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
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
- At least 1.5 GB of available hard disk space
- A CD Drive for installation
Macs that are compatible with Panther:
- Power Mac G5--all models except Power Mac G5 (Early 2005), Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) which use Mac OS X 10.4
- Power Mac G4 or Macintosh Server G4--all models
- Power Macintosh G3 or Macintosh Server G3 that have built-in USB ports
- iMac--all models released in 2004 or earlier
- iBook--all models except iBook G4 (Mid 2005) which uses Mac OS X 10.4) 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.
- QuickTime now supports the Pixlet high-definition video codec. and is based on the XFree86 implementation 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 browser Sending a fax can be done using the native Print dialog. To receive faxes, users must pre-configure in System Preferences on how the system should handle an incoming fax, with options 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 Panther to ensure, through the use of data erasure techniques, that deleted files cannot be recovered.
- Panther added support for WPA and WPA2 level security on wireless networks (with the AirPort 4.2 software update).
Release history
{|class=wikitable
|-
!Version
!Build
!style=width:124px|Date
!style=width:68px|Darwin version
!Notes
|-
|style=text-align:center rowspan=2|10.3
|7B85
|rowspan=2|October 24, 2003
|rowspan=2|7.0
|Original retail release set
|-
|7B86
|Server Edition
|-
|style=text-align:center|10.3.1
|7C107
|November 10, 2003
|7.1
|
|-
|style=text-align:center rowspan=2|10.3.2
|7D24
|December 17, 2003
|rowspan=2|7.2
|
|-
|7D28
|
|Updated retail release
|-
|style=text-align:center|10.3.3
|7F44
|March 15, 2004
|7.3
|Added network volumes available on the finder sidebar and the desktop; updated applications.
|-
|style=text-align:center|10.3.4
|7H63
|May 26, 2004
|7.4
|
|-
|style=text-align:center|10.3.5
|7M34
|August 9, 2004
|7.5
|Updated retail release set
|-
|style=text-align:center|10.3.6
|7R28
|November 5, 2004
|7.6
|
|-
|style=text-align:center|10.3.7
|7S215
|December 15, 2004
|7.7
|
|-
|style=text-align:center|10.3.8
|7U16
|February 9, 2005
|7.8
|
|-
|style=text-align:center|10.3.9
|7W98
|April 15, 2005
|7.9
|
|}