Mountain Lion vs. Lion

VladSoare wrote:

Hello,

I know that the question about Mountain Lion versus Lion, and whether the upgrade is worth it, has been raised a lot already. I've been reading about it lately, but all I could find was related to new applications, user interface, iOS integration, and so on. I'm more interested in the internal workings of the operating system.

I really like Lion's interface and its current applications. I like my computer the way it is and wouldn't upgrade just for the sake of a few bells and whistles. I would, however, upgrade if there were something new about the operating system itself, like better memory management, better optimized resource usage, better process management, higher stability, higher security, fewer bugs, or anything like that.

So, my question is: does Mountain Lion offer internally anything new over Lion? Is its current release better in any way than the current Lion release as far as the basic operating system is concerned?

Thank you.

For all my Macs, Mountain Lion has been like Lion on steroids, in a good way!! Once on ML I would never consider going back to Lion.

Cheers

Pete

I can't speak for Pete, but my MacBook Pro shipped with Lion and I made the switch to Mountain Lion early on. I've had no problems with it, but can't really say that I've noticed any increases in speed, etc. I have noticed, as there have been progressive update to Mountain Lion, that I've experienced fewer 'bugs' than I had with Lion and that I do enjoy the 200-some-odd enhancements of Mountain Lion.

Good luck,

Clinton

VladSoare wrote:

Pete, apart from changes in the user interface and applications, did you also notice any improvements in the overall performance, like, say, higher speed, fewer bugs, shorter startup times, lower memory usage, longer battery life, I don't know, anything like that? Are you saying you wouldn't go back to Lion because Mountain Lion's style of doing things is much better, or because the computer as a whole actually runs noticeably better?

Thank you.

I notice it to be more stable, not a hugh difference in UI but a more complete package than Lion. I have noticed a slight improvement in speed, or should I say, it seems less buggy than Lion. As far as Battery life, I have never had an issue with decreased battery life, getting the same life now in ML as I did in SL and Lion.

Pete

I disagree totally with the other 2 posts. My Mac came with Lion and I installed Mt lion when it came out and I did a Clean install of Mt Lion not an upgrade over the top of Lion. System booted and shut down slower. Was less responsive with Mt Lion then Lion. No features in Lion I needed or wanted. So in the end I reverted the system to Lion and am staying there.

NOTE:

This is on a 15" Late 2011 model that I installed 8GBs of RAM and a Seagate 500GB XT series drive. So neither the amount of RAM or the speed of the hard drive was holding the system back in any way. Lion is just faster then Mt Lion.

So if you do not need whatever new features are in Mt Lion then I say do not waste your $20 on it. Your system will run slower then it does with Lion. Also I have noticed that through all the releases of Mt Lion Time Machine is Broken. It took more time to backup my Mac and when running Time Machine again it always wanted to do a Full Backup again. There are many reports of this.

If you do want to try it I suggest you partition your drive and install Mt lion on that second partition and then use the Setup assistant to copy over just your User settings, files and programs from your Lion install on the first partition. That way you can TEST Mt Lion against Lion and make the choice of which one to keep installed on your Mac.

Shootist007 wrote:

I disagree totally with the other 2 posts. My Mac came with Lion and I installed Mt lion when it came out and I did a Clean install of Mt Lion not an upgrade over the top of Lion. System booted and shut down slower. Was less responsive with Mt Lion then Lion. No features in Lion I needed or wanted. So in the end I reverted the system to Lion and am staying there.

NOTE:

This is on a 15" Late 2011 model that I installed 8GBs of RAM and a Seagate 500GB XT series drive. So neither the amount of RAM or the speed of the hard drive was holding the system back in any way. Lion is just faster then Mt Lion.

So if you do not need whatever new features are in Mt Lion then I say do not waste your $20 on it. Your system will run slower then it does with Lion. Also I have noticed that through all the releases of Mt Lion Time Machine is Broken. It took more time to backup my Mac and when running Time Machine again it always wanted to do a Full Backup again. There are many reports of this.

If you do want to try it I suggest you partition your drive and install Mt lion on that second partition and then use the Setup assistant to copy over just your User settings, files and programs from your Lion install on the first partition. That way you can TEST Mt Lion against Lion and make the choice of which one to keep installed on your Mac.

IYHO of course? 🙂

Cheers

Pete

No not my opinion, Facts. Mt Lion runs slower then Lion. Lion runs slower then Snow Leopard. These are facts proven by many different people on many different Mac computers, newer, Mac's that shipped with Lion then upgraded to Mt Lion, or older, Mac's that shipped with Snow Leopard and then upgraded to Lion then Mt Lion.

