Does anyone recommend OS X Lion?

It would seem the answer to choosing Lion depends on the age of everything on your system. On my new desktop which only has a few (new) multimedia apps it worked fine. On my MacPro (used for business apps) it's been a disaster.

Half my software no longer works. My virtual machine with Parallels 6 is dead, my SATA (6 months old) is toast, AirDrop doesn't work because the wifi on this only 4 yr old $4000 MacPro is unsupported, scanner is dead, and I haven't even finished checking things.

As for improvements, frankly I haven't seen anything that has impressed me or makes working on this more efficient. I've actually found the intuitiveness decline. (and I'm no newbie)

One thing I liked about Apple (and something they bragged about) was their loyalty to existing equipment and that you didn't have to throw all your investment out everytime they released a new OS (unlike a competitor). Never had issues with 3 previous ugrades.

Guess they've throw that philosphy under the bus with Lion. (Apple$oft to customer - toss that perfectly good hardware/software out, we need to sell more new $tuff)

If you have all new equipment and software I guess you might be happy, but if you are just trying to get work done and expect it to "JUST WORK", I would recommend sticking with Snow Leopard.

signed

Normally keen on Apple but not this time.

There is already a post and a lot of people having the same problem with mail and Lion. Like I said Thunderbird works, Iphone works, Ipad works what is the difference? An upgrade to Lion. To answer the question again dont upgrade if you are not prepared for risk. I have lost seven years worth of business emails I am having to create new acounts and import them from back up. If knew this was going to happen I would not have upgraded. Question answered. I am warining other peoples "user space."

When deciding to install a new OS, I generally ignore the posts both from people who have problems and from those who say their installation was smooth as silk. They don't have much statistical significance since the number of posts in comparison to the number of installations is miniscule.

But I believe some things can be generally accepted: a new OS is a complicated piece of software that most likely has some bugs not yet addressed; some of those bugs may affect your system more than other people's systems; the longer you wait for Apple to release updates, the less likely you will experience problems; the longer you wait, the more likely other software vendors will have updated their products to work properly with the OS.

I didn't make the move from Leopard to Snow Leopard until the OS was at 10.6.5. I didn't mind waiting since I didn't see any features in the new OS that were indispensable for me. I feel the same way about Lion. If you do decide to install the initial release of Lion, definitely make sure that the programs you have installed are compatible by referring to the site posted above. Also, make a bootable backup of your existing system software.

I do have one question about MS Office 2008. If the installer won't work with Lion, does that mean that you won't be able to install any updates to the program if MS should release them in the future?

Do I recommend Lion?

I wish I could but my opinion is that it is messy. It's not the polished upgrade I expected. I've had various issues that have ruined the upgrade experience and my Mac is a bog-standard iMac with no fancy software, it should have been a clean process to upgrade. It's very plain to see that hundreds of people are having issues as well. I think the Testing team have a lot to answer for, Macs are simple machines unlike PCs and the varied Mac configurations should have been easily catered for and tested. Clearly this isn't the case.

I would possibly recommend Lion 1.1 if it fixes everyone's issues, speeds up my RSS feeds in Mail to a usable speed, enables me to configure a gesture to launch Launchpad and a few other things. But currently I honestly can't see what I've paid for.

It's likely I'm reverting back to SL for my feeds and better Mail version. Hopefully Lion sees some major improvements (for me and the other thread starters with issues).

Here's a link to one of many articles on the subject.

I disagree with this "Correct Answer." Lion is a step backward in certain key interface design decisions. I'm waiting to see how it evolves. If it becomes even more smartphone-like, my Apple career may end with Snow Leopard.

Good God, the only people posting are those that know about the Forums. What a deceitful approach!

Anyone who has to ask whether it's safe or "recommended" to install a brand new operating system should probably wait awhile before jumping into the fire. Once Apple releases the 10.7.2 update, it should be relatively safe for non-technical users to proceed with the upgrade.

As to whether Lion can be "recommended", you should take note of the fact that Lion only came out yesterday, which means that most of those who have installed it at this point are either very technically-inclined or very impulsive. The reactions of such users are not likely to give you an accurate picture of what average Mac users think about Lion. For that, you'll need to wait awhile. It would also be a very good idea to read one or two comprehensive articles about OS X Lion, which is in some respects quite different than any previous version of OS X. In the long run, of course Lion is "recommended". How could it not be? But there is bound to be a learning curve, and early adopters also need to be prepared to deal with a certain amount of frustration. For example, some apps may not yet be Lion-compatible. Ditto for some plugins and device drivers. It's a process.

It works with MS Office 2008 and above.

What he means is that people come here with issues, they don't come and post "All is well - nothing to report"

As this is a user support forum you would expect to see user issues and problems.

It is not a true representation of what is happening in general as we can't see all the people who have no issues at all.

Before you make such insulting comments - think!

Clearly, had you thought first, there wouldn't be an awkward exchange between us.

You suggested that only people with problems post here, implying that people who don't post here don't have problems. Far from the truth.

In that sense, you were insulting our ability to reason.

Thanks for the clarification of your meaning, Ian.

Bob

I don't recall saying anyone was deceitful which is a very strong allegation to make.

No need to reply, I'm out of this one.

Sorry, Ian, I didn't intend a personal slight. My apology.

I meant that "cognoscenti" who frequent Forums often make the logically dubious claim that people who don't post don't have problems. Maybe those who don't post don't expect to get answers here that they can work with. Or that the format of the dialogue is too visually disturbing. Or whatever.

I've spoken with a few new Lion users who haven't posted here who now have doubts about Apple's interface-design infaliibity. Many abandoned MobileMe or Me.com or whatever it's now called because the interface was so oversimplified it was/is nearly useless. They recognize the syndrome.

I imagine quite a few folks will be going back to 10.6.8, giving up the ability to pinch a scene larger -- wait, doesn't that already exist for Snow Leopard, for apps where it matters? -- in order to properly read their Mail, do their windows management, etc. Same thing happened to Skype, which dumbed down in order to become Facebook-ready. Professional users are moving to other platforms.

Apple should watch out for HTC or Samsung or someone coming up with something that parallels or exceeds Lion. The opportunity's there. And also for someone else: a software company with designers able to craft a more professional rather than merely more visual/gestural interface.

Thanks for the dialogue.

Many abandoned MobileMe or Me.com or whatever it's now called because the interface was so oversimplified it was/is nearly useless.

Many, many MobileMe subscribers have been flooding these discussion forums for weeks (if not months) with complaints about the demise of the MobileMe service, which hardly suggests that MobileMe is "nearly useless". On the contrary, it's best features will be very hard to replace. Let those who abandoned MobileMe be happy. Their decision pertains to themselves, not to the service that many others find invaluable.

Guys, this forum is not for fighting. Gosh. ⚠