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Apple Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (Full Product)

91

Superior
  • Pros
  • Good desktop search tool
  • Useful mini-applications called Widgets
  • Cons
  • Cannot run on non-Mac systems
  • Costs $129

User Reviews for Apple Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (Full Product)

  • Reviewed by: joshuakeurentjes

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: dashboard, spotlight booth are easy to use and helpful

    Weaknesses: have not found one yet

    Overall Evaluation: after using OX 10.2.8 i find that Tiger is a joy to work with. the improvements such as spotlight and dashboard are nice and useful but the thing that i use and enjoy most of the improvements is automater it just simply makes the repetitive task so much easier and faster so that i can do what i need and want to do

  • Reviewed by: swissms46

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Used this to repair a damaged Hard Disk & was without an ability to back-up files, yet this worked like a breeze for the purpose, and renewed my entire system. Great features for anyone upgrading!

    Weaknesses: Only weakness is that Mac is updating so quickly it's OS X's that I'm afraid that this update will become an old one before long.

    Overall Evaluation: I purchased a Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger CD package, having already been using the Tiger system on my Power Mac G4, but was without the installation disk (had received this computer from a relative, after they had purchased a new one with the OS already installed). I had come upon an emergency, where apparently had crashed entire system and could no longer access my hard disk. I was unable to startup at all, although the machinery was working. Upon further research & testing, I discovered that the disk was ok, but the operating system wouldn't start because I had deleted necessary files.I tried a repair utility, Disk Warrior, as I was able to boot up onto another CD, but it didn't replace what was needed.After purchasing the Tiger CD, I chose "Archive & Install" as my customized installation choice, and also checked "Preserve Users And Network Settings", unsure what all would be saved, but thinking that I would retain ability to access previous files, from old system, and copy them to new system.Surprisingly, after installing the new CD system, nearly everything of old system (personal files, music, photos, settings, bookmarks, most of the applications that I had installed) were readmitted as part of the new system automatically! In conclusion, this worked like a breeze to bring my computer back with everything intact, and, in addition, it appears to have re-enlivened lagging applications that had become defective, but now have been reinstalled as new. Everythings working much smoother & quicker. Only regret is that I purchased the Disk Warrior Repair disk, initially, to fix this breakdown. I am sure the Tiger OS X installation disk, however, will come in handy in future.The Tiger OS is bright & colorful, and has so many software applications & abilities that formerly were incompatible with old versions of Mac, and had only been compatible with Windows, such as ability to upload digital pics, play DVD's and Microsoft's Office group of software.The package comes with coupons for free Tiger download updates of the OS system. There is a greatly helpful accompanying booklet that showcases many of the Tiger features with tips on how to use, many of I'd never taken time to put into use, even with having used Tiger system for monthsVery pleased, on the whole.

  • Reviewed by: rosetree

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Fewer crashes & freezes. Safari is great! Haven't learned all the tricks yet, but it seems to be doing everything I want it to.

    Weaknesses: My printer manufacturers aren't yet posting drivers updated to 10.4. There seems to be a color shift in outputs from 10.2 to 10.4.

    Overall Evaluation: I upgraded from 10.2, and this is definitely an improvement. The system seems very stable, with fewer freezes. I tend to get too many windows and applications open at one time, and the system seems to work right along with me wihout slowing down until I've gotten REALLY carried away!

  • Reviewed by: nancy26

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: More features than Panther and worth the upgrade.

    Weaknesses: None So Far.

    Overall Evaluation: I have been using my iMac G3 running OS 9 for five years and was pleased with this operating system. I decided to upgrade my computer and bought in April, 2005 a new iMac G5 with OS X 10 (Panther) and again was impressed with the performance of Panther. I was disappointed that two months later the new iMac?s came out with Tiger and a 250 hard drive at a cheaper price, my timing was off by two months. Since I have many applications still running in Classic, Panther was still much better than OS 9. While I was disappointed with Panther not being able to save web pages with the links and photos, I had only a few issues with Panther and continued to use it. I finally decided to purchased Tiger, and in 45 minutes it was installed. Before installing it, I called Apple techs and got some excellent information. One being that after Tiger is installed, and before starting any applications, go to the Software Updates and click on that to get the latest updates from Apple. Before installing Tiger, I backed up my important folders, address book and iPhoto Library and burned a CD. I then ran Disk Warrior to check my hard drive, closed all open applications and then installed Tiger OS X 10.4.3 version. I did not do a clean install because I did not want to put in all my other applications, and after running Disk Warrior, I felt that my hard drive was in good order. The install went great and after the Software Update that updated Java, iTunes and OS X to10.4.5, I opened up my mail program, Safari, AppleWorks, and other applications and they all worked well. While I have not explored all of the new features, in one day I have found that Dashboard, Spotlight, Mail and Safari are all excellent with better performance. In Safari, I can save web sites with links and photos and this makes the upgrade worth it. Since I like to view golf videos on the web, I can go to a page that uses Real Time Player, and now it automatically opens up the player to play the video that I want to see. In Panther, this did not work properly and I could not save the web page on my desktop with the video working. In Tiger, I went to my golf video site, played the video and it saved an archive of that page so that I can view it at a later date. From Safari?s RSS feature to secure Private Browsing and viewing PDF files, I can?t find anything bad to say. The mail program allows you to view emails with photos in them in a slide show and then save the photos to iPhoto, another plus. Spotlight is an excellent way to find files, documents or information created in any application, I found Panther?s search for files not to be as good as Spotlight. Dashboard with its Widgets is fun and it?s nice to have these at your fingertips to see your current weather, calculator, translation, unit convertor and others. I found that I would have to go to a web site to convert English to Spanish or look up a unit of measurement, and it?s all in Dashboard! Over all, I wish I had bought Tiger earlier, although Panther was much better than OS 9, Tiger is the Gold Standard.

  • Reviewed by: leejr

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Easy to install and use, good parent control features for controlling email and website access. Most features are easy to pick-up when trying.

    Weaknesses: I experienced one minor problems with the software as received in the box. After checking and installing the latest updates to version 10.4.4 things were fine.

    Overall Evaluation: I was using one of the first version of OS X 10.2. This version 10.4 seems much improved. Be sure after installing to check for and install the latest updates, currently version 10.4.4. The version that was shipping was 10.4.2. I did have some minor problems with the shipped version, but after updating with the latest updates I haven't had any problems. For my older Epson ink jet printer I didn't find a newer driver for 10.4, only the 10.3. Which seems to work except, it is having problems trying to print larger format paper. So it may be a problem updating your other hardware drivers for this latest operating system until everyone updates their software to support this 10.4 operating system. Being a parent I like the easy controls for limiting email and website access for my kids account. Seems to be a good, stable operating system. Using iLife Photo '06 with this operating system is also better and faster.

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