Does anyone recommend OS X Lion?

If you want to use iLife '09, then you get those apps. iDVD and iWeb were dropped when iLife 11 came out.

I don't know why these guys are nitpicking about iCloud. Meanwhile, they completely overlook the rest of your post which contains more important information. Maybe you should repost and leave iCloud out of it so we can hear what they have to say about something worth discussing.

Well, a little balance is required, and whilst I can't reccommend Lion I remain an Apple fan for the following reasons.

I bought Lion largely for Airdrop and the gesture improvements, only to find neither work on my 30-month old Macbook. I thought this was the sort of designed-obsolescence that other companies - perhaps less technically-able & conffident companies - resort to, but not Apple. After all they've always made a feature of backward operability. I also found problems that a released system, even a .0 one, should not have, such as sleep issues (going into and coming out of), Time machine bugs etc.

Well having wressled with it for 3 days, I mailed Apple this morning and within 90 minutes they'd agreed a refund and offerred some tech help too. I still think Lion was released too soon, but at least we're still dealing with a company who've earned our loyalty and want to keep it.

Easy for you to say. That may be true for and work for simple things but Lion is a huge mess for any serious work. But, I'm glad you find it useful, just don't expect others to get along with it as swimmingly as you do. On the surface Lion is easy enough for simple tasks, but for complex workflow if fails miserably.

Dr Head. I agree! There are a lot of complaints about features that are entirely optional. Don't like iCLoud - don't use it. Don't like Launch Pad - don't use it. There are features in the OS that may be considered wonderfull to some, and not others. Personnaly my Lion desktop looks just like my Snow Leopard - I prefer not to use some of the new UI features. But then again, having been on the platform since being a beta tester for the original Macintosh, I don't change my computer habits quickly. When beta testing OSX (1.0) I hated the dock, but I got used to some of the features, and use it now.

I stand by my earlier post: Upgrade if your supporting software needs are taken care of, otherwise wait. If you own more than one computer, upgrade the one that is most "factory" and get a feel for it. If you are a user that really likes the merging of the UI between iPad, iPhone, iPod and the Mac - go for it. However if you don't, there are other enhancements that you may like (review the features) and don't use the new UI since they are optional.

You make a lot of bold statements that are relevent to you, but not everyone. I know of professional environments with complex workflows using Lion today. So, in order not to mislead people because of the obsoluteness of your statement I have modified it to be less biased.

"Easy for you to say. That may be true for and work for simple things but Lion is a huge mess for any serious work [in my environment]. But, I'm glad you find it useful, just don't expect others [me] to get along with it as swimmingly as you do. On the surface Lion is easy enough for simple tasks, butfor complex workflow if fails miserably [in my case]."

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Unrelate to "DRH" post but comment worthy:

About iCloud dust up:

Instead of pointing fingers at each other, you could have both looked at where the misunderstanding lies instead of trying to assign blame. I searched Apple's siute for current iCloud. The following link is the most current official information I could find at this time. ( http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/06/06Apple-Introduces-iCloud.html ) If you scroll down to the "Pricing and Availability" section, it clearly states that the Beta is open to developers.

I checked out the pages linked and the images you both posted. It's is apparent after examining the iCloud page ( http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/ ) that the layout is confusing for 2 reasons: First, the features landing page pulls up the iTunes relevant info, not an overview (because the overview is under "Overview" ( http://www.apple.com/icloud/ ). If you look at the page, it is apparent there is a tab style button interface with iTunes the highlighted (active) button. This is confusing becuase the page title doesn't accurately reflect the focus of the content: "All your music on all your devices." And the tab style interface -- while in the right place (under the "Features" section -- has confliciting visual cues: (1) the "Features" is Greyed out (which traditionally means "inactive" on OSes, but on the web it can mean either not-avilable because that's the page you are on, or thar page is not available yet. (2) The predomniate tabs further exacerbate the situation because the active Tab is highlighted which further "pushes out" the viewers awareness of the "Features" Topic.

On top of that, the iTunes portion of iCloud is available in beta on this page ( http://www.apple.com/itunes/ ):

The main text of the page says clealy: "iTunes in the Cloud beta lets you automatically download new music, apps, and book purchases to all your devices. Or you can download only the stuff you want to just the devices you want.* It’s all part of iTunes 10.4."

If you follow the asterisk the accompanying text tells you the limitations (and again states it is a Beta):

"*Automatic downloads and downloading of purchase history available in beta now and require iOS 4.3.3 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (GSM model), iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation), iPad, or iPad 2, or a Mac or PC with iTunes 10.3 or later. Previous purchases may be unavailable if they are no longer in the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBookstore. Music features are available only in the U.S.Download iTunes 10.4 free."

