Snow Leopard or Lion for new Mac User?

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Level 1

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Snow Leopard or Lion for new Mac User?

Hi everyone: I purchased my first Mac (a MacBook Pro) about a month back and shortly thereafter upgraded to Lion for free through the apps store. Since then, using/navigating the new Mac has been somewhat challenging for me and I'm not yet comfortable with using it for all of my computing needs. (I have an old Toshiba that is still my go-to computer--for the moment.) I suspect that part of my challenges stem from being a new Mac user (irrespective of the particular OS) after years of using PCs, but I do wonder if they may also relate to OS Lion, which seems to have complicated the user experience. I was hoping that using a Mac would be more intuitive and simple than it seems to have been thus far.

With that in mind, might there be some utility in me reinstalling Snow Leopard (and if so how?) in order to become more used to the new Mac experience before permanently switching to Lion? If I do, would I be able to, down the road, resintall Lion for free?

I recognize that this suggestion would involve some learning curve redundancy (learning the Mac on Snow Leopard and eventually re-learning it with Lion). However, I have a sense that reverting back to Snow Leopard might ease my transition into the new Mac experience. Either way, I'm looking forward to eventually tossing out that Toshiba! 🙂

Thanks for any/all thoughts. Best, DC

MacBook Pro, First Mac

Posted on Aug 23, 2011 4:56 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Aug 23, 2011 5:03 PM in response to The DC Man

If you want to downgrade to Snow Leopard then do the following:

Downgrade Lion to Snow Leopard

1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.

2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.

This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.1.

If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.

However, there isn't that much difference between Snow Leopard and Lion that using Snow Leopard would prove easier to learn. There are lots of tutorials available at the Apple website to help you learn how to use a Mac. You might start with Apple - Support - Mac 101 and Apple - Support - Switch 101. And, for Lion see About MacOS X.

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Answer 2

Badunit

Level 7

25,586 points

Aug 23, 2011 5:22 PM in response to The DC Man

Other than the scrolling direction (which can be changed to be like the old way) and the new way that documents are saved (automatically) and "saved as" (duplicated), using/navigating Lion is pretty much the same as Snow Leopard. There are some other differences that a long-time Mac user would have to get used to but you are new to Macs and don't have the "old" ways ingrained in your head and fingers. You also do not have a plethora of Power PC applications that won't run under Lion.

Lion is the new thing. Apple is running the show so my advice is to follow their direction, not buck it. Get used to how Lion works because eventually it will be the only version that gets updated with new features and eventually it will be the required version for new apps.

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Answer 3

The DC Man Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 23, 2011 6:37 PM in response to The DC Man

Thanks Kappy and Badunit. These are very helpful thoughts. It sounds like I should hang in there with Lion and keep building more time and experience with computing activities (e.g. photos, internet, word processing) on my new Mac. Inevitably, I'll become more comfortable with the Mac and its many features.

Thx again for your thoughts and insights. DC

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Answer 4

Ziatron

Level 5

4,186 points

Aug 23, 2011 6:45 PM in response to The DC Man

For now, I would stay with Snow Leopard.

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 to 10.2. (I skipped 10.0 and 10.1)

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

In the Windows world, which I am sadly forced to use occasionally, I wisely skipped Vista, and went from Windows XP to Windows 7.

I was able to get over most of the technical problems with Lion. I felt that the interface was “dumbed down” and harder to use and missing some features (Bounce was removed from mail).

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Answer 5

GlennW

Level 3

630 points

Aug 24, 2011 11:55 AM in response to The DC Man

DC Man,

If you can give us a bit more information about what things you find difficult to use, or just different, or can describe what you are trying to do but can't figure out how on your new Mac, we can provide more specific advice. My guess is that you are encountering general Mac OS vs. Windows differences rather than Lion vs. Snow Leopard differences, but we're all just guessing without more information.

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