I want whatever coffee Apple is pouring in its cafeteria: Since 2001, the Cupertino, Calif., firm has cranked out four major consumer operating-system upgrades, three more than Microsoft could manage. The latest such release, Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, arrived Oct. 24, only 14 months after its predecessor, Jaguar. The costs of Mac life can add up. If you've paid for each upgrade from Mac OS X 10.0 on, Panther's $129 bill pushed you past $400. A $20 discount price is limited to users who bought a Mac or Mac OS X after Oct. 8, plus G5 desktop owners -- a much less generous deal than was offered with Jaguar last year. But Panther justifies making a dent in the credit card balance.
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