Does anyone recommend OS X Lion?

plastik7 wrote:

You've been using it "a while" it's been out for two days. ok

Two words: beta tester. 😉

I really really WANT to like it. Downloaded on Mac Air and on iMac. Air is fine, but LOTS of problem on iMac. Freezes, app store not working, Safari very slow, Preview freezing, etc. No problems after 1 year on this iMac UNTIL the upgrade to Lion.

Installed on a Mac Pro and a relatively older Macbook Pro. Absolutely no problems with either so far but it's only been two days. It appears to be faster in some areas. I don't care for "Save" being taken away. Launch Pad is a great way to get to apps that I don't have on the dock. I like the gestures and I am now using a trackpad on my Mac Pro (I had tried it before and not liked it but now I love it). I like the "reverse" scrolling but it is not yet involuntary; I still scroll the wrong way sometimes. In many ways Lion is not operationally much different than Leopard but it has some extra functionality that those who are used to iOS will be familiar with and like.

I had no PowerPC applications. Kind of surprised that was the case. I checked compatibility for all the major apps I use but I expected there would be some app or another that wouldn't work. All I've tried work great.

Mail is working fine for me. MobileMe, Exchange, etc. No problems.

Verdict so far: I like it.

You can go back to the classic mail view if you want. It is one of the options in the new mail.

Since you mock my phrase "new way", I thought I should reiterate what I have said before:

...11A511 came out July 1st and many problems will have been addressed since then. I am surprised this became the release version, but 10.7.1 could already be nearly ready to go. Perhaps it is just waiting to include this wider input from the public and third party software vendors. Lion needed to come with the MBA launch...

Softwater, I'm curious about why someone whose home computers are still running 10.3.9 (which is truly ancient) decided to install a brand new, radically different version of OS X on the very first day of its release? Why the rush?

@Alan

To satisfy your curiosity...

Perhaps my previous post was unclear. I had an iBook running 10.3.9 from 2004. When it eventually started to be too clunky for day to day work, rather than update it to Leopard I bought a Macbook Pro a few years back. I "passed down" the iBook to my wife and kids as a 'toy' (even today, it's still serviceable enough for internet, basic word processing and a few games, although the iPad2 has recently seen it consigned to a dusty corner... ). My own 'day-to-day' machine is a MacbookPro. I've gone through Leopard, Snow Leopard and now Lion with it.

There was no 'rush' to upgrade; I upgraded as soon as I could for the simple reason that I like technology, want to understand how Mac is changing, am confident in my ability to work around bugs, solve problems and like learning/the challenge of doing so. One of my professional skills is technical communication, so updating to Lion was really just part of making sure I'm up to speed on what's going on in the (Mac) world.

The real point of my previous post was this: Leopard and Snow Leopard were both clear improvements from day one. Despite needing upgrades to iron out problems, the benefits of the upgrade were clear. I don't get this with Lion. I don't care about the bugginess of Safari per se — and yes, it is buggy on my machine — as that'll get fixed in time, either by me if its a local problem or Apple if its a general one. However, I just don't see what Lion adds to the power user. As I suggested earlier, I don't think it was ever intended to add anything for us; it's a nod to a new generation of Apple users who've been wowed by iPad and iPhone.

Incidentally, to bring up a point (I think it was) you made earlier about trackpads: I haven't had a mouse since 2004. I use a computer pretty much 8 - 12 hours a day, seven days a week. No tension in the back of my hand...

Hope that helps. 🙂

Message was edited: fix typos, clarity

Stanley Horwitz wrote:

You can go back to the classic mail view if you want. It is one of the options in the new mail.

I did! Thanks! 😀

Badunit wrote:

I had no PowerPC applications. Kind of surprised that was the case. I checked compatibility for all the major apps I use but I expected there would be some app or another that wouldn't work. All I've tried work great.

Mail is working fine for me. MobileMe, Exchange, etc. No problems.

Verdict so far: I like it.

