Roundup of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Features and Notes

[brdeveloper]

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.

My case... I'll keep my Snow Leopard and my white macbook until I can. Then maybe I'll move to Lenovo Thinkpad or a Dell Precision.

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

The "take the bloat out" usually is a pita for users who need serious applications working. I had a lot of work searching for apps that were installed by default in Leopard. If they're provided as extras in the installation DVD, ok, but I bet that's not the case.

 

[milo]

...by ensuring that the latest versions of popular software like iCloud, iTunes, etc., will not run on the previous OSes

Not in the case of iTunes, they want to sell as many ipods and iphones as possible. iTunes still supports 10.5 running on G4s with 512 megs of ram.

 

[Mal]

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.

Actually, I ran into this myself. It can't be installed over any OS except Snow Leopard, although as you said it will install onto any blank drive. Apple did intentionally limit it to be an upgrade only, although they as always left some loopholes for those who were willing to spend the time.

jW

 

[Eric S.]

Not in the case of iTunes, they want to sell as many ipods and iphones as possible. iTunes still supports 10.5 running on G4s with 512 megs of ram.

But does the latest version run on 10.4? I bet new versions won't run on 10.5 for long, either.

On the other hand I think you're weirdly safe with Windows XP.

 

[milo]

But does the latest version run on 10.4?

You do realize that 10.4 shipped in April 2005?

 

[Eric S.]

You do realize that 10.4 shipped in April 2005?

OK, that example may be stretching the point a bit (although as I recall 10.4.11 was late 2007). But I'll stick to the main point: all the consumer-level trinkets that Apple feels will appeal to the kind of customer they're after now won't be running on 10.5, and probably not on 10.6 either.

 

[Nomadski]

I cant really get excited over iMessaging integration on mac, when it doesn't even work on the iphone.

In fact I see no changes whatsoever that will make macs better to run day to day for me.

 

[aprilfools]

mobileme alternative that is not iCloud

Hello. sorry to chime in here but not really sure where else to ask this question...

I'm a longtime user of mobileme and being that mobileme is going away in June of this year, can someone please advise on the best way for me to sync my iCal and Address Book? I have (1) Macbook Pro (1) iMac, (1) iPad2.

I will not be upgrading to Lion 10.7 therefore syncing through iCloud is not an option for me. Thanks in advance.

 

[faroZ06]

Are you in highschool? And if so is it private or public? When I went to a private highschool I had to buy books but now I go to a public highschool and most textbooks are owned by the school and we get to use them while we're taking that class

Private, but I went to a community college over the summer to take a French class, and we had to buy the books. Public schools are smarter than private in many ways, just not with the teachers.

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But does the latest version run on 10.4? I bet new versions won't run on 10.5 for long, either.

On the other hand I think you're weirdly safe with Windows XP.

Sadly, yes. It seems like Windows hasn't changed from NT to Vista, but Windows 7 has a lot of compatibility issues. I think XP is safe because Vista is supported for now.

 

[genealto]

This suck!

I already own an iPad. I don't need another one. I certainly don't want Apple or anyone else controlling what software I put on my computer. I am not at all happy about this. This business model stinks. I will stick with Lion as long as I can and then transition to a PC.

 

[radiogoober]

I'm utterly disgusted by the amount of whining going on in this thread. Makes me sad to be a human, and see other humans being such cry babies. "Wah wah, I'm so upset that Apple is developing OS X at an incredibly rapid pace!"

 

[tblrsa]

I'm utterly disgusted by the amount of whining going on in this thread. Makes me sad to be a human, and see other humans being such cry babies. "Wah wah, I'm so upset that Apple is developing OS X at an incredibly rapid pace!"

You know, somehow you are right. I don´t want to see OSX to be the stepchild no one cares much about either. So in a way, yes, it is indeed good to see progress.

I think people are just a bit scared about Gatekeeper, and rightfully so. But if Apple does this the right way, it can benefit the end user. With Gatekeeper set up at the middle setting, Malware like "Mac Defender" would not have been possible. I guess Apples Hotline ran wild those days, and it gave Apple bad PR.

So maybe "Gatekeeper" is not used to lock us down to the Mac App Store, but to bring an additional layer of security to the end user. Apple should know very well that restricting its users to the Mac App Store would literally kill the platform.

We will see how things play out.

 

[PurrBall]

Gotta say, ML remembering this setting might be my favorite feature so far.

 

[BrokenChairs]

Messages would probably be the only thing I would get out of this. I don't use my iMac to sync with my iPhone to get notes or anything. In fact, my use of my iMac could be simply replaced with a PC.

A friend of mine would be buying this in an instant because this suits his lifestyle and his organisation. I can see the benefit of this upgrade to suit those people who want a streamlined system with devices talking to each other, however I have no interest at present. I'm still happy with SL and enjoying it and I don't even use half of the special features in SL.

 

[G4DP]

Gotta say, ML remembering this setting might be my favorite feature so far.
View attachment 325009

How sad and dumbed down have Apple become that the OS remembering a simple damn user preference is something to look forward too in a 'New' OS release.

I can understand some people getting excited about some of the features but none are worthy of a new OS release, although if Apple put them in a x.x ? release they would have to charge for 'accounting' reasons.

As for the name, well at least they have the honesty to give it a half baked name.

 

[nec207]

I already own an iPad. I don't need another one. I certainly don't want Apple or anyone else controlling what software I put on my computer. I am not at all happy about this. This business model stinks. I will stick with Lion as long as I can and then transition to a PC.

