Roundup of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Features and Notes

[nec207]

Say good-bye to Macintosh, and hello to consumer devices. Those of us who are power users and need a fast machine that doesn't rely on bells and shiny toys, should be looking to migrate to another platform.

I'm thinking my future is: Apple for iPhones, iPads, consumer based products.

Probably a Windows computer if I want to actually get any work done. Sad situation, but I guess I can't blame Apple. They didn't get to being one of the largest most profitable companies in the world by selling Macs.

What is with all the doom and gloom .There is no prove that apple is moving away from OS X look and feel. By looking at Lion and now Moutain Lion they are integrating iOS . What wrong with that.

I don't see them striping OS X away in Lion or Moutain Lion .

Yes that will be said if they move away from OS X look and feel to a iOS look and feel but I do not seem them doing that with Lion or Moutain Lion .

If any thing they are giving you features that iOS have that OS X does no have .

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Apple only supports the last two OS releases. When Mountain Lion is shipped, Snow Leopard is implicitly EOLed. It's always been like this.

Many people still use Snow Leopard so I do not think they will end support for some more years to come.

 

[Varmann]

Even if what I wish are on the agenda, I doubt Apple would've mentioned them. That said, I would love (1) updated file system (data integrity, storage pool, dedupe), (2) better memory management (Lion rarely reclaims inactive memory into free memory in a timely manner), and (3) better multi-monitor support.

I certainly agree on these wishes!

A better and more flexible backup system would also be nice. ICloud and time machine are not very useful in handling multi-TB backups, and keeping several large raid volumes in sync and verified.

Better use of multi-core, and GPU, systems. I would like Apple to be in the frontline, to implement it in all relevant parts of their own software as well as make it easier for 3rd party developers to use it efficiently. They started to make dual-cpu machines about 15 years ago, and still struggle making it useful. I was a bit disappointed that Apple did not provide any proof-of-consept at the 10.6 and OpenCL release.

Personally, I like Dashboard. It is nice to have a bunch of small tools easy accessable, but still out of the way. But it seems not to get a lot attention these days.

As many else have pointed at, spaces/expose lost a lot of functionality in Lion. Mission control in a multi display setup is just ridiculous!

 

[tommy060289]

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I dont understand all these moans about lion. I think its te best operating systems I've ever used!

Im looking forward to this update to! Imessage is a really cool feature and also finally have a reason to use icloud as it will auto integrate iwork documents. Though tbf it should have been this way all along. When icloud came out I stuck with dropbox as otherwise I had to manually sync my docs on mac everytime. Ie pointless.

Can see what people mean though by it not really being a big system upgrade. Its almost like an accessory pack rather than new os!

 

[wpotere]

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I dont understand all these moans about lion. I think its te best operating systems I've ever used!

Must have been your first OSx OS then. Lion is very buggy for many still. In the past Apple was quick to resolve these issues, but it seems that they are now more interested in given us new applications rather than fixing problems. I still get kernel panics on Lion but SL works great.

 

[Varmann]

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I dont understand all these moans about lion. I think its te best operating systems I've ever used!

Im looking forward to this update to! Imessage is a really cool feature and also finally have a reason to use icloud as it will auto integrate iwork documents. Though tbf it should have been this way all along. When icloud came out I stuck with dropbox as otherwise I had to manually sync my docs on mac everytime. Ie pointless.

Can see what people mean though by it not really being a big system upgrade. Its almost like an accessory pack rather than new os!

Well, I guess it depends on what you need.

If you need a better integration with your other Istuff, then it certainly is useful.

However, if you want something that is rock solid and crash proof. Handles several multi-terabyte raid volumes in a good manner, with respect to backup and verification. Make good use of multiple displays, and several desktops and efficiently uses the power in all your cpu cores and graphic cards. Then 10.7 and 10.8 have not been the most promising releases.

 

[Can't Stop]

Well said, some very, very valid points there!

What valid points? Saying how one feels about this or that is not a valid point.

 

[LeandrodaFL]

Oh dear, Apple is turning my computer into a giant iPhone.

Snow Leopard apparently will be Apples greatest OS forever.

 

[fromnc]

Install

Anyone installed yet?

 

[Yamcha]

I'm using Mountain Lion as I'm typing this, and I have to say that it's really fast.. Noticably faster and the animations are much more fluid.. Even with my Intel HD 3000 Graphics..

Applications also seem to launch faster, and I don't have an SSD.. So far I'm very impressed, but just been using it for 20 minutes now..

 

[QuiteSure]

For me, the Messages Beta is a bit confusing. Tried it a few times and the results are inconsistent. Do I send messages to my wife's cell phone number or her AppleID account? Do they come from my cell number or my appleID? Are there different threads? Not sure if these inconsistencies will be worked out in the final product or I have to work through them myself. Nevertheless, the IDEA that I can send "text" messages from my Mac in a straightforward way is appealing.

LOVE the Reminders app. I use that App with Siri constantly on my 4S. Don't like the reminders showing up as todos on my secretary's iCal app (we have to share an Apple ID because of sharing contacts). Will be much better when reminders are separated from the calendar.

LIKE the Notes app. Better for iCloud to send my notes to its own app on the desktop as opposed to my Mail app. I still don't know how much use I'll make of the Notes app, but to the extent that I do use Notes on iOS it's better this way. Now that I think of it, this may be a better item to use than Pages for creating notes and then saving them on the Mac. I don't use Pages on the Mac.

