Mac OS X Lion: what think ye?

[imageWIS]

Anyone upgraded yet? If so, opinions? Comments?

I tried to use it at the 5th Ave Apple store, but as always it was so crowded that getting on an iMac was simply impossible. Also, according to Mac Rumors, Adobe products are having an issue with Lion, so since I use Photoshop and Illustrator extensively, so I think I'll hold off until they fix some of the kinks.

 

[Krish the Fish]

I like it. It took a couple hours to get used to some things (scrolling is reversed now, so more like iPad/iPhone scrolling. ie two fingers pushing up on the trackpad scrolls down; also, the three fingers to switch between desktops in mission control, 2 finger scroll in safari to go forward/backward, etc.) but I like it better than snow leopard. Also, somehow my early/mid 2008 13" mbp is actually faster on lion than it was on snow leopard, but this is roughly what I noticed, no benchmarking.

The new mail application is head over shoulders better than before imo.

But it's nice. I have four desktops with Safari/Mail/Echofon on one, Pages on two, Numbers on three, and my practice MCAT princeton review page up on four. Switching between desktops isn't the lagfest that I had to deal with on snow leopard with spaces, and everything seems a lot smoother than it was before.

Haven't used any Adobe products yet so cannot comment on that.

 

[rxcats]



I like it. It took a couple hours to get used to some things (scrolling is reversed now, so more like iPad/iPhone scrolling.

I updated to OS X Lion when I got up Wednesday afternoon (worked very late the night before). I like it a lot, but I mainly just surf, pay bills, shop/stream movies (love Amazon Prime!) and email online. I can't answer to things that might show up for people with more sophisticated computer needs.

You can change the scrolling if you want to; I did as it was driving me crazy! Just open up "System Preferences", click "Mouse" then unclick "Scroll direction; natural" under Point & Click tab. You can also change other gesture settings to your liking.

 

[lefty]

^ Thanks for that tip. Much better.

Quite like Lion so far. Launch Pad is great.

lefty

 

[imageWIS]

I'm using a MacBook 4,1 so I don't have multitouch... is there a way to still quickly launch the new features via the keyboard?

 

[kasakka]

It's entirely geared towards small displays and trackpads. Pretty much all the new features work better on a laptop.

Me, I've got a desktop with a whopping 30" 2560x1600 display. Launchpad is very awkward on that since it's always full screen, no trackpad so no gestures (until XGestures updates with Lion compatibility that is), no need for fullscreen mode etc. Overall I find Lion nicer on my Macbook Pro. It seems to be a better fit for that. Apparently it also doesn't work too well with multiple displays, especially the full screen mode seems to be just plain awful with them.

The "natural" scrolling is very unnatural. It works well on touchscreens but is terrible on anything else. It shouldn't be enabled by default.

 

[EMY]

Does MS Office 2011 work? I've read that works and doesn't work.

 

[imageWIS]



Does MS Office 2011 work? I've read that works and doesn't work.

You should be fine with Office 2011. Office 2008 for Mac won't run on Lion. I mention in passing that MS hasn't yet update Office to run with all the new features on Lion, so no auto-saving or one touch full-screen options, yet.

 

[nootje]

Given the reviews here i might give it a try. It would be this macbooks swan song though, as a 4,1 its preparing to go on its way out.

 

[imageWIS]



Given the reviews here i might give it a try. It would be this macbooks swan song though, as a 4,1 its preparing to go on its way out.

The big prob with the 4,1 is the GMA X3100 integrated graphics card that CAN run at 400 MHz (sometimes 500 MHz) but is crippled down to about half that. There is a site called GMA Booster that has a safe way of releasing all of an Intel's GMA GPU power, however no support for the X3100 has yet been added.

What occurred between 2006 and late 2008 is that Web 2.0 and High Definition really started to come into existence. Thus, computing requirements shifted tremendously from just CPU processing power and RAM, to an overall computing experience which needed, graphics GPU's that could handle not only complicated graphics (BR movies, games, etc...) but also could output to larger, and larger screens (DisplayPort, HDMI). Also, the storage requirements have expanded immensely... my MB 4,1 has a 250GB HD, which was the larget HD you could order from Apple... but I have 3.75 TB in external HD's and honestly I could use another 2 or 3 TB's. And the speed at which that data has to be transferred has increased as well (USB 3.0, Thunderbolt)... and not only the external device, but the computer itself must be able to function quickly enough for the blazing fast speed of say Thunderbolt.

Frankly, I'm surprised my computer has worked pretty much sans problems for 4 years, considering I'm a serious power user. I still don't know however, if I'm going to upgrade to upgrade to Lion yet... its pretty graphics intensive.

 

[MikeDT]

I won't be bothering, Snow Leopard seems to do all that I need for the moment. I don't think I would use the Launchpad thing, I already keep all regularly used applications in the dock. I've not used the App Store either yet, which is already in SL. Also I think my 2008 MBP doesn't support multitouch with its trackpad, I use a mouse most of the time. AFAICT Lion is only available as a download from the App Store. Can I burn a DVD from it? In case I need to re-install the OS.

In the long term, I probably wont be buying another Apple computer, I'll use the current one until it dies or ceases to be useful. Then may well get a Lenovo Thinkpad and have Ubuntu or Linux Mint as well as Windows 7 or 8 on it.

 

[the shah]

damn gma x3100 I thought was the same as 950

Q.: Is it planned to release GMABooster for mobile chipset ... ?
A.: Yes, GMABooster for GMA X3100, GMA X4500, GMA 500, GMA 900 is planned.

 

[imageWIS]



damn gma x3100 I thought was the same as 950

Q.: Is it planned to release GMABooster for mobile chipset ... ?
A.: Yes, GMABooster for GMA X3100, GMA X4500, GMA 500, GMA 900 is planned.

That info is from 2 years ago and has yet to be updated... IDK if or when a GMA Booster for the X3100 (aka 965 chipset) will be released.

 

[imageWIS]



I won't be bothering, Snow Leopard seems to do all that I need for the moment. I don't think I would use the Launchpad thing, I already keep all regularly used applications in the dock. I've not used the App Store either yet, which is already in SL. Also I think my 2008 MBP doesn't support multitouch with its trackpad, I use a mouse most of the time.

What is the model / specs of your 08' MBP? It should have multitouch... I don't have a multitouch trackpad, but there are a lot of other features on Lion that are very useful that have nothing to do with multitouch.

AFAICT Lion is only available as a download from the App Store. Can I burn a DVD from it? In case I need to re-install the OS.

You can 'clean install' Lion: Also, you can theoretically download Lion via torrents or usenet and avoid the App store download. Apparently (and I have no confirmation yet), Lion is not tied to an individual Apple ID when installing... an Apple ID is only required when downloading from the App store.

 

[marg]

I liked it at the Apple store. Bought a 15" MBP on Saturday to replace my 2008 MB that had been dropped too many times. Computers puchased after 7/21 are eligible for a free lion dl, but the system is a PIA. Thinking about waiting for the Office 2011 compatability issues to be resolved first.