Updating to Panther Last?

[Al Poulin]

Way back on 20 Dec, Anne Keller-Smith <earthpigz at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> I was just wondering, as I'm a late adopter, if there's any way to find
> out easily when things are just ready to go to the "unsupported" category.
> 
> For example, Panther looks great but I'd like to wait a year to upgrade,
> but at the same time don't want to find I can't get it from Apple and I need
> it to upgrade to the next thing.
> 
> This isn't just an idle worry; it keeps happening to me. I had to get my
> brother to d/l a copy of System 9.1 so I could upgrade my laptop from
> 9.0.2 to run Dreamweaver MX. He'll also have to d/l 9.2 because Apple
> won't give me any free CDs and I can't get it on my slow connection.

If history is any guide at all, Apple will have another "Cat" to sell about
a year from now.  That will be OS X 10.4.  So you should be able to leap
frog over Panther.  As for your Jaguar, if things are very stable for you,
hang on to what you have.  There are download updates for Jaguar up to
10.2.8.  These are in the category of bug fixes mostly with a few functional
improvements.  You can review the advantages at Apple's web site.  Note that
some folks on these lists say they have tried 10.2.8 and dropped back to
10.2.6.

By the way, I thought that OS 9.2.x came buried somewhere on the Jaguar CDs.
I don't have a set to check, but someone here can confirm or correct me.
Also, some user groups put these updates (along with everything in the
kitchen cupboard) on CDs which they then sell.  I am not on my main Mac
right now so I don't have the links at hand, but look for the Arizona User
Group and Washington Apple Pi.

-- 
Al Poulin