Are you happy with your MBA after upgrading to Lion?

S

saintforlife

macrumors 65816
I am still on Snow Leopard and am considering taking the plunge, but the mixed reviews online kinda make me apprehensive.

Personally have you guys had any issues or annoyances after upgrading your Macbook Air to Lion? How much space does the OS take up on the SSD? Also did you do a clean install or an upgrade? Does it matter which one you do?
 
I took a different approach.

Being 100% happy with Snow Leopard on all my current Macs, I had no desire to disturb a highly optimized, fast & stable network of machines.

Having followed the Lion project since it's early development I knew I wanted to try it, but also knew there were significant new "features" that I found off putting. So I bought a new MBA with Lion on it, knowing I would have the best possible experience that way.

I'm very happy I took this route. Despite remaining completely open minded, I got exactly what I expected. Lion is not bad, just not for me at this juncture. Too many annoying aspects specifically designed to draw beginners.

Yes I know, you can turn most of it off, or ignore it, but what remains is far too little to justify "upgrading" just because Apple says it's the future. I decide what kind of future I want, not some bloody manufacturer.
 
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My air came with it and i live it my wifes pro has been updated she found transition ok after a few tweaks
 
saintforlife said:
I am still on Snow Leopard and am considering taking the plunge, but the mixed reviews online kinda make me apprehensive.

Personally have you guys had any issues or annoyances after upgrading your Macbook Air to Lion? How much space does the OS take up on the SSD? Also did you do a clean install or an upgrade? Does it matter which one you do?
Click to expand...

stay with SL unless you are prepared to do a erase and clean install of Lion.
then be prepared for a bit of a learning curve ;)

(I've found installing over the top of an earlier OS is a slower experience that the clean install … a bit the same as when upgrading from Leopard to SL)

we upgraded the wife's Macbook from SL to Lion and found it sluggish.
went from 4gb to 8gb memory and it was ok.
went back to SL with a erase and install and the thing fairly flies now.
she prefers SL

all that said, I believe that Core2Duo MacBooks/Air/Pro are better suited to SL, whereas the core i5/i7 are the go for Lion
 
2010 mba upgraded to lion on top of SL.

My complains:
1) boot times definitely slower in lion. (10-12 vs 18-24 sec)
2) shut down times slower too. sometimes i have to force shutdown...as it took more than 5 mins which is ridiculous
3) no pinch zoom on finder
4) no pinch zoom in mail (have to use command +/-)
5) first time my mba hanged
6) first time i saw the grey screen popping out asking me to hold the on button
7) mac office can go 'not responding' at times
8) wake from sleep seems to be slower by like 1-2 sec?? (i remembered with SL the wake was literally instantaneous while with lion i had to wait a few secs b4 i can move the mouse)

that's all i can think of now. but i love the mission control and the ability to make many many desktops as i have much use for the extra workspace. great that we can now drag and arrange the desktops (10.72). i noticed less problems and faster boot/shutdown times with 10.72 too.
 
I continue to have annoying wifi issues with my 11" MBA upon waking from sleep, so not the happiest camper with Lion at all. I hope that Apple issue a fix for this problem very soon.

In any event I don't see an upgrade in my very near future to Lion, even after the wifi issues are resolved, as I simply prefer Snow Leopard at this point.
 
Hey Jude said:
I continue to have annoying wifi issues with my 11" MBA upon waking from sleep, so not the happiest camper with Lion at all. I hope that Apple issue a fix for this problem very soon.

In any event I don't see an upgrade in my very near future to Lion, even after the wifi issues are resolved, as I simply prefer Snow Leopard at this point.
Click to expand...


I have no problems with Lion. But I do with the MBA. I don't know if it is a Lion thing but my computer now cannot find the network when I shut it down even for a few minutes. I am constantly having to go to system pref to find my network and sign in again. This is a major pain.
 
I've upgraded my 2010 MBA ultimate to Lion and the only "side-effect" was losing my Wi-Fi connection after sleep at some places (work at home all the time, but drops at work).

I did a clean install recently, and that problem was solved.

What I am not really fond of some of the Lion's features. In particular, the inability of Mission control to show minimized apps. Expose used to do that. Now it only shows the apps that are currently on the screen.

The second issue is the way Downloads stack handles file sorting. My dock is placed on the left of the screen, and when I click the Downloads folder, it shows a list, but it's arranged in an ascending manner, so that the first-downloaded files are shown. In SL, that list could be modified to show in the last-modified manner. It seems like in Lion that could not be changed and it's kind of uncomfortable to me.
 
s2dio said:
I've upgraded my 2010 MBA ultimate to Lion and the only "side-effect" was losing my Wi-Fi connection after sleep at some places (work at home all the time, but drops at work).

I did a clean install recently, and that problem was solved.

What I am not really fond of some of the Lion's features. In particular, the inability of Mission control to show minimized apps. Expose used to do that. Now it only shows the apps that are currently on the screen.

The second issue is the way Downloads stack handles file sorting. My dock is placed on the left of the screen, and when I click the Downloads folder, it shows a list, but it's arranged in an ascending manner, so that the first-downloaded files are shown. In SL, that list could be modified to show in the last-modified manner. It seems like in Lion that could not be changed and it's kind of uncomfortable to me.
Click to expand...

