Is OS 10.3 a good operating system?

Jessica--

It's been a while since I moved from 10.2 to 10.3, but I would say it's a good move. It's quite a bit more advanced than 10.2, with quite a bit of optimiziation. As long as your system supports it, I'd recommend it.

One thing you need to do, though, is to make sure your PowerMac's firmware is up to date. And make sure you back up all your important files before you upgrade.

best,

charlie

Jessica, I think that you will find that each improvement in the Unix Operating System is has been a definate PLUS.
There are several users that opt to stay with exactly what they have, and not update and upgrade.
Much depends on what you do with your machine.
One thing is for sure. The Mac OSX Operating System by far is a good, stable, trouble free Operating System.
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?128@@.6890d19d
This link should help you a ton, Take the time and read it.
Good Luck...Don

Jessica,

IMO, the differences between 10.2 and 10.3 are the greatest and most fundamental of any of the "upgrades" in terms of speed and stability. Regardless of what machine you have or what applications you need to use, 10.3 is a smarter choice. Go for it!

Scott

Jessica--

how do I know if the firmware is up to date?

It's not a silly question at all. Probably the easiest way is to open the System Profiler application and look at the "Boot ROM Version".

When it comes to identifying your computer model, start at this page. You can find out if any firmware updates are needed or available for your computer by searching for "Firmware" on the Downloads page once you identify your computer.

One thing I just noticed is that you have 256MB or RAM. While I'm not familiar with Quark, I'm sure you're going to want more than that to use it in OS X. I'd recommend around a gigabyte of RAM. Quark will probably work, but might be very, very slow.

You can look at the memory advisor at Crucial to see what kind of RAM you need. That'll also tell you if you have to install in pairs, what the maximum is, etc.

best,

charlie

Hi Scott;

For me personally, the best upgrade has been Tiger. All of the application I use regularly run much quicker on Tiger then they ever did on Panther.

Allan

Allan,

Oh, don't get me wrong; I do see a definite improvement in 10.4 over 10.3. Many more features, too.

However, I think the differences between 10.2 and 10.3 are greater than those between 10.3 and 10.4, as long as we are talking strictly speed and stability. Hmmm, maybe I want to limit that even further by making it "speed and stability of the GUI and the Finder."

The reason why I say this last is that I definitely do find that Quicktime, and particularly iMovie and iDVD, are very much faster in 10.4 than in 10.3. More stable, too. Perhaps you are judging the OS by what you see in these, or other similar apps.

Maybe just saying "fundamental" wasn't enough, and I should have been clearer. I stand corrected, or at least amended :-D

Scott

I'm still running Jaguar 10.2.8 and it seems to be working fine, especially since I maxed out the RAM and increased the HD to 30GB. Since I have such an "old" computer (2001), I hesitate to put much more money into it to purchase Panther or Tiger. Would it really be worth it?

Arinda,

Ah, the age-old question!

You are absolutely correct in your thinking, at least as far as "it seems to be working fine" goes. Truth to tell, I wouldn't consider your computer all that old, but it is nice that you have it listed in your profile, as this allows us to make some solid estimates of the results of any upgrade by you.

I can't tell you whether an upgrade would be right for you, but I can tell you what the possible consquences would be, good and bad.

There is no doubt that each upgrade to OS X brings with it increased speed, increased stabilty, and increased function. Tiger, especially, has a tremendous amount of "new and cool" features, and it all seems to have come together for Tiger in the latest update to it (10.4.3). Your computer would be faster running Tiger, it would be more stable, and you would have fewer problems.

The downside to all this, in addition to any cost, is that Tiger also brings with it some additional "candy" that tends to want lots of "horsepower." Panther is mostly just a smoother-running (and faster) Jaguar, so this doesn't apply to the upgrade from 10.2 to 10.3. Tiger, however, can be an absolute monster in its need for power, especially in the graphics department.

Its a trade off. Yes, your computer will do many things better and faster than it did before with an upgrade to Tiger, but your older iBook will, at the same time, have a harder time trying to handle what Tiger throws its way.

Remember, your computer runs at least as well now as it did when you bought it, and it can do all of the same things. If the time comes that you feel you would like to do more, well......

Scott

Just a shameless plug for our beloved platform:

OS X is the ONLY computer platform that has gotten faster with each release.
I mean that it is faster on the same hardware.
Dean