Going back to Snow Leopard, Lion worst OS experience ever

[ChrisCW11]

I give up. There are too many quirks with Lion that make it an unusable OS. This has been the worst OS upgrade experience of my life and I have long used Windows.

First, Lion bricked my Mac Mini. It decoupled my RAID stripe set after forcing its install image into the boot startup, so I had to deal with kernel panics for several days until the remote installer finally started working one day (have 2010 Mac Mini Server with no optical drive). Not sure how or why, but finally the 2 hour long ordeal of restoring Snow Leopard using remote install finally worked for no apparent reason when it failed every other previous time I tried it.

Second, things just do not work on Lion. Like Lion's VNC, nobody has a client that works with it. Nobody has a clue as to WTF Apple did to royally trash VNC on Lion. I don't even think Apple has a clue. You turn on remote management or screen sharing, and your VNC client just stalls or hangs or won't even recognize your box as a valid VNC server. It might work once for a bit, but then disconnect and it will never work again.

I cannot log in to share content from my Mac on a Windows box, this used to always work, now it just will not work. At random times I can't even see my Mac on my network in spite of it being on a fixed IP address.

I can understand if there was just a learning curve or a slightly different way of doing things on Lion, but things just DO NOT WORK on Lion, period. Don't start with "well he is just someone that doesn't know how to do things on Mac", I am a software developer with over 20 years of experience on PC and Mac, trust me when I say it just doesn't work. You check boxes and turn on options and enter the correct information in various boxes, and it ignores all that and just does not work! It may work for a bit, then it stops working unexpectedly.

Was also charged multiple times for Lion and was forced into the server upgrade even though I decided I didn't want the new Lion server content. Apple wants to go diskless media distribution, they can't even get that right. let me upgrade to the product I want, don't charge me $50 to unlock content in a $30 product.

Apple's most advanced OS is just the most advanced pains in the ass I have ever had. It needs to go back in the oven and bake a little while longer, it is way to half baked. Did Apple do ANY QUALITY CONTROL with Lion? Or did they just rush it out because they wanted to sell new Macbook Airs?

I am not even in a fringe market doing strange **** with my Mac, I bought a Mac Mini server for the purpose of sharing media with my devices, and it worked flawlessly on Snow Leopard. NOTHING works anymore, I even suspect that Lion is somehow slowing down my internet transfers because I can get faster transfers on other devices if I turn off my Mac Mini. I mean WTF!

Maybe by 10.8.6 I might upgrade, but I can't wait around for Apple to arrogantly assume nothing is wrong with Lion and roll out piecemeal updates to stealthily improve Lion. Lion was not rewritten from the ground up, why could it not build off the legacy of Snow Leopard and just work flawlessly?

Everyone involved in Lion at Apple should be ashamed of themselves for rolling out a joke. Diskless media distribution is half baked, Lion is half baked, Apple is half baked.

 

[Jagardn]

<SNIP>Everyone involved in Lion at Apple should be ashamed of themselves for rolling out a joke. Diskless media distribution is half baked, Lion is half baked, Apple is half baked.

It just must be a train wreck. The high number of sales and mostly good reviews tell a different story. My lion experience has been great. Sure there are a few bugs, but I expected to see them.

 

[CrzySausageBaby]

I'm happy with my Lionism

 

[Nuckinfuts]

I love how some people make forum accounts just to whine.

Lion was widely advertised for its visual/usability features, why would you jump on a new OS at a .0 release for a SERVER?

20 years of experience... lol

 

[Dark Void]

So use Snow Leopard.

 

[robgendreau]

Well ouch.

But, fanboys, there is some valid criticism here. For example, the VNC thing wasn't readily apparent; I shouldn't have had to search around about it to figure out how it had changed (BTW, works for me now: since you can log in to multiple user accounts, you need to log into the Mac's vnc server with the account name and password. Dunno if that's the intention or a workaround though since it gets you past the new vnc login screen).

 

[Taz Mangus]

Not sure what the issue that people are having with VNC under Lion but I have had no issues using VNC to access my Mac that has Lion installed on it from my iPad. I also have no issue accessing my Lion installed Mac from any other Mac computer in my house.

I was also pleasantly surprised that my Mac that went from Snow Leopard to Lion now has faster network speeds, 106Mb/s to 162Mb/s.

 

[Nuckinfuts]

Well ouch.

