Apple's new cat has arrived with plenty of agility

By ADAM GIFFORD

Panther, or Mac OS X 10.3, the latest version of Apple's operating system, is the moment we can say "This cat has arrived".

The first release of OS X was considered a beta by anyone who tried it. Version 10.1. which fixed many of the bugs, had the development name Puma, but wasn't marketed as such.

Jaguar or 10.2 was an improvement, but still had users hankering for some of the speed and functions Apple's old operating system had built up by 9.6 or so.

No such qualms with Panther. This is faster, smarter, more responsive. Stuff just happens like it is supposed to. And there are lots of really cool features.

Don't worry, Windows users, you can have these features too. Probably about the time Microsoft gets Longhorn to market - about 2008 or so. Snicker, snicker.

The first cool feature is Expose, Apple has finally woken up to all the function buttons at the top of the keyboard. Push F9 and all the open windows are tiled across the screen. Nice trick, but they will probably be too small to use.

Press F10 and the open windows for the application you are using tile out. That is useful if you want to quickly switch between multiple documents or browsers windows.

Press F11 and everything goes away to expose the desktop.

Now hold down the shift key while pressing one of the function keys. Everything happens in slow motion. Not particularly useful, but cool.

If you want to use other keys or combinations to make Expose work, you can change them in System Preferences.

Finder is a useful application in its own right. The icons for the available disks have moved from the top to a column on the left. Put the cursor over any disk and the contents appear in the next column. Drilling down becomes quick and simple.

The left hand column includes icons for Desktop, the iTunes music file, the user's home folder and the applications folder. You can drag and drop any folder to the column and it stays there as a useful starting point - particularly useful if you are involved in a number of projects.

If you still can't remember where a file is, a search pane in the top right corner starts generating matches as soon as you start typing. This search pane is a feature of every Apple application, including Mail and Preview. It might be the feature which means I finally abandon Eudora Mail. That and the built-in spam filter. Set Preview as the default for opening Acrobat files, and you get the search function, as well as a blindingly fast rendering of the image.

Microsoft is trying to spin that Windows is not inherently less secure than Unix-based operating systems. This is tosh, and Panther makes good use of Unix's security.

A new feature in System Preferences is FileVault, which secures your Home folder by encrypting the contents, using your login password.

For multiple users, just create an account for each one. Fast User Switching allows them to leave documents open and applications running when a new user needs to log in - the screen flips around (another cool effect) to the new desktop.

Under Panther's skin are hundreds of pieces of Unix and Linux which help connect Mac to the rest of the world.

These include Gimp-Print, an open-source printer driver project which gives Mac users access to hundreds of devices not supported on Mac OS X by vendors. And you can throw away your fax. Panther has a Print & Fax utility, allowing you to send and receive faxes.

It will pay to do a software update before and after installing. When I installed Panther I lost connections to the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse I use with my laptop, but recovered them after updating.

An operating system should be about usability and productivity. Panther delivers.

If you are a Mac user who has been holding on to OS X, now is the time to shift.

And Windows users - maybe it's time for you to switch.

Mac OS X 10.3

Apple

$280.

Pros: Fast, increased security, powerful organisation and search capability.

Cons: Can mean having to reset some preferences and auxiliary devices.

Rating: 8.5/10