We are making opinions base on fear that apple may want to kill OS X and have Mac look and feel like iOS .When it may just be apple is bringing iOS to OS X and not going to be striping OS X away.

I think fear is worse when people see Linux distro and windows moving way from classic look too.

When you turn windows 8 on this is what it will look like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Windows_8_Developer_Preview_Start_Screen.png


Sure you can bring up a improved windows 7 GUI under the touch GU.But many OS makers now like Linux distro and windows are moving to this new look.

Computers change , software changes , OS changes so on but humans get use to that look and feel and like that and new look and feel they get all worked up over .

That face it windows 95/98/Me//2000 is gone,windows XP on the way out and for die hard windows users of classic look well they hated windows vista and windows 7 and now windows windows vista and windows 7 on the way out with windows 8 that Microsoft is moving to touch screen iOS look and feel.And Linux distro are doing the same thing.

It hard to say if apple wants to do this or just integrating iOS so the people that love iOS can have the features in OS X that iOS have.

But looking at Lion and now Moutain Lion I do not see them striping OS X away but bringing iOS to OS X .

 

[aggri1]

As neat as a few of these new 'features' appear at first glance, I just can't see how they are worth calling it a new OS version. Change a few applications around and a few very minor things, and call it a new OS?

Unless we find out that there'll be some more significant change "under the hood"...

 

[nec207]

As neat as a few of these new 'features' appear at first glance, I just can't see how they are worth calling it a new OS version. Change a few applications around and a few very minor things, and call it a new OS?

Unless we find out that there'll be some more significant change "under the hood"...

What do you want apple to do a unnecessary GUI change just to make sale like Microsoft did with windows XP to windows vista and windows 7.

Or you want apple to give you features?

 

[adder7712]

What do you want apple to do a unnecessary GUI change just to make sale like Microsoft did with windows XP to windows vista and windows 7.

Or you want apple to give you features?

LOL? The UI change from XP to Vista was a bit excessive but Vista to 7 is absolute perfection. I tend to prefer the UI of Windows 7 at times.

 

[QuarterSwede]

LOL? The UI change from XP to Vista was a bit excessive but Vista to 7 is absolute perfection. I tend to prefer the UI of Windows 7 at times.

You're easy to please.

 

[AidenShaw]

LOL? The UI change from XP to Vista was a bit excessive but Vista to 7 is absolute perfection. I tend to prefer the UI of Windows 7 at times.

I find XP a pain to use after getting used to Win7 - so ponderous compared to Win7. (I haven't used Vista in so long that I can't remember which UI enhancements came with Vista, and which with Win7.)

Jump lists are brilliant, and a huge timesaver (although I wish sometimes that they were of unlimited length - but I've always wanted infinitely long MRU lists).

The "search boxes everywhere" idea is also brilliant - no need to think about directories and files - just type fragments of the name or contents and in real-time files which match are showed. The Holy Grail of the content-addressable filesystem is starting to become a reality. (Something to really make multi-core multi-GiB 64-bit systems necessary.)

Even UAC is a big asset to Win7. It seems to realize that if you click to do something, you want to do it. If it's background or has some suspicious nature, ask me. (If a program or something in the background asks for elevation - yes, please ask me to confirm. If I click on something downloaded from the net that wants elevation - yes, please ask me to confirm. If I click to create a terminal shell with elevation - yes, please ask to confirm. (The last because once an elevated shell is launched, it can do anything without UAC checks.))

Vista would always ask, even if you'd just explicitly clicked on a request. That was annoying, but Win7 pays more attention to context.

But "absolute perfection", not yet.

 

[Renzatic]

When you turn windows 8 on this is what it will look like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Windows_8_Developer_Preview_Start_Screen.png

Actually, it looks more like this these days.

Still don't know if I like it or not.

 

[nycfly89]

seriously, or is that sarcasm?

serious! im still running snow leopard so i decided to wait until this summer and skip lion. really looking forward to the extra features

 

[nec207]

I find XP a pain to use after getting used to Win7 - so ponderous compared to Win7. (I haven't used Vista in so long that I can't remember which UI enhancements came with Vista, and which with Win7.)

Jump lists are brilliant, and a huge timesaver (although I wish sometimes that they were of unlimited length - but I've always wanted infinitely long MRU lists).

The "search boxes everywhere" idea is also brilliant - no need to think about directories and files - just type fragments of the name or contents and in real-time files which match are showed. The Holy Grail of the content-addressable filesystem is starting to become a reality. (Something to really make multi-core multi-GiB 64-bit systems necessary.)

Even UAC is a big asset to Win7. It seems to realize that if you click to do something, you want to do it. If it's background or has some suspicious nature, ask me. (If a program or something in the background asks for elevation - yes, please ask me to confirm. If I click on something downloaded from the net that wants elevation - yes, please ask me to confirm. If I click to create a terminal shell with elevation - yes, please ask to confirm. (The last because once an elevated shell is launched, it can do anything without UAC checks.))

Vista would always ask, even if you'd just explicitly clicked on a request. That was annoying, but Win7 pays more attention to context.

But "absolute perfection", not yet.

From a security standpoint windows 7 is better than any othe windows OS.But I never like windows vista or windows 7 GUI and it is not user friendly. Some people like it and others hate it.

I still think OS X is best OS out there now but in the future if OS X looks like iOS or some thing very different I may go with Linux.

 

[craigijohno]

I still want a way to access my itunes library on my apple TV without having to open and leave my computer on...

iTunes Match?