"Subject: Panther's FileVault Gotcha's!
Warning re turning on FileVault in Panther: This seemed like a great feature, and a fantastic idea, so I activated FileVault on my 15" AiBook. After wiping the drive and doing a clean install, everything was humming along great until I started bringing my backed-up data back onto my 'book from a firewire 800 drive. Whereas the data had taken maybe a half hour to an hour or so? (I wasn't really paying attention, but firewire 800 is pretty speedy) to copy over to the firewire drive, it was less than 50% completed after 3 hours!

I finally realized the problem was FileVault. The desktop, of course, is a folder within the user directory, meaning it's encryted. By dumping my files onto my desktop, I was trying to encrypt 30 GB of data at the same time I moved it onto my internal drive! Canceling, and then switching the copy destination to the root level of the hard drive resulted in the speedy transfer of the remainder of the data, lickety-split. Needless to say, I turned off FileVault. Looks like it will be done decrypting all the data I had already put into my home folders in about 45 minutes. :-(

This is really something that concerns me. If FileVault slows down the *entire* user folder this much, just think of what will happen when I move a large collection of MP3 files to and from my iTunes folder. Thinking further ahead, what happens when I capture my next home video into iMovie? Considering iMovie keeps it's data in the user's Movies folder, I shudder to think how the processor could keep up with encrypting that fat data stream on the fly, while doing everything else it needs to do, for the massive files digital video creates.

Seems to me FileVault is a great idea, but until I can restrict to to encrypting certain folders and not others, I'll have to hold off on implementing it on my computer, at least. Just wanted to warn my fellow mac-users, before people with way more data than I risk playing with FileVault and lose access to their machines for days!
Kalani P. "

Copying large files/large number of files to encrypted folders is probably the worst-case scenario. (Performance impact in normal use should be much less than when trying to encrypt a huge number of files.)

While on the subject of 10.3, I've not been able to read all mails from readers on 10.3 yet, and of course you're 10x more likely to get reports on problems than from those without any - but here's some quick summary items I've seen reported so far (may not be typical - just a FYI)

• Problems with Discwarrior 3.0 (typically noting it can't replace directory - also as noted back in September, G5s can't boot from the original DW 3.0 CD.)
• Problems with Nvidia Geforce4MX (reports so far from pre-MDD G4 macs, I suspect most are 32MB card versions but one 64MB card owner also reported the problem )
• Also several reports of limited resolutions/color depths with older ATI PCI cards (some very old like the ATI RagePro VR model) and some noted problems with the Radeon early models. Although 3Dfx cards never had acceleration in OS X, they often had basic 2d functionality. First 3dfx owner report didn't include any system or card details but noted only 640x480/256 colors - I suspect that is typical of any graphics card without driver support in 10.3.
• Studio MX 2004 - one reader reported when trying to install from CD he gets a "too many activations" error. (not sure that is typical)

Many of the other reports I've had were missing info like specific graphics card model for display/card related issues, or other details.
One friend with a Pismo (PB G3 2000) said there wasn't a proper CD eject at the end of disk 1's install (he forced it and had a kernel panic) . After the full install he had major problems (no networking/net access for instance). He said he ended up wiping the drive and restoring his 10.2.8 system he had backed up with Carbon Copy Cloner. He asked if any other Pismo owners (or other PB models) had seen the problem with CD ejects/prompts for Discs.

It's not a supported system, but as a FYI a Beige G3 owner said he had a kernel panic trying to boot the install CD. (Unsupported Mac model owners should probably wait for Ryan Rempel to release an update to Xpostfacto that supports 10.3.)

So far I've only installed 10.3 over 10.2.8 on a G5 - seems ok in limited use except the ATI 4.1 control panel didn't properly quit (using OEM 9800 pro card so can't test for features but it did not quit properly). As I mentioned in the 10.3 pre-install tips/suggestions, I did not have any Haxies, Dock mods, etc. installed to help minimize the chance of problems.
I won't even begin to comment on all the changes/additions in Panther, but the interface definitely feels faster than 10.2.8. Apple System Profiler has almost no delay compared to 10.2.8. I ran repair permissions from Disk Utility after the 10.3 update and saw some corrections made (to Adaptec 29160/39160 related files, printers/cups, and a few others).

I welcome other reports on 10.3 (please include as much detail as possible on mac model, any cards installed, if you have 3rd party mods/drivers/haxies installed, 3rd party optical drive, etc.) Also if you see added native support for a CD/DVD Burner (or if you had native support in 10.2.8 but not in 10.3) - include the details on the drive brand/model. Thanks