OS X version?

[Toastman]

Ok I just got my mac mini and the OS it comes with is10.3.7... Is this considered Tiger? Is it Panther?

I understand alot of people have 10.4.7 and don't know what the differences between this one and the upgrade. Can I just get an upgrade download from Apple or do I need to go out and buy the next OS? Is it worth buying, and if so what are the advantages of it?

Also, like an idiot, while someone told me to get the things off my OS disk I think I may have acciedently reloaded my OS. Did this do anything it shouldn't have? I see a folder called like old version or something ( i forgot the name of it) and am wondering if I may have done something wrong. When I try to start Safari it freezes up or something because a window is not appearing of it but there is an arrow on the Dock below it. After some confusion I just loaded Firefox because I was satisfied with it for my XP.

Anyways sorry for the newbie questions, I just don't really know what the OS is all about yet.

[aristobrat]

OK, freshly ripped from the Wikipedia:

* Mac OS X Public Beta
* Mac OS X v10.0 (Cheetah)
* Mac OS X v10.1 (Puma)
* Mac OS X v10.2 "Jaguar"
* Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther"
* Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger"
* Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" (planned for release in late 2006)

So, anything 10.3.whatever is Panther, and anything 10.4.whatever is Tiger.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_history

Check this link out for what's new in Tiger:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_v10.4