Mac OS X Lion

[editor]

I've been working with OS X Lion for a week now. I upgraded late because I have one client-critical piece of software that doesn't have a Lion-friendly equivalent. I finally made an 8GB Snow Leopard partition for that to reside in, and the rest of the machine went all Lion. Here are my thoughts after a week of use:

• - Copying large numbers of files is now more visually meaningful. Several new simultaneous methods of providing feedback when dragging files around.
  
• - The undownloaded images icon in Mail is temperamental. Sometimes it won't display the image in Preview until after you quit mail.
  
• - VNC/Screen Sharing now has a snapshot function.
  
• - The butt-ass ugly Activity pane is now a butt-ass ugly Activity window.
  
• - Google Chrome refuses to quit. It must be forced out.
  
• - Text documents sometimes have to be selected twice in Spotlight in order for them to launch.
  
• - For the first time, an OS X installation didn't munge my custom web server setup.
  
• - Conflicts during file and folder copying now have more resolution options. Instead of just Skip, Stop, and Replace sometimes there is the option of Keep Both, and a kind of merge function.
  
• - Conflict alerts during multiple file copying are now more specific and even mention the files being contested.
  
• - The clock in the iCal alarm notification window is no longer animated.
  
• - Auto-save is going to take some getting used to. But it has already proven useful in several situations. Still, it's disturbing not to get a save confirmation when expected while exiting applications, and startling to get an error beep when habitually pressing Shift-Apple-S, since "Save As" has been deprecated and replaced with "Duplicate."
  
• - Title bars are no longer just titles, and contain lots of information and options related to the document you're working on.
  
• - Very impressed with the compatibility. So far I only have three non-PPC pieces of software that won't work in Lion: My accounting software from 2006, my firewall which had a free upgrade anyway, and Canon's tethered shooting utility. Even my $4 Chinese wifi button works fine.
  
• - Spotlight indexes faster, and you can now search even while it is indexing.
  
• - Find dialogues are like in Safari, instead of a separate window.
  
• - Spell checker now has the option to revert automatic changes on a word-by-word basis, either from a Control-click, or from a hover modal.
  
• - The Safari download manager rocks, and is long overdue.
  
• - Using Quicklook on a URL clipping in Finder now shows the web site, not just the web address.
  
• - In the Finder, the Quicklook pane changes size as you advance through files.
  
• - Samba connections are significantly faster and more reliable.
  
• - Everything in Finder is all bouncy now.
  
• - Double-tap in Safari is useful at my age.
  
• - Not all finder icons scale properly. I have PSD and TIFF files over 200MB that won't scale at all.
  
• - Quicklook works pretty much everywhere now. Even in places you wouldn't expect it.
  
• - Quicklook is no longer transparent black background. It is now white translucent, with a menu bar.
  
• - URL previews from within e-mail messages rock.
  
• - Lion can look and feel either very different, or exactly the same as Snow Leopard. Customization is up to you.
  
• - Full-screen applications are not intuitive for me, especially working on large displays. But I can see how it would be useful on a smaller laptop or a MacBook Air.
  
• - Certain things are much faster than before, but it's very random. I have a massively complex spreadsheet created in the original version of Numbers (2008, I think). Under Snow Leopard it would take 30-45 seconds to open. Now it opens immediately, even though I'm still using the old software. I've had similar experiences in other applications, including Photoshop CS3.
  
• - Runs somewhat cooler than Snow Leopard on my machine. Runs significantly cooler than Leopard.
  
• - Non-destructive creation and removal of disk partitions takes longer, but is more reliable.
  
• - Login screen is much better looking, and also more informative.
  
• - Network multi-homing (combining two or more network connections into a single network connection) seems more reliable, or at least Bonjour discovery is faster.
  
• - Lion sees the card reader on my wireless printer and automatically mounts it as a drive.
  
• - There's a different mute icon.
  
• - The monitor icon in the menu bar is now a modern Apple monitor, instead of one from 1999.
  
