Does anyone recommend OS X Lion?

I certainly AM an older user, using Computers from the Analogue days. I can claim to be involved in the entire history of usable computers. When digits started to take off in the 1970s, I even had the temerity to reject UNIX in favour of the DEC family as we grew a software business. Computer services were provided for the entire office, full of Engineers and CAD appeared. Despite this history, I keep an open mind. Of course now just a home user but lots of current activity with Aperture. I do understand that many will have to adapt their workflow or stick with SL, at least for a while.

Hey, me too. I was on the first ARPANET, UCLA-USC-CalTech-SRI. We mostly played interactive StarTrek. With Apple's gruding help, in the 1980s I organized for the California Legislature the first DEC-Mac II server-client cluster. It was liberating, even mind-blowing after that IBM mainframe-dumb terminal garbage. Everyone in the Capitol envied our office. I loved the Mac II almost as much as my StarMax by Motorola, the ultimate Mac clone, a decade later.

Not much visible difference is there, except for the box vs. tower? (When on, the Mac II had a multicolor Apple logo.) The Mac II ran OS 4, the StarMax, OS 9. The Mac II cost $5500, the StarMax $2500. They each had gonzo motherboards capable of slotting 5-7 cards, each with a new app or two.

Okay, enough with the Hall of Computing Curiosities (although I do have an Eagle PC, IBM's nemesis, circa 1983, to sell to a caring next owner).

I also keep an open mind. My open mind tells me to skip Lion and wait for its successor. I don't need a goofed-up interface, automatic everything, or access to more derivative, mediocre (and pricey) vids and tunes. I already have my Cloud, designed by me for me and secured (as much as any networked service can be) by me: Google+, Twitter, Box.net, Bambuser, PayPal, ScribD, Videra (telepresence), DeepDyve, AbeBooks, YouTube, my credit uniion, Skype, a couple dozen blogs, and the remnants of MobileMe. Can't get more personal than that.

Tom in London wrote:

As for Versions, it's only the diehard Apple fans who keep on trying to argue that it's better than saving in the normal way. Everyone else hates it and not only in these forums.

It isn't better than saving. It does manually save in the same way. Command-S is there doing exactly the same job.

Instead it adds the autosave and the versioning, of which the last one is an huge improvement compared to the plain files one may easily overwrite losing days if not weeks of work. Yes, it may happen. The additional price to pay is just a couple of clicks more when saving the current document with a new name effectively duplicating it or when editing a locked document. And takes some more disk space, but in a organized way. What a big deal. As if people spend all their time making copies of documents with new names of actually editing them. Many times we use "Save as.." because we are versioning the document manually, with copies all over. That's not necessary anymore.

Some people may hate it now. But the day that Versions will save their bottom because they made a mistake, they will be glad that Versions is there. And others in one year from now will be terrified using an application that doesn't implement automatic versioning.

Quote "But the day that Versions will save their bottom because they made a mistake, they will be glad that Versions is there"

In 10-15 years of using computers, mostly Macs, that has never happened to me. Why would I want Apple to mess up my entire workflow to protect me from something that will never happen, without asking me first if that's what I want?

Tom in London wrote:

Quote "But the day that Versions will save their bottom because they made a mistake, they will be glad that Versions is there"

In 10-15 years of using computers, mostly Macs, that has never happened to me. Why would I want Apple to mess up my entire workflow to protect me from something that will never happen, without asking me first if that's what I want?

If you don't like it, don't use it; go back to SL or change over to windows..

It's sad but true. The rulers of the new way Apple (and others too) goes with its versions, resume and app things are not you nor me.

We call us experienced users. The others call us Geek's. We grow up with Altair, dumb VT100 Terminals, hand-soldered NIC's on 2,7Kbit/s phonewire, 75 baud lines, mainboard jumpers, SCSI interfaces, Acoustic coupler's.

Some of the now also "experienced" users start eventually with a C64, an Amiga 1000 or an Atari.

We speak sh or bash, peek and poke, and know that "tty" in fact stays for Tele-Typer machine.

We are, to say with all respect, from IT's stone-age or late-bronze-age, from the view point of modern technology.

All the new operating systems get designed for the majority of the people out there and in charge today.

Between 15 and 30 years old calling itself "digital native" but without any glue how the thing works that they use. I use to call them -not in a disrespecting way- "click idiots"

Remember, your Grandpa has handmade his first radio with soldering iron and a detector crystal. You grow up as a "real user", switching the stereo on when music was needed and with mostly no glue how it works.

It's just a fact, that these people are "real users" today. They USE the technology without asking one word about "how works this", just like a towel or a can opener.

If something went wrong and the system will not work as expected, the have neither any idea how to fix nor any interest to do that. "Had cost 1500 bucks and have to work regardless on what I clicked around in the system settings."

If not, they blame the the lousy OS, the manufacturer, the technic itself and never ever develop the slightest idea that eventually they made a mistake or misconfiguration.

Today, for the developers on the major (or minor) company's there are two target groups:

1. The actual and the coming generation of the digital natives which wants to USE.
2. The "Gold-Ager" or very late adopters which have never used a computer during there working live and want just to e-mail grandson, facetime with daughter or poking around with there picture collection and this "Internet".

These are the focused groups now, bringing sales value and turnover in a trillion dollar market.

The marketing messages are clear:

• "You have nothing to know about the inside of the machine."
• "Language, skills of writing or reading are irrelevant as we give you nice icons to deal with."
• "We take care that your songs, writings, pictures and spreadsheets are as safe as possible if you follow only a few simple rules."

The train goes on and we have to enter the coach or to remain on the platform.

Lupunus

lupunus wrote:

"Language, skills of writing or reading are irrelevant as we give you nice icons to deal with."

