people who updated to OSX Lion

[Guest Coalbucket PI]

I kind of forgot all about it. I know there were a few teething problems in the first few months as there tend to be so I thought I'd ignore it for a bit.

 

Are there any persistent issues, overall would you recommend upgrading from 10.6?

 

I haven't done a system upgrade for so long I can't really remember what happens, am I likely to have to do a lot of re-installing, getting drivers etc, will pirated software fall through it's own arse?

 

What actual features are there that are worthwhile or useful?

 

Also while we're here, is anyone using the iCloud thing? Can you explain what you use it for, I can't wade through the promotional babble to see what I'm actually supposed to use it for but I have a mac and an iphone and I'm connected to wifi most of my time so it is probably something aimed at me.

[jules]

are you on 10.5 now?

[o00o]

I am on 10.6.8 and will update once I got my new iMac

[BCM]

I upgraded 2 macs absolutely no problem, have had no issues with any software apart from a couple of older VST and AU plugins - not a major issue though. i love all the new features... I recommend it!

[o00o]

I upgraded 2 macs absolutely no problem, have had no issues with any software apart from a couple of older VST and AU plugins - not a major issue though. i love all the new features... I recommend it!

 

how old are these macs? did you notice a difference in performance / fan activity

[Guest MortstoX]

I have SL, and when I ask my friends who updated to Lion, they tell me not to. The new features aren't that great, and most of them report problems and a slower system.

[o00o]

I have SL, and when I ask my friends who updated to Lion, they tell me not to. The new features aren't that great, and most of them report problems and a slower system.

 

that and my 2008 macbook stopped me from updating. I was close to do it several times but the bad reviews on itunes stopped me

[Guest]

it's a mixed bag imo.

 

some nice and subtle UI improvements (scrollbars etc.) which make 10.6 look dated. But there's also crappy useless new UI things, like the full screen animations which can't be turned off. there's also noticeable, visible bugs - even on the current pre-release i get visual glitches in Finder and other places and some random wonky behavior sometimes.

 

Full disk encryption is good, the new Mail... can't think of anything else at the moment.

 

All in all i would say it's non-essential.

Though yeah if you want iCloud you'll have to upgrade.

 

i use iCloud for Calendars, Photos, Notes and Mail and these sync well with my iDevices. iTunes Match also works mostly, but is very buggy (which is bad because when it doesn't work you can't do much about it. the Mac/iTunes side of it seems to be less crappy than the iPad part).

[Guest]

( also syncing Contacts & Safari bookmarks, but i forgot about these, so yeah this is maybe good. It just works. probably iTunes Match is too complex to just work.)

[Joyrex]

I kind of forgot all about it. I know there were a few teething problems in the first few months as there tend to be so I thought I'd ignore it for a bit.

 

Are there any persistent issues, overall would you recommend upgrading from 10.6?

 

I haven't done a system upgrade for so long I can't really remember what happens, am I likely to have to do a lot of re-installing, getting drivers etc, will pirated software fall through it's own arse?

 

What actual features are there that are worthwhile or useful?

 

Also while we're here, is anyone using the iCloud thing? Can you explain what you use it for, I can't wade through the promotional babble to see what I'm actually supposed to use it for but I have a mac and an iphone and I'm connected to wifi most of my time so it is probably something aimed at me.

 

The main thing about going to Lion you have to consider is you must have a 64-bit processor (Core 2 Duo or higher, basically anything after 2007 I think) in order to upgrade. My 2006 iMac is still running Snow Leopard, whereas my 2011 MacBook Pro has Lion. I prefer Lion, and it can be jarring sometimes to sit at the iMac and wonder where my wonderful LaunchPad is, Spaces (the way Lion does it is way better than in Snow Leopard), etc. Not to mention the 64-bit goodness.

[jeremymacgregor87]

The login screen is pretty nice

[kcinsu]

I've heard the nord modular g2 software doesn't work on it, so that means I'll never upgrade, because Clavia is a shitty company that doesn't support gear that they discontinue.

[Guest theSun]

i use it on my work imac. i love spaces, it's a little awkward with a mouse though. clearly it was designed for multi touch trackpad

[Joyrex]

i use it on my work imac. i love spaces, it's a little awkward with a mouse though. clearly it was designed for multi touch trackpad

 

I agree with that - it's best suited for a laptop trackpad, or for the Magic Trackpad.

[Guest Coalbucket PI]

I'm on 10.6 now (that is Snow Leopard yes?). I never managed to find a use for spaces although it seems like a reasonable idea.

 

I've got a MacBook Pro from the end of 2009 so I think it's up to it.

 

Thanks everyone, I am considering it now.

[BCM]

I upgraded 2 macs absolutely no problem, have had no issues with any software apart from a couple of older VST and AU plugins - not a major issue though. i love all the new features... I recommend it!

