Hi Samuel,
Although this is not part of the original thread, I thought I'd comment on your post.
I am an Apple Consultant Network member, and I deal with a lot of different clients and a lot of different machines. Here's the one caveat with Lion:
It's actually a very good operating system. Where it runs into major problems is when upgrading from Snow Leopard. Unfortunately there seems to be many issues that are brought over from the old user Library (not sure whether it's cache files or preference files), but if you want to have a smooth running machine (and it's running poorly), you can back up your home directory.
Try doing a clean install of the OS (not sure if you have a ton of applications, but I've had to wipe several machines and start fresh). When you copy back the data from your home directory backup, move the contents of each folder (Desktop, Downloads, Music, Movies, etc) over to the new user account that you've just established after the reinstall.
Then from your home Library, I'd only take:
Mail
Mail Downloads
Safari
Stickies Database
Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
Assuming you're using iCloud, you don't need to bring over Application Support/AddressBook or any iCal stuff, as it will repopulate when you enter in your iCloud info.
I know it's a drag, but I've had reports every single time of the system running 100% better, night and day.
I actually have one of the Lion USB keys, so I don't actually install Snow Leopard in order to upgrade to Lion, I just do the install from that.
But I do know that it can run quite well if it hasn't brought forward any old issues (or snafus that are caused from upgrading). I do agree that upgrades have NOT been smooth in the last year.