Yes, this is me, too. 😉

ETA: Except I don't use MobileMe or Exchange. But... yeah.

Absolutley no problems with Lion on my MBP. All programs / Apps work fine, no issues with network (Timemachine). We use TC as a NAS as well for storing photos / music for iTunes / iPhoto. No issues / actions required after update. I use a second NAS as a secondary backup drive using Chronosync, again, no problems. Apple TV (mark 1), wireless printing via TC. Facetime, iPhone integration etc fine....

Only had Lion for 24 hours, but the updates seem nice - swiping webpages, Mission Control etc all improvements.

Hope this helps

Strategic Point: Now having used Lion on my Air for the better part of the day, I'm confident that it works fine. No complaints as to its general quality. However, I also lament a dumbing down of the Mac, apparently to sign up more iPhone and iPad users as Mac buyers.

It seems to me that if you sign up more buyers but they are buying simpler, less costly technology, your revenues per sale are slimmer. And if in the process you turn off your high-end and business users, those who buy the bigger, costlier machines and also bigger, costlier applications, you stand to lose money, not gain it. Lion seems poised to effect that end.

The main winners are the new customers who are getting a steal, given that the former customers have beta-ed for them eight major operating systems, thousands or millions of tweaks, and more generations of hardware than I can remember. The telcos and cable companies, more into transmission than computation, also stand to reap small fortunes when connection-addicted users join our numbers. Apple, get a clue: you don't win at this game. Unless you want to trade multi-thousand-dollar, high-end and business Mac sales for $1.99 app sales.

Tactical Point: With Lion, the interface designers have gone to the extreme to minimize "distractions" like color and certain features. Take Lion's treatment of Search in Apple Mail. In both the "classic" and the "new" formats, the search function is truncated. I can search ALL mail or I can search by Folder, but I can't search by various other combinations. Nor can I search by TO or FROM. In short, the Search function is rendered not so useful. Why did that have to happen? What's the solution?

I don't doubt there are hardnose financial justifications for each simplification, like fewer calculations needed to render greyed-out visualizations (cheaper processors). But the highest aesthetic isn't showing off one's design dogma, it's giving the customer more opportunities to contribute to the design of his or her own tech tools. Highly customizable Apple products that respected the basic Apple philosophy and policy, but that also gave the customer necessary leeway to refine and redesign would be a genuine tectonic shift. Instead we're having to make it up for interface foibles with apps, shelling out more cash and producing the very cacophony that Apple design and product leadership was supposed to diminish.

If someone here is aware of actual existing or planned tweaks to Lion -- beyond rumors of the mysterious 10.7.1 ! -- that would put a lot of worries to rest.

All search functions you mention are present in mail, perhaps you should look a bit closer!

Bob Jacobson, You raise an interesting point. Apple is clearly dumbing down its products. Actually, a more accurate term is simplifying them. Most people value simplicity, not complexity. Still, Apple makes more money per smart phone than any of its competitors do on their smartphones. I suspect the same is true of tablets.

My concern is in the high end. When was the last time Apple upgraded its MacPro tower line? I can't even remember when that happened. There is still a big market for high end Macs, but the reality is that something like 70% of Apple's profit in the previous calendar year came from mobile devices, so it isn't too hard to figure out where Apple is going.

I like Lion a lot. What I don't like is Apple apparently slowly moving away from the high end computer market.

I'm loving it. Flawless install. Some things take some getting used to. But all the apps that I use are better with Lion.

Spotlight slowed everything down for me when it first ran. Now the computer is just a tad slower than SL, but I think it's because I have 2GB ram in my computer. If it was possible to add more I would.

No problems upgrading my 2007 Core 2 Duo iMac and no problems upgrading my 2007 Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo. I use the trackpad for my iMac and enjoy it.

I've had no crashes or any problems to report.

I upgraded to Office 2011 a few months ago therefore I've had no problems running Office.

Lion is a bit different, but it's the next step in the finest OS in the world!