"For all its technological limitations, the original Mac 128k combined both to deliver the first viable GUI system for end users; now, the combination of Mac OS X "Panther" and the new 64-bit Power Mac G5 delivers performance that even PC zealots can't help but admire," Rothenberg writes. "Between its performance gains, its return to some traditional Mac interface values and its expanded support for heterogeneous environments, Mac OS X 10.3 Panther has won over many of those hard-bitten Mac users loath to forsake Mac OS 9— and gotten plaudits from our own testers here at Ziff Davis. 'In Mac OS X Version 10.3, Apple Computer Inc. combines its latest ideas with pieces drawn from the open-source world, from Mac OS versions past and from operating system rival Microsoft Corp.'s Windows,' eWEEK Labs' Jason Brooks wrote in his first look at the new cat. 'In so doing, Apple delivers what's probably the most polished desktop operating system available today.' Not too shabby—especially considering that Windows users will wait until 2006 for 'Longhorn,' Microsoft's next big OS thing."