Lion is likely done, consider an upgrade

Lion 10.7.5 Supplemental Update was issued today with an apparent fix to the Time Machine speed (or lack thereof) issue that some Lion users experienced. I can't say if it fixes everybody's problem but Time Machine is working for me.

I do not expect to see any more Lion updates with any feature improvements. There might be some small bug fix updates but Lion also might be finished by definition.

If your hardware allows you to upgrade to Mountain Lion, IMHO, this would be a good plan. ML is what Lion should have been. If your hardware does not support ML, and there is a lot of it out there, then be content with what you have. It's not likely to change much. Your computer could still be highly useful for several years to come. I am used to hardware being left behind, it happens with serious regularity. My dual USB iBook is stuck at Tiger, the PB G4 at Leopard, an early intel iMac is stuck at SL and a MacBook2,1 is stuck at Lion.

The Mac App Store will not let you purchase Mountain Lion if your hardware does not support ML. If you haven't figured out if your hardware is supported or not, the easist way to find out is just to try to purchase it. If the purchase goes through, your hardware passes muster.

If you do elect to upgrade to ML, please take these simple precautions to help improve your odds of a trouble free upgrade, or at least provide an easy path to recover from an upgrade problem.

1) MAKE A BACKUP, actually MAKE TWO. Use Time Machine if you already use it and at least make a clone (use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper!, both work). You can boot the clone and then clone back if your ML installation completely blows up.

2) boot the clone (or some other bootable media, including the Recovery Partition) and use Disk Utility to repair any problems with your target disk.

3) Don't bother with reparining permissions before the install. The installer runs as root and doesn't need any stinkin' permissions. If you want to repair permissions, do it AFTER the install.

4) Purchase and download the ML installer app but do not run it right away. When it recommends that you "Continue", quit it instead. Then burn a copy to DVD or stash a copy out of harm's way. The installer app will be found in your Applications folder.

5) THEN run the installer app and leave it alone until it finishes. The installers will sometimes appear to stall or even regress at times. Just let it go.

- gws