Does anyone recommend OS X Lion?

Bob Jacobson wrote:

It's interesting that a second generation of commenters is now reciting the same pros and cons as the commenters before them (July-October 2011).

Bottomline: no one has produced a particularly compelling reason for using Lion. But it's not the worse thing in the world. If you like the highly subjective pluses and can tolerate the more objective minuses, you are welcome to its use.

I'm loving Snow Leopard, waiting for OS 10.8...or Lucky 11.0.

Good point.

I think my solution will be to convince my wife to trade her new iMac (10.6.8) for a new iPad. The iMac is way more than what she needs and will meet my needs nicely. She does email, pictures, calendar, addresses, etc., all of which can be done easily on an iPad. I can then dedicate the iMac for working and keep Lion on my MBP for my email, writing, calendar, addresses, etc.

If she goes for that, then I too will be loving SL. And I will be hopeful that Apple will not make OS 10.8 into a new version of Lion. Or if they do, they will provide options to configure the OS in a “Classic” mode, including turning Versions and AutoSave off.

Dr.Head wrote:

Francisco Bido wrote: I've been with the platform since 1995. This is the worst most unstable OS I've seen. So you don't remember System 8, huh? 😝 They fixed a lot of stuff in 8.5, but 8 was terrible! 😁 I ended up going back to 7.5!

I skipped OS 8 entirely. I went from a Performa 6300CD in System 7.5 directly to my first iMac in 9.0.x.

Sounds like I didn't miss much. If the Performa's 1.2 GB hard drive hadn't filled up, I'd still be plugging away in System 7.5 the way I did for FIVE YEARS, ha-ha.

Excellent summary of the situation regarding this version of OSX. I agree wholeheartedly. Snow Leopard is the best OS that Apple has yet devised.I feel sorry for the new Mac owners who have Lion as their OS as they can not go back to Snow Leopard and are locked in to this OS and of course have to "deal" with the miriad of problems it brings. Snow Leopard "just works". My understanding is that the new Mac owners who have Lion installed by Apple can not go back without swapping out the motherboard. If I am incorrect on this please let me know. If this is true it certainly is a terrible situation to be in.

Ben Friedman1 wrote:

Excellent summary of the situation regarding this version of OSX. I agree wholeheartedly. Snow Leopard is the best OS that Apple has yet devised.I feel sorry for the new Mac owners who have Lion as their OS as they can not go back to Snow Leopard and are locked in to this OS and of course have to "deal" with the miriad of problems it brings. Snow Leopard "just works". My understanding is that the new Mac owners who have Lion installed by Apple can not go back without swapping out the motherboard. If I am incorrect on this please let me know. If this is true it certainly is a terrible situation to be in.

You are certainly incorrect. Lion does not have a "myriad of problems."

I can't see why you say that.This discussion has illustrated the fact that there are a myriad of problems. In addition I see no one exclaiming how wonderful this OS is. Quite the contrary I see people who are overwhelmed with the problems this OS has and they are yet to be fixed by Apple although this version of OSX has been out long enough to mature. The idea that a new Mac would require a swap of the motherboard (that is if I am correct) in order to go to SnowLeopard is ludicrous,in view of the fact that the new purchase of a Mac is not inexpensive.

No. This discussion illustrates that some individuals are having some problems. There is no "myriad of problems" with Lion.

Well i give you for an example this discussion:https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3194165?start=0&tstart=0 These are all NEW iMac users who unfortunately purchased iMacs and were convinced that Lion was a reliable OS. As you can see by reading through the posts in the discussion there are a MYRIAD of problems. I can't be more clearer than that. In addition to replace a Motherboard in a new Mac is an undertaking that I would not relish.

Good grief. As people are boasting of having been using Macs since system 8 and even (gasp) 7, I'll just chip in. Been using Macs since system 1, 1984, before they were available retail in the UK. Started using mainframes in 1968.

Upgraded to Lion on day one, had no problems with it then, and have no problems with it now.

Carry on telling everybody how dreadful it is, I don't mind.

Where on earth you got the idea of a motherboard swap, I cannot imagine. It's only software!

For each one the distinct hardware configurations that underline the complaints I would estimates tens of thousands of people having problem.

Only a few have the patience to go on this forum hoping to get the attention of Apple engineers.

BTW, I do remember OS8. Yes it had issues but not this bad. Also OS9 followed very quickly afterwards. What's the next big cat OS?

We are stuck for a long long time with Lion. I'm just hoping they get around to fixing it SOON.

Yes, SOME persons are having SOME problems. It's as simple as that.

It's no problem replacing a motherboard in a new Mac, if that's what really happened. It's called w-a-r-r-a-n-t-y and the user does absolutely NOTHING. Apple does everything.

i guess we should all bow down to you, tonefox, and kiss your feet. You must be one of the few lucky ones who isn't having any problems at all. As for the rest of us, Lion has been more of a pain in the rear than anything, causing all kinds of problems for mostly everybody.

I see you buy a NEW Mac and you want to go to Snow Leopard and you replace the motherboard under the Warranty program. If life were as simple as that then you may as well go down the wrong way on Chestnut Street in Philly. Who knows how good the tech will be. Who really wants the aggravation of the repair and the inconvenience it brings? I personally wouldn't want it.

Ben Friedman1 wrote:

Excellent summary of the situation regarding this version of OSX. I agree wholeheartedly. Snow Leopard is the best OS that Apple has yet devised.I feel sorry for the new Mac owners who have Lion as their OS as they can not go back to Snow Leopard and are locked in to this OS and of course have to "deal" with the miriad of problems it brings. Snow Leopard "just works". My understanding is that the new Mac owners who have Lion installed by Apple can not go back without swapping out the motherboard. If I am incorrect on this please let me know. If this is true it certainly is a terrible situation to be in.

To my mind, Lion is simply what happens when a corporation is forced by the laws of capitalism to produce a "new" version of its product even though the product is just fine.

In fact after you've stripped away the annoying interface tweaks (such as the horrible new grey "textile weave" login screen that has replaced the beautiful SL screen, the reverse scrolling, the grey icons, etc.) Lion is really Snow Leopard minus Rosetta, plus Autosave and Versions.

In fact when I first installed Lion I was amazed that it appeared to be no different at all from Snow Leopard.

Hi, It is software BUT my understanding from reading the Discussions is that IF you bought a NEW MAC with LION pre installed by the factory in China and if you wish to substitute SnowLeopard as your OS you MUST change the motherboard. Crazy isn't it?

tool wrote:

i guess we should all bow down to you, tonefox, and kiss your feet. You must be one of the few lucky ones who isn't having any problems at all.

Feel free. I thought I was just somebody who has always thought it worthwhile to understand and learn how to use my tech. Most people posting here haven't even found the user guide yet.