 

how old are these macs? did you notice a difference in performance / fan activity

 

one 2011 imac, one 2007 13" macbook. think the macbook is very slightly slower under lion but nothing major.

[acid1]

My soundcard - Tc Electronics 24D - actually started being more reliable when I switch to Lion, no ideas why.

 

I've had 0 problems with Lion.

[baph]

i use it on my work imac. i love spaces, it's a little awkward with a mouse though. clearly it was designed for multi touch trackpad

 

I agree with that - it's best suited for a laptop trackpad, or for the Magic Trackpad.

 

Yeah, the UI improvements are completely useless unless you have a Magic Trackpad or a newer laptop with the full multitouch implementation. I usually have my 2007 Core 2 Duo MBP raised on a stand, so I use the Magic Trackpad peripheral for everything but gaming, and it's nice.

 

I've had one major and one minor glitch:

Major: All of Apogee Digital's legacy products run much worse under Lion than under Snow Leopard. I have a first generation Apogee Duet I/O device, and it's become pretty unstable. This is frustrating especially since Apogee works closely with Apple on all of their items. The stuff developed with Lion in mind is apparently much better, but the takeaway is apparently Core Audio works differently under Lion.

 

Minor: whenever I put my laptop to sleep, I'll loose the wifi connection and have to toggle wifi on/off to reconnect. Note: this used to happen a lot under early Leopard point releases, was mostly fixed under Snow Leopard, and is now back to being a clunky, ridiculous bug. I assume, since I don't hear everyone complaining about this, that newer laptops don't have this stupid little reoccurring problem.

 

+/- The UI is a little better integrated with glaring, bizarre skeuomorphic exceptions like iCal, which looks like fake leather smeared in the bright yellow-brown colored excrement you only find when changing baby diapers. The new forced animations for window behavior make the system feel less responsive, even if it runs about the same (I'm honestly not sure; it feels slower but probably isn't, would need scientific measurements to confirm. But the subjective experience is what really matters with UI design).

 

Apple's QC is much spottier than fanboys will deign to say, but I still like Lion more than Win7.

[Guest theSun]

i have run into that wifi issue on a number of machines. it doesn't seem to persist once you've successfully logged into the wireless net in question though. or maybe it does and my clients are just fixing it themselves

[baph]

I don't know, it's doing it at my home wifi, which is broadcast by a circa 2009 wireless N apple Airport Extreme. Did not have any problems under the same setup in the same location with Snow Leopard.

[YELLOW]

I upgraded to Lion from a Snow Leopard MacBook Pro and really wasn't feeling the new OS. HOWEVER when I recently bought a MacBook Air that had Lion on it, I loved it. Really not sure why

 

I upgraded to Lion from a Snow Leopard MacBook Pro and really wasn't feeling the new OS. HOWEVER when I recently bought a MacBook Air that had Lion on it, I loved it. Really not sure why I felt a difference. I think it is pretty well suited to the newer computers

[chaosmachine]

it works ok, there are some nice improvements. savings documents is weird, you save "versions"... maybe it's better, paticularly if you suck at versioning files yourself, but i have yet to benefit from it. none of the new multi-touch changes are any good, imo. you'll probably want to switch all the settings back to normal, ie: upside-down scrolling, etc.

 

there was a lot of talk about how programs close themselves when you're not using them, but i have yet to notice, or run into any problems.

[Joyrex]

it works ok, there are some nice improvements. savings documents is weird. maybe it's better, paticularly if you suck at versioning files yourself. none of the new multi-touch changes are any good, imo. you'll probably want to switch all the settings back to normal, ie: upside-down scrolling, etc.

 

there was a lot of talk about how programs close themselves when you're not using them, but i have yet to notice, or run into any problems.

 

Wish sometimes my iPhone 4S would have a setting for that... gets tiresome manually 'closing' apps in iOS.

[o00o]

it works ok, there are some nice improvements. savings documents is weird. maybe it's better, paticularly if you suck at versioning files yourself. none of the new multi-touch changes are any good, imo. you'll probably want to switch all the settings back to normal, ie: upside-down scrolling, etc.

 

there was a lot of talk about how programs close themselves when you're not using them, but i have yet to notice, or run into any problems.

 

Wish sometimes my iPhone 4S would have a setting for that... gets tiresome manually 'closing' apps in iOS.

 

actually they do quit if they are not running any background task and more recent apps need the memory

[jules]

it works ok, there are some nice improvements. savings documents is weird. maybe it's better, paticularly if you suck at versioning files yourself. none of the new multi-touch changes are any good, imo. you'll probably want to switch all the settings back to normal, ie: upside-down scrolling, etc.

 

there was a lot of talk about how programs close themselves when you're not using them, but i have yet to notice, or run into any problems.

 

Wish sometimes my iPhone 4S would have a setting for that... gets tiresome manually 'closing' apps in iOS.

 

I was thinking that too about the phone but I don't see any performance difference when a ton of applications are opened vs closed