from the original on May 4, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2023. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2003/10/08Apple-Announces-Mac-OS-X-Panther/ ↩

  14. "Faxing with Mac OS X Panther". Peachpit. November 24, 2004. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023. https://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=352321 ↩

  15. "Faxing with Mac OS X Panther". Peachpit. November 24, 2004. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023. https://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=352321 ↩

  16. "Faxing with Mac OS X Panther". Peachpit. November 24, 2004. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023. https://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=352321 ↩

  17. Latour, Frédéric (2003). "Panther : Finder". Frédéric Latour's web site. Archived from the original on July 20, 2008. Retrieved January 10, 2023. http://latourfl.com/panther/finder.html ↩

  18. Tognazzini, Bruce (January 2004). "Panther: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". AskTog. Archived from the original on August 14, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2023. ...overwrites the sectors on the disk seven times... https://www.asktog.com/columns/061PantherReview.html ↩

  19. "Mac OS X (10.3.3) Combined Update 10.3.3". https://support.apple.com/kb/DL599?locale=en_US ↩