But, fanboys, there is some valid criticism here. For example, the VNC thing wasn't readily apparent; I shouldn't have had to search around about it to figure out how it had changed (BTW, works for me now: since you can log in to multiple user accounts, you need to log into the Mac's vnc server with the account name and password. Dunno if that's the intention or a workaround though since it gets you past the new vnc login screen).

You had to search to figure out a fairly localized problem you had with a less used feature of the system? And you solved it? How horrible!!

 

[Smacky]

Well if it wasn't ready for public release, then why did Apple release it?
All the beta testers seemed to miss that VNC was screwed, and also that wake on wifi doesn't work

 

[Sesso]

I really feel that some of that is user error. Also sounds like he installed the regular Lion and not the server edition. OF COURSE its gonna break the raid.

I can find and interact with windows boxes here at home and at school WAY better than I could with snow leopard. This is my fav OS so far from Apple.

 

[Koshtaru]

Ive been using Lion since GM and i've had no issues at all.. Works great on my MBP!

 

[myosh]

Ive been using Lion since GM and i've had no issues at all.. Works great on my MBP!

Interesting to read all the comments about Lion. I own a 13" MBP and a 2010 Mac Pro and unlike other OS X upgrades, I've basically held off on upgrading because of the significant UI changes made.

The way I see it, Apple may have created 3 distinct OSes. Snow Leopard is the desktop OS, Lion is the laptop OS and iOS is for mobile devices (iPhone, iPad). Why am I saying this? Unless you have a trackpad connected to your iMac/Mac Pro/Mini, you are unable to use the gestures added in Lion. In any case, I plan to wait out Lion for a little while but when I make the upgrade, I will upgrade the MBP first. Whether or not I upgrade my Mac Pro remains to be seen.

 

[bobnlyne]

I like Lion a lot except for the way it sucks the life out of the battery on my new 13" MBP. The fan begins running as soon as I open the lid, even in a cool room. I have been operating with SL for five months and have never experienced this. I even lose 6-8% of the charge overnight with the lid closed.

I'm a newbie with Macs, and my experience is pretty limited, but even I know when something changes THAT much.

 

[rzucker]

I have been using Lion since the morning it was released. I haven't had one issue with it. Not sure how it works for some and not for others.

 

[tootall]

IWhy am I saying this? Unless you have a trackpad connected to your iMac/Mac Pro/Mini, you are unable to use the gestures added in Lion.

It's not quite true; the only gestures that cannot be made with a mouse pertain to Lauchpad and Mission control. They can both be accessed via the function keys or the active corners.

Personnally, I like lion a lot.

 

[tholtx]

I was still using good old Microsoft Office 2004 with no problems under Snow Leopard. I installed Lion. Nobody warned me that Office 2004 wouldn't work under Lion. So I installed Office 2011, imported 11 years worth of emails into Outlook 2011 from Entourage 2004, and all the inbox (but not the sent) messages appeared with the identical (recent) dates!!!!!!! Does anyone know how to (a) correct this, or (b) unmount Lion and go back to Snow Leopard?

 

[JRoDDz]

It's not quite true; the only gestures that cannot be made with a mouse pertain to Lauchpad and Mission control. They can both be accessed via the function keys or the active corners.

Personnally, I like lion a lot.

I have this mouse

Which gestures are you talking about?

 

[siwsan]

Infidels

I give up. There are too many quirks with Lion that make it an unusable OS. This has been the worst OS upgrade experience of my life and I have long used Windows.

I totally agree. Being a professional user and developer, I'm not in any way impressed with Lion. In my opinion it's the worst piece of crap ever released from Apple.

There is one fundamental problem with these forums. As soon as anyone criticize Lion there will always be replies like "I have no problem", "There is no problems", "It's always bugs in new OS's, it's ok", "It was only $29.95, what do you expect", "I'm not feeling dumbed down", "You are just whining", "Steve Jobs does a great job", "If you don't like it, buy a PC", "It's not perfect, but it's called evolution", etc etc. It reminds me of Bagdad Bob's total denial of problems when the USA forces approached Bagdad in the beginning of the Iraq war. "There are no tanks noway near Bagdad - It's just propaganda from the infidels".

I mean, there must be a chance for constructive debate. If any criticism is written here, it's regarded as swearing in the Apple church where Steve is the pastor. The non-Lion followers are dismissed as infidels.

This makes me worried in a sense. If we together identify the bugs, anomalies, flaws, broken functionality and really discuss the fundamental problems surrounding Lion - and do so in a mature way - there might be a chance to make Apple listen and come up with solutions.

