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Is it worth downgrading to Snow Leopard?

random man5

random man5

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 22, 2008
9
0
I've just bought a new MacBook Pro and I'm not really liking Lion, mainly because of the bland grey look, especially the new Finder and it's sidebar arrangement. As for the other new features I really don't see myself using any of them, which is why I never upgraded my iMac to Lion.

So basically I was wondering is it worth the downgrade (not how to do it)? I've heard that SL uses less memory and has better battery life, is this true? Also, if I want/need to come back to Lion at some point in the future will I have to buy it or will the App Store remember that I used to have it?

I'm just thinking that since I haven't moved any files over to the MacBook yet if I'm going to downgrade I should do it now.
 
By my understanding if you've bought a machine that came with Lion preinstalled then there's no Lion license associated with your AppleID for you to redownload later. If you wipe your drive, including the Lion repair partition, you may lose your ability to reinstall Lion without first purchasing it from the App Store. You should, however, be able to just wipe the drive with Lion installed and leave the repair partition intact for upgrading later.

Does anyone have any further insight on this?
 
random man5 said:
I've just bought a new MacBook Pro and I'm not really liking Lion, mainly because of the bland grey look, especially the new Finder and it's sidebar arrangement. As for the other new features I really don't see myself using any of them, which is why I never upgraded my iMac to Lion.

So basically I was wondering is it worth the downgrade (not how to do it)? I've heard that SL uses less memory and has better battery life, is this true? Also, if I want/need to come back to Lion at some point in the future will I have to buy it or will the App Store remember that I used to have it?

I'm just thinking that since I haven't moved any files over to the MacBook yet if I'm going to downgrade I should do it now.
Click to expand...

The RAM usage between 10.6 and 10.7 is nominal, you barely notice it. I don't know about battery life as I do not have any laptops right now.

You should also consider what the person above me said regarding the licensing as well.

My suggestion is to learn to live with, it will grow on you and you'll not notice the small differences after a while. I already have. ;)
 
battery life on Lion is no good on most Mac portables.

This is the main reason I switched back to SL. And buggy graphics.
 
thadoggfather said:
battery life on Lion is no good on most Mac portables.

This is the main reason I switched back to SL. And buggy graphics.
Click to expand...

Untrue.

As with any new OS, some people are having bugs, but SL had bugs until the latest updates, as did all of the previous OS. Color shmolor, I say. I also say learn to live with it, as the differences are not drastic at all, and what you think you don't need now, you might decide to enjoy or find necessary in the future. More fun to have it than wish you did.
 
ceej said:
Untrue.

As with any new OS, some people are having bugs, but SL had bugs until the latest updates, as did all of the previous OS......
Click to expand...

Comparing 10.7.2 with 10.6.0 is disingenuous when 10.6.8 is available ......:rolleyes:

I would say to the OP's: "I'm just thinking that since I haven't moved any files over to the MacBook yet if I'm going to downgrade I should do it now." I wouldn't worry about "when" to make the move before I even made the "if" decision. With TM it is fairly painless to go back and forth. Personally if I were you I'd give Lion a thorough test ride.
 
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I tried Lion for a couple of weeks on my 2008 MBP and didn't like it, so I switched it back to SL. Maybe if they make it so you can turn off some of these new "features" in System Preferences I'll try it again later.

In the mean time, I got a refurb 2011 MBP from Apple which according to their website came with SL but actually showed up with Lion on it. I called them up to complain and they sent me a SL dvd free of charge (of course it was retail so it didn't work on that laptop, but I got the correct SL recovery disks off ebay). This laptop too is going to stay on Snow Leopard too for the foreseeable future.

But that's just me. If you don't like Lion or it doesn't work right on your machine, I say go back until it does. On the other hand, if you like it, use it. At the end of the day, you're the one who has to get productive use out of your machine, whatever it's running.
 
TPadden said:
Comparing 10.7.2 with 10.6.0 is disingenuous when 10.6.8 is available ......:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Though you proved my point by saying that, and I have time to kill, I'll explain again, incase you confused yourself or someone else, like the OP.

I'm saying that many people, myself included, haven't had issues, but because it's new, those who are experiencing "bugs" should give it a chance because previous OS have all had the same introductions.

^--My opinion ;-) --^
 
Its worthwhile provided you can, being a brand new mac. The retail SL disks may not boot up on your Mac.

Aside from that, Lion is the future and while you may be successful in downgrading. You will need to upgrade to 10.7 at some point.