• - Rebooting seems to take a lot longer than under Snow Leopard.
  
• - Lion sometimes gets confused during lid-closed sleep. Happens on all of my Macs.
  
• - TextEdit sometimes fails to launch when initiated from a .text file.
  
• - The 10.7.1 update made everything run much smoother.
  
• - Cool new icon for .ts files.
  

13% of HAIFers HAIF with a Mac. Of those, 15% are using Lion. Anyone have any thoughts about it?

(FWIW, 58% are on Snow Leopard, 20% are on Leopard, 2% are on Tiger)

[HoustonMidtown]

I upgraded my MB Pro the first day -- love being on the bleeding edge....I actually didn't upgrade, I created a boot disk and then did a clean install (I hate upgrading OS's as all your junk gets brought along)....

I have not had any issues at all -- except the "natural" scrolling -- turned that off immediately. Im sure I would get used to it if I used it for a while, but with all the other PCs I use that don't scroll that way, it just felt strange...other than that, still finding new things (thanks for the great list of things to look for btw!!) to like everyday.

I got rid of Chrome after the first day -- will reinstall when they come out with a version that works fully in Lion....I never had trouble quitting, but had trouble with the full screen mode not working (which they said didn't work right anyway)

[editor]

I upgraded my MB Pro the first day -- love being on the bleeding edge....I actually didn't upgrade, I created a boot disk and then did a clean install (I hate upgrading OS's as all your junk gets brought along)....

I have not had any issues at all -- except the "natural" scrolling -- turned that off immediately. Im sure I would get used to it if I used it for a while, but with all the other PCs I use that don't scroll that way, it just felt strange...other than that, still finding new things (thanks for the great list of things to look for btw!!) to like everyday.

I got rid of Chrome after the first day -- will reinstall when they come out with a version that works fully in Lion....I never had trouble quitting, but had trouble with the full screen mode not working (which they said didn't work right anyway)

I turned off the natural scrolling, too. Mostly because I still have to boot into Snow Leopard a couple of times a week and I know I'll just confuse myself. When Canon upgrades its software and I can chuck out that partition, I'll probably turn it back on and try to get used to it.

Last night I was working in iTunes and kind of sat there for a bit and slowly scrolled up and down and realized that maybe, yes, we've been scrolling the wrong way all these years. It feels like a Jobsian discovery, not an Apple progression, and I think he's right about it. But until I can convert my workflow to a single way of doing things, I'd better stick with the old method.

I did finally cough up the $200 to upgrade my accounting software, so at least I don't have to boot into Snow Leopard for Canon, Leopard for Quickbooks, and Lion for everything else.

I'd say the only disappointment I have -- and it's a minor one -- is that there doesn't appear to be any more AirPlay support in Lion than there was in SL.

[editor]

More Lion thoughts:

- When logging in to another Mac, the credential options are now "Guest," "Registered User," and "Apple ID." Apple ID is new. Presumably, it's supposed to match the owner's Apple ID, which can now be added in the Accounts pane of System Preferences.

- While minimized windows and applications do appear in Mission Control, hidden items do not.

- The time it takes to wake from sleep has been significantly reduced. It used to be two to three seconds. Now the login prompt is ready before I even get the screen fully open.

- All applications feel like they open much faster than before. Even large applications. Even 32-bit ones. even ones that haven't been opened in a long time.

- Finder now shows previews of Sony .thm files, but only in the preview pane, not in the icon.

- If you change the font size of an e-mail (plain text, rich text, or HTML), that individual mail message retains the size change, even after you quite Mail.

- In Finder's column view, it is no longer sufficient to drag items onto the line of a folder's name to trigger the spring-loaded folder action. You must drag it onto the actual name. This takes a little getting used to, but seems to prevent a lot of false triggers that can be visually annoying on local volumes, and slow the operation down on network drives.

- Non-American time zones are more geographic. Instead of identifying a time as CET, Lion will now say "Germany Time." Or "United Kingdom Time" instead of GMT+1.