My standpoint is - after serious testing and compatibilty analysis - that Lion is not a commercial quality piece of software, that upon release was nowhere near primetime.

 

[QuarterSwede]

My standpoint is - after serious testing and compatibilty analysis - that Lion is not a commercial quality piece of software, that upon release was nowhere near primetime.

I think that's an exaggeration after using it for a while. It feels like the last beta before a GM really. That's par for the course for Apple though. With every OS release it seems they use the general public as final beta testers. I'm not saying that's okay (it bugs me) but it's certainly no surprise.

 

[Synergie]

I like Lion a lot except for the way it sucks the life out of the battery on my new 13" MBP. The fan begins running as soon as I open the lid, even in a cool room. I have been operating with SL for five months and have never experienced this. I even lose 6-8% of the charge overnight with the lid closed.

I'm a newbie with Macs, and my experience is pretty limited, but even I know when something changes THAT much.

Reset your SMC (System Management Controller) and it should fix that issue...

 

[phonk]

This makes me worried in a sense. If we together identify the bugs, anomalies, flaws, broken functionality and really discuss the fundamental problems surrounding Lion - and do so in a mature way - there might be a chance to make Apple listen and come up with solutions.

Apple won't listen to what someone writes here. Use apple bug reporter or their forums.

 

[jsfpa]

There is one fundamental problem with these forums. As soon as anyone criticize Lion there will always be replies like "I have no problem", "There is no problems", "It's always bugs in new OS's, it's ok", "It was only $29.95, what do you expect", "I'm not feeling dumbed down", "You are just whining", "Steve Jobs does a great job", "If you don't like it, buy a PC", "It's not perfect, but it's called evolution", etc etc. It reminds me of Bagdad Bob's total denial of problems when the USA forces approached Bagdad in the beginning of the Iraq war. "There are no tanks noway near Bagdad - It's just propaganda from the infidels".

I mean, there must be a chance for constructive debate. If any criticism is written here, it's regarded as swearing in the Apple church where Steve is the pastor. The non-Lion followers are dismissed as infidels.

This makes me worried in a sense. If we together identify the bugs, anomalies, flaws, broken functionality and really discuss the fundamental problems surrounding Lion - and do so in a mature way - there might be a chance to make Apple listen and come up with solutions.

I think it has to do with extremes. Statements like "it's Apple's Visa, Apple's failure, it's crap, etc don't sound like constructive criticism. It makes it sound like because one persons doesn't like it, all should follow. I think these extreme posts evoke a response to defend what another person likes.

 

[Tozzi]

My standpoint is - after serious testing and compatibilty analysis - that Lion is not a commercial quality piece of software, that upon release was nowhere near primetime.

I agree 100% with everything you said.
Lion is half-baked; I'd love to upgrade, but I can't.
10.7.0 makes my second display useless, and it freezes my MBP.
It's a shame that those who are lucky enough to not experience any problems blame us here, implying that we are doing something wrong, when it's clearly Apple's fault.
And it doesn't really matter if there's a hardware problem underneath that surfaces under Lion but not under SL or Windows7, or if it's a bug in Lion itself.
Either way, I am screwed as a customer.

"It just works."
Yeah I wish it did.

 

[parapup]

How is this for constructive criticism?

1) Lion broke my ability to use smart card authentication for VPN
2) For the first time after Tiger - I had sleep/wake issues on a fresh, plain, unmodified installation.
3) For the first time I had apps not starting up for long time - on a SSD - for no reason.
4) I saw random hangs and beach balls
5) For the first time Airport connections to Apple's own fully updated Time Capsule just failed to work on wakeup from sleep.

All in all it wasn't such a great experience and we got only eye candy in return. Not a good deal even at $29 if you ask me.

 

[MisterDisney]

I've been generally happy with Lion. I installed it on my iMac first but it's now made it's way onto the other Macs in the house.

If you are going to jump on any OS at launch, there are going to be a whole host of issues. But as that has gone in the past, Lion's aren't bad. At least, I have yet to experience many of the things that people have complained about.

It's easier to get along with Lion than some other new operating systems have been at release. Especially where they were just a generation ago. But honestly, if you absolutely need your working environment to be completely stable and to work in the way you've become accustomed to, then you should always wait. Instead of jumping in when you know so much has changed. Heck, I wouldn't be half as happy with Lion if I hadn't bought a Magic Trackpad to use with it.