I downgraded because of a number of reasons but I'm under no delusion that this is a temporary fix and I'm hoping 10.7.2 or 10.7.3 addresses some of my issues.
 
ceej said:
Though you proved my point ....but because it's new, those who are experiencing "bugs" should give it a chance because previous OS have all had the same introductions.
Click to expand...

We agree if your point is: those who are experiencing bugs who have the option should go back to a bug free SL while giving Apple a chance to fix Lion :D!
 
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maflynn said:
Its worthwhile provided you can, being a brand new mac. The retail SL disks may not boot up on your Mac.

Aside from that, Lion is the future and while you may be successful in downgrading. You will need to upgrade to 10.7 at some point.

I downgraded because of a number of reasons but I'm under no delusion that this is a temporary fix and I'm hoping 10.7.2 or 10.7.3 addresses some of my issues.
Click to expand...

Lion is the future?????

ARE YOU KIDDING ME

not one of the new user interface features is useful. Lion is a major step backwards any way you look at it. lion to me looks like it was developed by IBM 40 years ago when faux wood panelling and black and white were in style

i want to make my own decisions on how i use my computer and not apple. now i myself have used lion and downgraded back to snow leopard. not because of compatibility but fur usability. and i got a refund from apple for purchasing that pile of crap. apple needs to do some serious re thinking before lion can be called OSX at the moment it does not deserve that title and should be called Mac Edsel or something.

some may also say that you can turn off the features you do not like. unfortunately there are not enough of those options. you cant disable versions and restore Save As. you cant disable restore enough. and you cant delete launchpad. i have disabled it but whenever i used the app store it popped back to remind me that it was still there to bug me like an annoying cousin. and do not get me started on how expose was castrated into mission control that shows nothing useful

Now feel free to pick and poke about my post but i am just saying how it is from my POV. i am a pro user and very unhappy. i was however happy to find out that 10.6 will be supporting icloud cause i am a mobileme user and was terrified to think that i may be forced to upgrade. if i had then i would have dusted off my copy of win XP and transitioned back.

I hope apple engineers read these forms to understand that there are people out here that do not like the way they are going
 
Blipp said:
By my understanding if you've bought a machine that came with Lion preinstalled then there's no Lion license associated with your AppleID for you to redownload later. If you wipe your drive, including the Lion repair partition, you may lose your ability to reinstall Lion without first purchasing it from the App Store. You should, however, be able to just wipe the drive with Lion installed and leave the repair partition intact for upgrading later.

Does anyone have any further insight on this?
Click to expand...

Yeah. Download the recovery utility. Or if you failed to do that before wiping your drive and eradicating Lion completely, visit an Apple Store or contact Apple directly. They will not, repeat not make you pay for Lion if it shipped with your Mac. Repeat, not!
 
blackomega31 said:
Lion is the future?????

ARE YOU KIDDING ME

not one of the new user interface features is useful. Lion is a major step backwards any way you look at it. lion to me looks like it was developed by IBM 40 years ago when faux wood panelling and black and white were in style

i want to make my own decisions on how i use my computer and not apple. now i myself have used lion and downgraded back to snow leopard. not because of compatibility but fur usability. and i got a refund from apple for purchasing that pile of crap. apple needs to do some serious re thinking before lion can be called OSX at the moment it does not deserve that title and should be called Mac Edsel or something.

some may also say that you can turn off the features you do not like. unfortunately there are not enough of those options. you cant disable versions and restore Save As. you cant disable restore enough. and you cant delete launchpad. i have disabled it but whenever i used the app store it popped back to remind me that it was still there to bug me like an annoying cousin. and do not get me started on how expose was castrated into mission control that shows nothing useful

Now feel free to pick and poke about my post but i am just saying how it is from my POV. i am a pro user and very unhappy. i was however happy to find out that 10.6 will be supporting icloud cause i am a mobileme user and was terrified to think that i may be forced to upgrade. if i had then i would have dusted off my copy of win XP and transitioned back.

I hope apple engineers read these forms to understand that there are people out here that do not like the way they are going
Click to expand...

Is that pure trolling or what? Sometimes I wonder how people can whine so much about their less-than-perfect installations...Lion is flawless here.
 
SandboxGeneral said:
The RAM usage between 10.6 and 10.7 is nominal, you barely notice it. I don't know about battery life as I do not have any laptops right now.

You should also consider what the person above me said regarding the licensing as well.

My suggestion is to learn to live with, it will grow on you and you'll not notice the small differences after a while. I already have. ;)
Click to expand...

Yes .. rather like a fungus
 
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