Mac OS X Panther

Mac OS X 10.3 Panther

Version of the macOS operating system
File:Mac OS X Panther (logo).png
File:AM MacOSX Panther.png Screenshot of Mac OS X Panther. Notice how the Finder icon in the Dock has been changed and Internet Explorer has been replaced by Safari.
Developer	Apple Computer, Inc.
OS family	Macintosh Unix-like
Source model	Closed, with open source components
Released to manufacturing	October 24, 2003 (2003-10-24)
Latest release	10.3.9 / April 15, 2005 (2005-04-15)
Platforms	PowerPC
Kernel type	Hybrid (XNU)
License	Apple Public Source License (APSL) and Apple end-user license agreement (EULA)
Preceded by	Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar
Succeeded by	Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger
Official website	Apple - Mac OS X at the Wayback Machine (archived January 11, 2005)
Tagline	The evolution of the species.
Support status
Historical, Unsupported as of March 4, 2007

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.

System requirements

Panther's system requirements are:

• 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

Since 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

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) in the filesystem 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, and quickly switch among several sessions.
• 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 of PDF rendering.
• QuickTime: Now supports the Pixlet high-definition video codec.

New applications in Panther

• Font Book: 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: 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	Darwin version	Notes
10.3	7B85	October 24, 2003	7.0	Original retail release set
	7B86			Server Edition
10.3.1	7C107	November 10, 2003	7.1	Mac OS X Update 10.3.1: Information and Download
10.3.2	7D24	December 17, 2003	7.2	Mac OS X: About the Mac OS X 10.3.2 Update
	7D28			Updated retail release
10.3.3	7F44	March 15, 2004	7.3	Mac OS X: About the Mac OS X 10.3.3 Update (Combo)
10.3.4	7H63	May 26, 2004	7.4	About the Mac OS X 10.3.4 Update
10.3.5	7M34	August 9, 2004	7.5	About the Mac OS X 10.3.5 Update (Delta); Updated retail release set
10.3.6	7R28	November 5, 2004	7.6	About the Mac OS X 10.3.6 Update (Delta)
10.3.7	7S215	December 15, 2004	7.7	About the Mac OS X 10.3.7 Update (Delta)
10.3.8	7U16	February 9, 2005	7.8	About the Mac OS X 10.3.8 Update (Delta)
10.3.9	7W98	April 15, 2005	7.9	About the Mac OS X 10.3.9 Update (Delta)

Timeline

Timeline of Mac operating systems