Anyone saying differently is just kidding themselves and the rest of the Mac community.

Not only that but Mt Lion is not compatible with some slightly older appications, not many but there are some that do not run properly on Mt Lion that ran fine on Lion.

petermac87 wrote:

IYHO of course? 🙂

Cheers

Pete

Shootist007 wrote:

No not my opinion, Facts. Mt Lion runs slower then Lion. Lion runs slower then Snow Leopard. These are facts proven by many different people on many different Mac computers, newer, Mac's that shipped with Lion then upgraded to Mt Lion, or older, Mac's that shipped with Snow Leopard and then upgraded to Lion then Mt Lion.

Anyone saying differently is just kidding themselves and the rest of the Mac community.

Not only that but Mt Lion is not compatible with some slightly older appications, not many but there are some that do not run properly on Mt Lion that ran fine on Lion.

petermac87 wrote:

IYHO of course? 🙂

Cheers

Pete

And yet it's the most downloaded OSX yet? No, I find it far superior to Lion. In fact I don't know of anyone who still runs the buggy old Lion since ML was released. I think I have as much right to voice my opinion to the OP who asked for opinions as you do. You are coming across as quite arrogant and 'not to be contradicted'. I find that rather rude and unhelpful to the OP, but then again, you are a level 6. 😉

Pete

Shootist007 wrote:

Also I have noticed that through all the releases of Mt Lion Time Machine is Broken. It took more time to backup my Mac and when running Time Machine again it always wanted to do a Full Backup again. There are many reports of this.

And there are many causes for it that are not the fault of Mountain Lion. See for instance Pondini's troubleshooting page for this behavior. Note in particular that a corrupted preference file can cause this, as mentioned near the bottom of the page.

FWIW, I have had no such issues with Time Machine on my iMac running 10.8.2 or 10.8.3 -- in fact, TM backups are very quick for me, even though I'm now using a USB 2.0 interface for the backup drives. And I appreciate TM's new ability to support multiple backup drives, which also works quite well for me.

You have every right to voice your OPINION as anyone, and you have done so.

But in the end it is your opinion. Lion on my system is no more bugy, in fact less bugy, then Mt Lion. This has been proven through many tests of my own and others.

If you had taken the time to test this yourself, by installing Lion and Mt Lion in there own partitions so you can run them both, you may of experienced the same things as others have.

Apple is certainly not infallible and there OSs certainly not the best in all respects. If they were we would not be seeing 4 releases of Mt Lion in less then a year, 10.8.0 to 10.8.3, and 10.8.4 just around the corner. And lets not mention Apple Maps.

If no one was still using Lion then why did Apple bother to come out with 10.7.5?

Shootist007 wrote:

If no one was still using Lion then why did Apple bother to come out with 10.7.5?

That was seven months ago. No updates since. No beta updates released. I find Montain Lion far more stable. As I say, noone I know of in my Mac community uses Lion anymore. I ran it, very buggy on my five Macs. ML, no such problems. 🙂

Cheers

Pete

Shootist007 wrote:

No not my opinion, Facts. Mt Lion runs slower then Lion. Lion runs slower then Snow Leopard. These are facts proven by many different people on many different Mac computers, newer, Mac's that shipped with Lion then upgraded to Mt Lion, or older, Mac's that shipped with Snow Leopard and then upgraded to Lion then Mt Lion.

Some other facts:

1. There are also many reports from users that say Mountain Lion runs just as fast as Lion on these same machines, & some that say it might run a bit faster.

2. There are many well known causes for slow performance that have nothing directly to do with the OS version. Often the culprit is some third party addition that is not compatible with the newer OS version or just hasn't been updated to the latest compatible version by the user. Corrupted preference or damaged system files also can & often do cause this.

3. Sometimes an apparent drop in performance after upgrading the OS is caused by an unnoticed change from default system or application preferences that are not preserved by the upgrade. It is always a good idea to check for this after upgrading, especially for things like network, security & privacy, & energy saver settings, & for any system preferences in the "Other" category.

4. Similarly, don't forget to check that any "tweaks" made to the earlier OS are still present after the upgrade. Generally, they are not preserved, & even if they are they may need to be modified to work with the new version.

5. In short, don't assume that everything anybody reports will affect everybody, or that every symptom has the same cause.