No clue (glue is sticky) what you are taking about...

Lupunus, that is balderdash. When you started working with computers in no way defines how hip you are to their capabilities or how competent at their use. Like age, where you are on the computing continuum is a matter of attitude first and foremost.

The discussion here is about Lion, an Apple OS 10 variant that happened to appear at that precise moment when Apple, now the most successful company in computing and one can argue, in entertainment, began pivoting, trying to turn itself into something much different, bigger in concept, than what it has been in the past.

Lion is a source of controversy way more than it merits because it epitomizes the pivot, which is still incomplete and so subject to everyone projecting their fantasies good and bad on the outcome.

Lion isn't great or worthless. It's just there. I tried it, I dumped it, I don't miss it. Others feel otherwise. Wait. The pivot's not over. Steve Jobs is still with us, thank goodness.

If, however, Apple's "Bless Your Lucky Stars" OS (7-Come)11 doesn't achieve orbital velocity -- or if there is no OS 11, only an operating directive spewing from a massive corporate server at an unknown location in the iCloud that used to be called the Apple Store -- then we might have a problem.

Before that happens, the computing world may change radically.

Life's much bigger than Lion. Lion just had the bad luck (like many of us, of all ages) to be born into chaos.

When SL came out these forums were full of complaints.

I was there, the concerns about Lion are at a much higher level than I have ever experienced before.

My first Mac OS Was 1.1 back in 1984. I always enjoy each upgrade.

The only time I skipped an upgrade was from OS 9.X to 10.2. (I skipped 10.0 and 10.1)

Sad to report, I have now gone back to 10.6.8. (Snow Leopard)

Tom in London wrote:

Quote "Ugh. I will never call them "apps"

Yeah, I hate that too. Almost as much as I hate "peeps".

When I think of "peeps" I think of baby chickens. My grandparents kept chickens and turkeys when I was a kid! 😁

Tom in London wrote:

As for Versions, it's only the diehard Apple fans who keep on trying to argue that it's better than saving in the normal way. Everyone else hates it and not only in these forums.

Well, it's awful. I don't necessarily want Apple to get rid of it altogether; I just want the option to disable it!

Tom in London wrote:

Quote "But the day that Versions will save their bottom because they made a mistake, they will be glad that Versions is there"

In 10-15 years of using computers, mostly Macs, that has never happened to me. Why would I want Apple to mess up my entire workflow to protect me from something that will never happen, without asking me first if that's what I want?

This, this, THIS! 😠

Kittenmommy wrote:

Tom in London wrote:

Quote "But the day that Versions will save their bottom because they made a mistake, they will be glad that Versions is there"

In 10-15 years of using computers, mostly Macs, that has never happened to me. Why would I want Apple to mess up my entire workflow to protect me from something that will never happen, without asking me first if that's what I want?

This, this, THIS! 😠

May I say that I truly believe you guys are over exaggerating? Versions messing up the entire workflow? Because it saves for us? Or because the 2 extra clicks to duplicate a document?

It takes few minutes to adjust the workflow to Versions. If that is really a problem, I hope you guys don't go using a car in the Countries where they drive in the other side of the road!! 😝

Quote "2 extra clicks to duplicate a document?"

Evidently you don't type a lot or use your mouse a lot, and have never experienced RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) which is a serious problem for me.

That's aside from the fact that 2 extra clicks means extra time and extra work, if saving files as something else is something you do often. I do it many times every day. It's an integrated part of my workflow. Versions distrupts and impedes this.

Maybe you only use your computer as a toy.

Michelasso wrote:

It takes few minutes to adjust the workflow to Versions.

No, it doesn't take "a few minutes".

I've had Lion since it was released, and I still have to stop and think about what I'm doing when I try to edit a .pdf in Preview. I have to think about each step along the way and sometimes I sill screw it up and have to go searching in the "Pictures" folder for the file I was trying to export to the desktop, because that folder is the default and there's no way to change it...

Versions is very disruptive for me, and all I want is a way to disable it. I really don't think that's too much to ask.

Tom in London wrote:

Apart from the fact that 2 extra clicks means extra time and extra work, if saving files as something else is something you do often. I do it many times every day. It's an integrated part of my workflow. Versions distrupts and impedes this.

Maybe you only use your computer as a toy.

😁

Tom in London wrote:

Quote "2 extra clicks to duplicate a document?"

Evidently you don't type a lot or use your mouse a lot, and have never experienced RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) which is a serious problem for me.

Apart from the fact that 2 extra clicks means extra time and extra work, if saving files as something else is something you do often. I do it many times every day. It's an integrated part of my workflow. Versions distrupts and impedes this.

Maybe you only use your computer as a toy.

So 2 clicks more once in a while is really what would aggravate RSI? The effort one saves not constantly typing Command-S must a be a life saver, then!

Come on, let's be serious. I agree that Versions can be annoying at the beginning and that Apple had to keep the Shitf-Command-S or equivalent hotkey for file duplication (still it should be possible to define it in Preference Panel*) and to offer immediately the panel to chose the name. As I agree that autosave can be dangerous and so it must have an option to disable it on a per document (non even per application) base. But the "workflow breaker" argument for Versions is pretty weak.

In any case, I am a Unix system administrator. I mostly use the least toysh of the tools: Terminal. Then I must use the typical MS junk to write documents. If I want to bypass Versions for text files I use the vi editor. Problem solved!

* Actually it is. I did it now. Just assign in Keyboard/Hotkeys the hotkey you prefer to "Duplicate" in "All Applications". I suggest "Shift-Command-S" for consistency and for not conflicting with other hotkeys. It works immediately.