Anyway, I'm pointing out these two things because I believe most people come here for accurate information and advice, and in the interest of providing that, one has to be as unbiased as possible and label opinions as such. Of course in following, that's my opinion so "Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV)."

I have revised my statement as follows:

Easy for you to say. That may be true for and work for simple things but Lion is a huge mess for many serious workers. But, I'm glad you find it useful, just don't expect all others to get along with it as swimmingly as you do. On the surface Lion is easy enough for simple tasks, but for complex workflow if fails miserably in my case and for many others.

I hope this receives your approval.

Yes, I’ve said elsewhere that there are features in Lion that I like and that I would miss if I went back to SL. I also said the reason I jumped in was to test it out before installing it on my wife’s new iMac which I bought just before the release of Lion. We had a 30 day window to download it for no cost. I found out later that I only needed to pay once for both computers. And I said I would live with it until I return to my winter home in Nov. and try to find a way to work with Lion. My installation was pretty good compared to others who have posted complaints here. I have only had a few bugs and quirks which I would expect with any upgrade. But most importantly I have found a way to work pretty much the same as I did in SL. There are minor changes which I don’t like and which I know I will get used to and to which I will adapt. So, I am not using Launchpad, I’ve adjusted and tweaked what I can and I am hopeful Apple, will at some point, offer the user the ability to turn off Autosave and Versions.

I do believe the internal security and perhaps some other unseen improvements are worthwhile in Lion. Another reason to stick with it, tough it out until the OS is more customizable. I also believe some of the changes are pointless and are change for the sake of change, some things were not broken and should not have been ”fixed“. I don’t have any software compatibility issues. I am trying and I have adjusted pretty well, I think, since the first few days and weeks of living and working in the Lion environment.

The bigger issue for me, having reasonably adjusted, is the direction of Apple in general. Whether they will develop more towards iOS and virtually abandon ”veteran“ users, or if they will accommodate the non-iOS crowd with options, controls and perhaps a pro version of the Apple OS. Since first dipping my toe into Lion I have waded in up to my waist and have gotten used to the temperature. Right now it looks like it’s all about the marketing. There are millions of iPod/iPhone users out there who use PC’s and would likely switch to Mac if it worked like their iOS iDevices. That’s why the iPad caught on so quickly, and now it seems Apple is doing the same with the Mac. If the future of Mac OS flows toward iOS users, it will likely become less and less useful for serious work.

softwater wrote:

This is why I would say that:

Nothing happens when I click those orange buttons. 😝

What is that .png at the end of that link?

Dr.Head wrote:

What is that .png at the end of that link?

I have no idea! 😕

LOL ;-)

Dr.Head wrote:

The bigger issue for me, having reasonably adjusted, is the direction of Apple in general. Whether they will develop more towards iOS and virtually abandon ”veteran“ users, or if they will accommodate the non-iOS crowd with options, controls and perhaps a pro version of the Apple OS. Since first dipping my toe into Lion I have waded in up to my waist and have gotten used to the temperature. Right now it looks like it’s all about the marketing. There are millions of iPod/iPhone users out there who use PC’s and would likely switch to Mac if it worked like their iOS iDevices. That’s why the iPad caught on so quickly, and now it seems Apple is doing the same with the Mac. If the future of Mac OS flows toward iOS users, it will likely become less and less useful for serious work.

I seriously still have to understand what is this "direction". The smaller scroll bars? I didn't use the scroll bars in ages. The LaunchPad? Mission Control? It doesn't exist in iOS. Hopefully not the full screen applications!! It has been said by many: Lion has more functionalities than Snow Leopard, not less. Lion is not that different in terms of the user interface. As many others say, we use Lion in the same way we used Snow Leopard. I can switch between one and the other without even realizing it.

Who wants to worry about "directions" should take a look at WIndows 8 previews in youtube. From what I've seen the "Start menu" is a screen full of ugly boxes and all applications run in full screen mode. THAT is scaring.

Dr.Head wrote:

LOL ;-)

I went to the website itself and tried to click the buttons; I'm not so stupid that I tried to click the ones in the embedded image! ⚠

Well, good for you. You like Lion and see no significant difference from SL, it works for you and you have no concerns about the future of the Mac OS. An eventual Mac hybrid of iOS and Windows would be fine with you.

You, “… seriously still have to understand …” -- you’re not getting it and I certainly can’t enlighten you. I guess we’ll have to see what 10.8 and 10.9 gives us before we know where Apple is going with their OS. Meanwhile, some of us are concerned about that (not sitting around biting our nails worrying) and will continue to discuss it. Your opinion is valid and adds to that discussion. But it does not assuage or invalidate the interest.