My dilemma: presently my Snow Leopard MacBook Pro 5,3 - 2.8GHz Core2Duo, 8GB RAM is running the best I've ever had any computer, smooth as silk, email setup is a dream with no bugs. (I've experienced Mail app bugs in earlier Leopard and Snow Leopard versions up to 10.6.6). And not one of Lion's visual features interests me. In fact, I loathe the prospect of losing SAVE AS because I use that all the time particularly with Preview. Online reports are that Lion is slower and buggier. Even after 10.7.4 the reports are mixed ranging from better, no change or worse - no consensus. The prospect of losing the dream performance of my 10.6.8 setup is upsetting.
BUT, I am going on a season of extensive travel where my Mac may face risk of being stolen. Last time in Spain, in one week I had three attempts at theft. Once, a thief actually ran off with my pack and computer, and I only managed to retrieve it because a passerby nabbed the thief. So the risk of losing my Mac is real, not imaginary. On my notebook resides critical business records, which I cannot afford to let fall into the wrong hands.
Therefore, the one and only feature on Lion that attracts me is the full-disk encryption for my business records. (Snow Leopard's FileVault doesn't seem an option, since I heard that SL's FileVault creates a single encrypted file that is prone to corruption, and also requires an equivalent amount of free-disk space to be effective).
Other encryption systems don't seem viable. I can't just encrypt the critical files, since it's the emails that contain a lot of information.
In writing this, I guess I've answered the question for myself: given the choice of (A) a buggy Lion 10.7.4 computer vs. (B) loss of mission-critical business records - I'd have to say I'd choose (B).
Still interested in everyone's comments, though.
As a last resort, what about keeping SL for its peak performance, and using SL-FileVault, and relying on TimeMachine restore in case things go wrong?
BUT, I am going on a season of extensive travel where my Mac may face risk of being stolen. Last time in Spain, in one week I had three attempts at theft. Once, a thief actually ran off with my pack and computer, and I only managed to retrieve it because a passerby nabbed the thief. So the risk of losing my Mac is real, not imaginary. On my notebook resides critical business records, which I cannot afford to let fall into the wrong hands.
Therefore, the one and only feature on Lion that attracts me is the full-disk encryption for my business records. (Snow Leopard's FileVault doesn't seem an option, since I heard that SL's FileVault creates a single encrypted file that is prone to corruption, and also requires an equivalent amount of free-disk space to be effective).
Other encryption systems don't seem viable. I can't just encrypt the critical files, since it's the emails that contain a lot of information.
In writing this, I guess I've answered the question for myself: given the choice of (A) a buggy Lion 10.7.4 computer vs. (B) loss of mission-critical business records - I'd have to say I'd choose (B).
Still interested in everyone's comments, though.
As a last resort, what about keeping SL for its peak performance, and using SL-FileVault, and relying on TimeMachine restore in case things go wrong?
