OS X Lion is incredibly slow (even after index)

I'm a geek who used to squeeze function from old PCs using Debian Linux, so it's not that I'm against the occasional complexity.

I too went Mac because I was sick of always reformatting and futzing when the latest program broke things, and was ok with some restrictions and a premium if it worked well.

That end users need to repair their permissions, scan their hard drives for snags that never caused issues before, and track down programs clogging things that worked just fine before just doesn't say Apple to me. I'm not even holding them to a higher standard saying people would roast MS if an upgrade did all this following approved processes and only using "compatible" apps.

That aside, we're here, and having half the system you did before is better than nothing. Have you disabled all auto startups along the lines of DCs suggestions, and deleted all accumulated apps you're not worried about losing? If you leave only what you really paid dearly for, a gutted farrari is better than a paperweight.

I would definitely make a backup first. If you backup your system, you can be brutal in tracking down what's wrong by elimination, and going back as needed.

From what I gather, it's an auto start program that worked fine before and changes to Lion's function are not compatable, or it's a hard drive or permissions issue.

Update: although the repair disk permissions helped, I did continue to see sluggish performance from some programs. Most noticeable was Preview which even on small PDF files would give me the spinning wheel for 10-30 seconds. My solution to the problem was to create a new profile and copy my files from a backup disk into the new profile. I didn't restore settings from backup so I had to go through each program and recreate settings manually. This was somewhat time-consuming but I only recently got this MBP and hadn't invested much time in customising my settings. Having transformed my MBP from a "piece of junk" into something that feels nicely responsive, I think it was time well spent.

Spent another hour on line with support and nothing new. As a matter of fact he told me he to had to erase his disk and reinstall everything after Lion. So... I just bought a 2 TB drive and backed everything up. he told me not to do a migration and to do a fresh install of everything (i am not looking forward to that). it took me forever to integrate the MAC in to my network and make it visiable to all the other computers, i am not looking forward to that nightmare again not to mention having to find all my original disks and serial numbers especially since most of the things i have are virtual installs.

I am not sure if they will apply to anyone - but for some reason FIrefox is making my computer run really slow on Lion. I have stoppped using it and have noticed a big difference in speed.

it is very interesting you say that... i thought is was a grease monkey script i was running on Ffox but finally rulled that out. i never thought about Firefox on its on and it is usually running. Thank you for the post, i was literally minutes from erasing my disk... lets see if FF causes Lion to crap the bed....

That would be unfortunate but at least a solution. Firefox is very useful when Safari won't cut it for some sites. Maybe they will release a version "optimized" for Lion. By default, Lion tends to relaunch all the open programs after a reboot or crash, even the ones that crashed it I think, so if you manually close and turn off everything extra, by elimination you may end up with a snappy system again. If you don't see anything hogging resources hopeful manual elimination will do it for you.

I couldn't agree more netsoup... aperature starts much faster without Firefox, i removed and reinstalled Firefox. It seems to be better. BUT i have just finished repairing permissions, removing cache, restarting, and full virsus scan (nothing found). this usually fixes it for a day any way but my fingers or crossed and we will see if it works longer that a day (not gonna hold my breath).

I am not sure what add ons you are running in FireFox but Firebug makes my computer grind to a halt. Which really ***** because when I am designing a website - I am constantly using it but I have to keep shutting down Fire Fox and restarting it. It does seem to work better when I turn off that add on.

My system just seems to be running better when I don't use FireFox at all. That is after verifying my permissions and disk repair. Which is a bummer. I am also hoping that they come out with a Lion version of Firefox.

If you have an antivirus, not using any is super bad advice and I'm just mentioning it at your own risk. You never know what core changes in Lion caused what old programs to mess the bed, as you so eloquently put it.

I would put AV in that category. Any AV should be redesigned or tested for Lion since many are always running. Obviously I would never say don't use AV but Lion's seems fussy about what's running even if it worked great before, and it auto restarts it...

The person at the Apple Store kept using the fact I did not need an anti-virus tool we a huge selling point. I think I lasted a day and a half before I loaded NAV. It has been updated and when I check the processes, it does not "seem" to be an issue. I am stuck on planes trains and automobiles this week and will try to search their board for folks reporting conflicts... BTW eloquence is not something I have been saddled with as i am a numbers guy LOL

Well, a Mac was the first to be hacked using Safari bugs in White Hat competition, in five seconds no less.

http://www.dailytech.com/Apples+OS+X+is+First+OS+to+be+Hacked+at+This+Years+Pwn2 Own/article21097.htm

Especially if Lion has issues with Firefox, that runs great on SL and has better security and compatibility in some cases, it's weird they would say you should just omit protection rather than review Lion compatibility specifics. Plus, if you omit scans altogether you could still be spreading viruses to friends and co-workers.

Sorry i sent that from my iPad and fat fingered a few things. Tech support did not tell me to avoid an anti-virus program it was the sales person when i bought the thing. He said "you could run it but it is a waste of processing power as there has never been a reported virus on a MAC" he went on to correct himself and said there may have been 1 report.

I have no idea what it is blocking but my NAV log is littered with "Connection Blocking Incoming connection to - blocked" and "Vulnerability Protection Vulnerability (ARP Cache Poison) blocked".

probably nothing but NAV is going no where....

I actually stumbled across this thread by accident. I was looking for an explanation as to why the blur function in Terminal wasn't working on my MacBook Pro.

I have wondered ever since I installed Lion the first time on my Early 2011 MacBook Pro why it's never seemed to be as fast as my Mid 2006 MacBook with Snow Leopard. (Actually, I don't think this machine did so hot with SL on it either...)

One thing I noticed early on was that process 0 (kernel_task) on the MBP has always used between half a gig and three quarters of a gig of Real Memory. This has occurred ever since the machine was brand new, it continued after I did a clean install on the 128GB SSD I put in the MacBook Pro before I purchased my MacBook Air. No one at Apple has ever been able to give me any clue as to why this happens, other than "It's the expected behavior"

I don't think that (for me at least) the sluggishness of Lion is a third party software issue. Lion is sluggish after doing a clean install (on a drive that had never been used before.) I'm not sure where the issue is, but I am confident that Apple will find it and squash the bug when they do.

I did a repair permissions and the home folder ACLs a little bit ago. Right now, I'm sitting with 4GB of RAM free out of 8GB total (I upgraded it because of the kernel_task processes eating so much of it when I only had 4GB of RAM) and the machine feels fast, just like it should.

The only part of this that I don't really understand is why my MBA feels faster than the MBP which outspecs it everywhere except the hard drive capacity. I looked and the MBP has negotiated it's hard drive speed at 6GB/s and the Air is running at 3GB/s. You can file me under confused...

You need to upgread Mac hard drive. Actually os x lion is not support for MacBook mid 2008.