Does anyone recommend OS X Lion?

As others have pointed out, Apple seeds beta versions of OS X to sofware developers to help them make their apps compatible. But whether or not developers upgrade their apps in a timely fashion is entirely beyond Apple's control. So if you want to blame somebody, blame the software developers, not Apple.

Mind you, I'm not saying this to defend Apple. I'm plenty irked with them for trashing MobileMe. But they are not responsible for your software compatibility problems.

Safari windows can close on me if I have 2 open, I click away to the Finder and then click on the Download button in the Safari window.

WHY did they take away the menu option for the download window AND the window itself?

Messing up windowing is serious. This is stuff that should never fail.

I did not know that. This is good information. Thanks! I'm running Office 2008 for the Mac. So if Lion goes south and you have to re-install for some reason, it would be better to reinstall Snow Leopard, then install Office BEFORE upgrading to Lion.

Upgrading to a new OS is a matter of choice.

Monitoring these forums is a good indicator of the magnitude

of problems. The thing to look at is not necessarily the

number of posts, but the number of views. A lot of

people may not post because the only thing that they

could add is "me to". Look through the forums for things

that may affect you. Also, as some have mentioned previously

it may not necessarily affect you.

You see a lot of posts about mail. I haven't had any issues.

Best advice I can give is have a plan to get back to where

you were if things go awry. External hard drives are cheap

and there is free cloning tools available. Make a bootable

backup. You can always copy it back. Or, to be safe,

you can install Lion on that and see how it works.

As for my personal opinion of Lion, on the two machines I

installed on so far, things seem snappier and for me

Mission Control is a great addition.

Things like Launchpad are too gimmiky to me.

In general, Lion is a bit of evolution but not revolution.

I am very happy with Lion! Just make sure you update all your software and apps; remove any SD cards, CDs, and USB cords; and restart your computer before starting the download and installation. I didn't use my computer at all while it downloaded and installed, and everything has been working perfectly. I haven't experienced any program failures, crashing, or overheating.

Lion is wonderful for those of us with iPhones and iPads, and to those of us who do a lot of multi-tasking. I feel like the new features are very well thought out and executed, and I don't have any complaints.

After some guys here put me up to installing Lion, I had a faultless installation on my Mac Air with the caveat that it took a couple of hours to download and install. I found it a nice implementation generally, probably a bit cleaner in the machinery. Not revolutionary.

Some features that I found useful in the past were apparently gone -- until I did some looking. Certain applications, such as hunting for a phrase, have new appearances, nested directories. Things come and go as you mouse over them or employ them. It's a constant discovery. Not exactly the result design should produce, but hey, "We Like to Futz" should be the motto of the Mac user.

Most of the traditional services -- the ones that were there because they worked best -- can be restored, like conventional scrolling on the trackpad and the former Mail's structure and appearance, which is far superior to the smartphone'd version. Command Center, etc.? Okay if you like to complicate your life.

The all-grey color scheme is for the birds. Color is an important signal and to have all the buttons take on the pallor of a month-old cadaver is disappointing.

On the plus side, only three of my major applications had to be disposed of -- Dreamweaver, the classic Rosetta used for file-joining, the more recent Rosetta used as framework -- and the lesser ones I never used and won't miss. Am I imagining or do some universal applications now work faster?

Did it make a difference to install Lion? Not much of one, but it was entertaining. I'm hoping for the $30 and a few hours spent tweaking my post-installation machine that there are improvements I don't see under the hood. Will I install Leo on my Mac Pro? Yes, when a new version is out that offers serious benefits in return for the time and trouble.

All the contention here? A tempest in a tea pot. Lion is no Snow Leopard. You don't gain a lot, but you don't lose a lot, either. It's nice, is all.

I recommend it. The resume feature is great, scrolling is finally right side up now 😁, versioning is a must have once you start to rely on it. Mission Control is great, the integration between Dashboards and Desktops is what it should be. Takes only about 20 minutes to untrain the upside/down way of scrolling to what is more intuitive.

I love the fact that even a terminal window now keeps your history like a calculator keeping an archive!

Yes

In a few words, actually no - at least for a while. Because I don't think the OS X Lion is 100% percent user-friendly with Adobe apps such as Adobe Creative Suite CS5.5 Master Collection, where I use it every day. I cannot afford to lose highly effective and productive.

However, if it isn't an issue with that approach, that is different case - and I would love to upgrade to OS X Lion. But I will wait until few weeks or few months at least.

Sorry to see that it has not been resolved at this time. It would be nice if Adobe and Apple work this together as they did in the past. Dunno why they don't do this time.

Brian

I suggest you keep a cloned copy of your boot disk. That way, if your boot disk goes bad, you just need to replace it, then copy your clone onto it. This way, you'll avoid having to re-install any apps. The trick though is to keep your cloned disk reasonably current. I update my clone before I install any OS updates.

Alex, The new Safari still has a download window, but accessing it has changed. Watch to the right of the Google search bar while you're downloading something via Safari. You will see a little progress bar within an icon that has a downward facing arrow. Click on that icon to open the downloads window.

I had to get rid of Microsoft Office 2004 on mine - Lion got rid of PowerPC support, and MO2004 was PPC software.

From what I've read, leter versions of MO will work on Lion.

Office 2011 works fine. I've tested Word, Excel and Document Connector so far and they work great.

It would be nice if Adobe and Apple work this together as they did in the past. Dunno why they don't do this time.

Unless we hear an authoritative report to the contrary, we must assume that Apple has supplied Adobe with the necessary beta software and technical expertise to make Adobe software compatible with OS X Lion. Whether Adobe takes care of business on their end in a timely manner is beyond Apple's control. Adobe has famously dragged their heels in the past leading up to a new OS X rollout, and (especially given the increased tension between the two companies of late) there's no reason to expect them to do a better job this time. Although Adobe is ultimately the loser in this passive-aggressive game since frustrating their own customers can't possibly do the company any good.

I worked at Adobe back in the days when Apple and Adobe were bosom buddies and Steve Jobs frequently gave talks in the Adobe cafeteria. It's kinda sad when old friendships go bad, but it's not like this is anything new. Adobe (and their relationship with Apple) started going south when John and Chuck retired and handed over control of the company to the suits.

I recomend it. You are not hearing complaints so much as issues (well, some complaints, but some people are just that way). There are always issues, I've had a few myself. But what I like about it I REALLY like. Once I shake all the bugs out of my system and workflow I'm going to love it.