Minimized application windows show up if you set one of your hot corners to show "application windows" (not in Mission Control, but when you use the hot corner).

For the sorting of your download folder, you can right click on the folder to change the way it's sorted. I'm seeing the option to sort by Name, Date Added, Date Modified, Date Created and Kind.

EDIT:

To answer the OP, I have SL running on a MBP and Lion running on a MBA...I'm happy with Lion on the MBA, so I'll probably upgrade the MBP to Lion as well. The transition from SL to Lion took a bit of adapting, and there are still some fixes that need to be addressed, but I prefer Lion over SL now.
 
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I upgraded to Lion on my 2010 MBA the day it came out. I've had no issues at all. It took a little while to get used to the changes, but I've been happy with it.
 
Lion works fine. But I highly recommend you to do a clean install.

First, I did an upgrade from SL to Lion - and the practical battery time went down from 8-9 hours to 6-7 hours. Then I did a clean install, and it went up to 8-9 hours again.
 
miggitymac said:
Minimized application windows show up if you set one of your hot corners to show "application windows" (not in Mission Control, but when you use the hot corner).

For the sorting of your download folder, you can right click on the folder to change the way it's sorted. I'm seeing the option to sort by Name, Date Added, Date Modified, Date Created and Kind.

EDIT:

To answer the OP, I have SL running on a MBP and Lion running on a MBA...I'm happy with Lion on the MBA, so I'll probably upgrade the MBP to Lion as well. The transition from SL to Lion took a bit of adapting, and there are still some fixes that need to be addressed, but I prefer Lion over SL now.
Click to expand...


miggitymac, Application windows shows all the windows of the currently active app (e.g. all the open docs of Pages, including minimized), but not other apps. What I was talking about is that SL had a feature that showed all the apps that were open (including minimized).

About the Dock and Downloads stack sorting options, I would like you to try it for yourself, but I'm sure that you either haven't tried it or I have not properly explained what I meant. When I clicked the Downloads stack in SL, it showed the list of files and took me to the last one added. I tried all of the options there are and the result is the same - I'm stuck with the first-added file on the bottom of the list. Some people added this as a bug to Apple's website. The only relief is that when I press the right arrow on the keyboard, it takes me to the last-added file.
 
I've got a 2010 mba. Upgraded from SL to Lion... I do like lion, but i've got quite a few complains:
- when waking from sleep, more often than not I can't get a WIFI connection (SL was fine), usually after 2 or 3 minutes it magically connects
- when waking from sleep, the mba takes about 30 seconds to become responsive
- when switching and starting apps, the system feels sluggish


But to be honest:
- never had a system crash

I think it's the hardware just can't cope (which does annoys me a bit).
 
No real issues here, I think maybe the boot time is a tad slower - other than that my only gripe these days is that my HD is going to fill up now iCloud is open for business, with all my iPhotos!

I need a bigger HD basically, or that iMac I have promised myself... maybe in early 2012...
 
The Phazer said:
Don't touch Lion with a 10 foot pole. Your system works and has a good OS. Why would you want to change it?
Click to expand...
Yes, yes, yes, I could not agree more.
Despite the fact I bought a 2011 MBA preloaded with Lion in order to have the best possible experience, it's a whole lot more gimmicky.

Now I'm _Really Happy_ I didn't muck up my perfectly optimized Snow Leopard machines.

Perhaps after a few months of feedback Apple will sort things out. Or maybe not.
 
Lion would be the best operating system on the planet... if it wasn't for Snow Leopard.

To me, it has added a load of useless features, and made it slower; so unless you're desperate for launchpad or an inferior version of Spaces then it's not really an essential upgrade... especially when the downsides are a 5 second 'instant on' and slightly more RAM usage.
 
My '11 model came with Lion. I have no complaints with it. Everything runs well, fast and smooth. I can't of any reason why I would change it for SL, though I have plenty of copies of it.
 
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After trying Lion, I went back to SL. The extra heat, small bits of lag, and worse battery life were not equal trade offs for the new features in my eyes.
 
Mine came with Lion. Since I'm used to a 15in Pro i7 with SATA3 SSD and I'm very satisfied with Lion on the Air. I did find that waking from a closed lid on the Asus UX31 is faster than the Air, not sure how much of that is due to the fat the Air has a SATA2 SSD and the UX31 has a SATA3 though.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. I think the take away is clear - Lion is ok if your computer came with it. But if you have a MBA that is running fine on SL, don't bother upgrading to Lion. :apple:
 
liudekhua said:
2010 mba upgraded to lion on top of SL.

My complains:
1) boot times definitely slower in lion. (10-12 vs 18-24 sec)
2) shut down times slower too. sometimes i have to force shutdown...as it took more than 5 mins which is ridiculous
3) no pinch zoom on finder
4) no pinch zoom in mail (have to use command +/-)
5) first time my mba hanged
6) first time i saw the grey screen popping out asking me to hold the on button
7) mac office can go 'not responding' at times
8) wake from sleep seems to be slower by like 1-2 sec?? (i remembered with SL the wake was literally instantaneous while with lion i had to wait a few secs b4 i can move the mouse)

that's all i can think of now. but i love the mission control and the ability to make many many desktops as i have much use for the extra workspace. great that we can now drag and arrange the desktops (10.72). i noticed less problems and faster boot/shutdown times with 10.72 too.
Click to expand...

Clean install.
 
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