Would like to see sharing in Contacts the same way I can share Calendars in Lion, that way could completely untether my secretary from my AppleID account. Maybe Mountain Lion will add that functionality?

Also LOVE Airplay mirroring. I will use that often.

These are very nice additions, well worth the inevitable $30.

 

[Steelgrave]

What are all these 'performance issues' with Lion? I must be missing something!

Try filevault on a raid volume.

 

[AustinIllini]

Flowers?

OS X 10.11 - Gladiolus
OS X 10.12 - Lily

Imagine the art for these things

 

[prhammer]

Cougar

And they didn't even have the balls to call it Cougar!

I had been hoping that Cougar would the the OS X version where they tried to go back and date "old" OS X users. But they just appear to be kicking us to the curb in favor of iPadification.

 

[milo]

Even if what I wish are on the agenda, I doubt Apple would've mentioned them. That said, I would love (1) updated file system (data integrity, storage pool, dedupe), (2) better memory management (Lion rarely reclaims inactive memory into free memory in a timely manner), and (3) better multi-monitor support.

I'd agree with all those suggestions. I just don't think any of them are likely to make the list of the first ten features they announce months before release. And honestly things like better memory management typically just happen (or don't) and aren't announced at all.

Just because something isn't mentioned in an early announcement doesn't mean it won't be included.

 

[JAPrufrock]

What items have been removed?

X11 is no longer installed. You are told to go and install something from macosforge.org, which does not replicate the functionality out of the box. See the screenshot below.

This is kind of a problem for those who use their Macs as a sort of super-Linux for admin and etc. Just a few years ago, they were bragging on their UNIX certification, and now they're moving away from it.

 

[Freis968]

How do you get Messages Beta to take over a chat on your iPhone from your iMac? I have not been able to get that to work. Is there some setting on iPhone you have to enable? When I chat using iMessage on my iMac my friend gets a message from my .me account but when I text him on my iPhone on my 4S it shows up as my phone number. How do you get the two to sync?

 

[GREEN4U]

All of these features are useless. If you give me a down vote that only proves you're an noob.

 

[jonnysods]

Do they take the bloat out of Lion like SL did for Leopard? Please make it so.

 

[Djavaman]

Hardware used in demo video

Is that a 15" MacBook Air used in the demo video? And the TV they used, could that be the upcomming iTV, at the bottom center of the TV's frame it looks like a name has been blocked out. hmmmmm

 

[ugodehaes]

price?

what's great about iOS is that updates come for free.
will Apple port that feature as well?

 

[Eric S.]

Normally the Mac has always been lateral upgrades. Gotta take the first step before getting to the next so you probably would of needed to buy Lion anyway. I don't know for certain but it's just my estimated guess.

Not true at all. Historically you've always been able to install any Mac OS version supported by your HW. Isn't Lion the first that actually required the previous version installed first?

How many years into the future..if my mac keeps going, will it still function properly using SL? Or be supported.
I know some folks still use Leopard.

Some people still use Tiger. Heck, there are still some Mac OS 9 users for that matter. But support is another matter; don't expect any SL support from Apple once this is released. The Leopard era is over in Cupertino.

Probably a Windows computer if I want to actually get any work done.

I would say the same, except that the ability to use Unix under the hood is still too much of a plus. I wonder how long that will last.

Many people still use Snow Leopard so I do not think they will end support for some more years to come.

You're wrong about that. Leopard doesn't even get security updates any longer, and neither will SL once the new OS version is released. As someone pointed out, Apple's policy for a long time has been to support only the last two OS releases.

 

[nec207]

You're wrong about that. Leopard doesn't even get security updates any longer, and neither will SL once the new OS version is released. As someone pointed out, Apple's policy for a long time has been to support only the last two OS releases.

Yes Leopard is on its way out but I know many people that still use snow Leopard ..



Also not eveyone is going to update the OS just because a new OS is out.No matter want apple wants.

Look at Microsoft they try so hard to kill Windows XP that so old yet people will not update to the computer stops working and force to get a new computer with new OS.

 

[Mal]

Not true at all. Historically you've always been able to install any Mac OS version supported by your HW. Isn't Lion the first that actually required the previous version installed first?

With the exception of some upgrade disks, yes, Lion is the first to require the previous OS. I think it's safe to say Mountain Lion will continue that trend, though I don't recall if I've seen that officially stated.

jW

 

[milo]

With the exception of some upgrade disks, yes, Lion is the first to require the previous OS. I think it's safe to say Mountain Lion will continue that trend, though I don't recall if I've seen that officially stated.

The reason 10.6.8 was required to install Lion was because the Mac App Store was needed, and earlier OS versions didn't support MAS. And really that was just to buy Lion and download it, once you had the installer file it could be installed over any OS or on a blank drive.

Right now the ML installer only requires 10.6.8 for the same reason. Sure apple could require 10.7 but at this point I see no reason for it - Lion was the exception to the rule, not the start of a new trend.

 

[Eric S.]

Yes Leopard is on its way out but I know many people that still use snow Leopard ..

Also not eveyone is going to update the OS just because a new OS is out.No matter want apple wants.

Sure, lots of people will continue to run Leopard and Snow Leopard (including me). But Apple will not support those. In fact Apple will continue to actively work to kill them off, by ensuring that the latest versions of popular software like iCloud, iTunes, etc., will not run on the previous OSes. Apple will effectively say "use the old OS versions if you want, but if you want the latest bells and whistles and cool features then you gotta upgrade."