wait for tiger or not?

As Iam pretty close to buy an ibook I'm unsure if it's worth waiting for tiger?
I've a good chance to sell my laptop within family for a pretty good price _now_ - tiger will be released around june?

Is it worth waiting for it? Will it be possible to upgrade pather to tiger? (are there any upgrade versions or can I just purchase a new version of mac os?)

Well, tiger is now suppose to be released on April 1st, and will be shipping on April 15th. So you should wait till then. And if it does end up comming in June, then you will have to buy the full version of Tiger (10.4) to upgrade from panther.

P.S. : the iBook might not handle all of tigers features, like core image and/or video.

obobon said:

I've a good chance to sell my laptop within family for a pretty good price _now_ - tiger will be released around june?

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Tiger is very likely to be available before the end of June. Current rumours put general availability around mid April.

obobon said:

Is it worth waiting for it?

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Tricky question. Check out the features on Apple's web site and decide for youself. I would say probably.
The negatives
The iBook series are going to get less out of the new release than any other currently available Mac IMHO. The video card won't support some of the spiffier new tricks. Spotlight will in my opinion be hampered somewhat by the slower hard drive and processor (though still useful). The G4 won't see the benefit of 64bit native core.

The positives
Tiger is likely to show an incremental increase in speed over Panther. Some of the new APIs are interesting and useful enough that there is a good chance there will be at least one application within a year you would like to try that will be 10.4 and above only. Other little tweaks, such as the new Mail, Safari, automater, etc... Tiger is an evolution (mostly good) and by simply waiting a month you would not have to pay to get the benefits.

obobon said:

Will it be possible to upgrade pather to tiger?

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definitely.

obobon said:

(are there any upgrade versions or can I just purchase a new version of mac os?)

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Maybe, we won't know till Apple announces it though.

Personally I would wait till Tiger is released and see what Apple offers for systems bought after release but before Tiger becomes the default on all systems. I would then get it, if a free upgrade path to Tiger is available and wait till 10.4.1 or 10.4.2 was released to install. But I am a patient person.

It's unlikely that Panther will be upgradable to tiger and tiger will cost about 150 euros, around about.

Every release of the OS system I have personally upgraded to, so I should imagine that I'd feel the same way about Tiger, have to wait and see. Panther is a really good system and Tiger is looking to at the least have more functionality from what I've read.

Mr Bobbins said:

It's unlikely that Panther will be upgradable to tiger and tiger will cost about 150 euros, around about.

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You mean there will not be a "upgrade only" product to update from Panther to Tiger correct? You will definitely be able to upgrade a Panther install to Tiger, but it is likely to require the purchase of the full price Tiger release.

Mr Bobbins said:

Every release of the OS system I have personally upgraded to, so I should imagine that I'd feel the same way about Tiger, have to wait and see. Panther is a really good system and Tiger is looking to at the least have more functionality from what I've read.

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Honestly from a user perspective not many of the features interest me. From a developer perspectve there are however. On the other hand the non-developer users I have talked to are excited about the possibilities in things I am quite honestly not interested in (such as spotlight). A difference in perspective I guess.

Yes, I mean that you'll just have to buy the hole package again which will install on any Mac so long as it's fast enough.

I'm also not sure weather the extra features will interest me enough to upgrade but I should imagine that their will be other things included in the package, basic stuff like speed increase and extra functions in existing programs that may catch my eye. I mean I didn't buy Panther for Exposé.