I am running regular Leopard for the last few years and have had no issues. but should I upgrade to Lion? The only thing I am concerned about is if my programs will run on it. Any advice?
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Is Lion worth it?
- Thread starter Laurencia7
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If that is your concern, take a look at the critical apps that you are currently running and see if they work on Lion. If a majority do, then search the forums for various feedback regarding Lion usage and make your decision then. If the apps don't, well don't upgrade to Lion.
I would not right now
I had a terrible time. There is no "Rosetta" and many applications will not run at all or freeze. Wait! Leave well enough alone... Look up "Lion issues caveats."
I had a terrible time. There is no "Rosetta" and many applications will not run at all or freeze. Wait! Leave well enough alone... Look up "Lion issues caveats."
you can find power pc apps by going to: Apple Menu > About this Mac > More Info > Applications and sort by "kind" - intel and universal should work, power pc won't.
also, if you aren't using a computer with a multi touch trackpad (glass) or a magic trackpad, lion may not be as nifty.
i'm quite enjoying it although mission control instead of spaces/expose is a step backwards imo.
if you do try it, make a bootable backup (i use super duper) so you can go back to leopard if you don't like it.
also, if you aren't using a computer with a multi touch trackpad (glass) or a magic trackpad, lion may not be as nifty.
i'm quite enjoying it although mission control instead of spaces/expose is a step backwards imo.
if you do try it, make a bootable backup (i use super duper) so you can go back to leopard if you don't like it.
No. Wait for some more patches. My MBP feels sluggish even with 4GB of RAM and Lion. My Mac Pro had some kernel panics, and I had to revert back to SL on it. Definitely not worth upgrading yet.
MBP upgrade from a fresh SL installation, as I had to buy and download Lion. Mac Pro totally clean, using the dvd I burned from my Lion image.
I had the same problem with mine and this worked better for me:
Backup everything using carbon copy cloner,time machine...
Find a 4gb usb stick and download this: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433
Than create the usb using this tool beware that the usb will be completely emptied of all contents.
Than when finished restart your mac while holding down the option (alt) button and select the USB stick.
Than in the options menu select disc utility and go to this tab and select erase (zeroing will do).
Now go back to the 5 options by clicking the red X on the top and click install lion and go through the complete install again with download and everything however now it will be completely fresh.
And it works 100% better than before on my laptop.
Cheers hope it helps.
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I have upgraded 3 computers in the past month.
1. Rev A 1.6Ghz C2D Macbook Air. It was running Leopard and I used a USB Key version of Lion. Clean install, re-formatted disk and start again.... no issues at all.
2. iMac 6,1 Intel 1.83Ghz C2D. From Leopard. I had to use the Leopard Hack (change the SystemVersion.plist file) and do a PRAM reset, then it installed without issues. No problems so far.
3. iMac 8,1 3.2Ghz C2D. Upgrade over Leopard as above. Again, no issues.
What I've noticed
1. Mail is MUCH improved over Leopard
2. Wireless network is faster to acquire and to use. More stable
3. Overall response speed seems faster, but that might be just me being 'new-toy' happy !
4. No kernel failures, crashes, or failures of any kind
5. Only s/ware that doesn't work is Parallels v3 and Angry Birds.... no big deal on either one as I switched to Bootcamp anyway.
6. MBA seems to get hotter than before, but fans are still reporting the same sort of speeds. I never really had the CPU overheat problems with my Rev A MBA. However, I notice it is now noticebly hotter to touch and the battery life is reduced from a consistent 4:45hrs average to around 4hrs now. I track my battery life closely. (some would say I'm a bit OCD)
(MBA - 450+ cycles, 43mths old, battery health = 89%, 4:45hrs average). Battery health has been around 91-89% for over 2 years now. Still good !!!
1. Rev A 1.6Ghz C2D Macbook Air. It was running Leopard and I used a USB Key version of Lion. Clean install, re-formatted disk and start again.... no issues at all.
2. iMac 6,1 Intel 1.83Ghz C2D. From Leopard. I had to use the Leopard Hack (change the SystemVersion.plist file) and do a PRAM reset, then it installed without issues. No problems so far.
3. iMac 8,1 3.2Ghz C2D. Upgrade over Leopard as above. Again, no issues.
What I've noticed
1. Mail is MUCH improved over Leopard
2. Wireless network is faster to acquire and to use. More stable
3. Overall response speed seems faster, but that might be just me being 'new-toy' happy !
4. No kernel failures, crashes, or failures of any kind
5. Only s/ware that doesn't work is Parallels v3 and Angry Birds.... no big deal on either one as I switched to Bootcamp anyway.
6. MBA seems to get hotter than before, but fans are still reporting the same sort of speeds. I never really had the CPU overheat problems with my Rev A MBA. However, I notice it is now noticebly hotter to touch and the battery life is reduced from a consistent 4:45hrs average to around 4hrs now. I track my battery life closely. (some would say I'm a bit OCD
)(MBA - 450+ cycles, 43mths old, battery health = 89%, 4:45hrs average). Battery health has been around 91-89% for over 2 years now. Still good !!!
I would say probably wait! And here's my experience to help you decide if you really *need* Lion at this stage. And before I say any more on that, I pre-qualify by saying I love Lion on my brand new mid-2011 MacBook Air. Particularly I really love gestures and new Mail! Really many of the new features of Lion are very neat.
That being said, upgrading my mid-2007 MacBook Pro (4GB RAM, 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo, 15") was not necessary in my opinion (and would have probably saved me $180 for a repair that was required after damaging my hard drive, probably by 'stressing' it too much with the dual partitions required by Lion; the two issues may not be linked so not making too much of a deal out of that). What I am going to say though is this: Do you really need Lion?
Firstly gestures requires an up to date trackpad to make full use of. Secondly AirDrop doesn't work on machines that are that old. I am not an iWork user so Versions is not something that affects me a great deal. To boot, it now appears that Snow Leopard will support iCloud so what is the point of Lion on a pre-2008 MacBook Pro?
That being said, upgrading my mid-2007 MacBook Pro (4GB RAM, 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo, 15") was not necessary in my opinion (and would have probably saved me $180 for a repair that was required after damaging my hard drive, probably by 'stressing' it too much with the dual partitions required by Lion; the two issues may not be linked so not making too much of a deal out of that). What I am going to say though is this: Do you really need Lion?
Firstly gestures requires an up to date trackpad to make full use of. Secondly AirDrop doesn't work on machines that are that old. I am not an iWork user so Versions is not something that affects me a great deal. To boot, it now appears that Snow Leopard will support iCloud so what is the point of Lion on a pre-2008 MacBook Pro?
Had Lion on my Pro for 24 hours. Hated it. (god bless Time Machine) Interfered with my workflow and productivity BIG time. I am not ready to make the switch. There was also the PPC issue and a few important apps wouldn't function correctly, but that was mostly known beforehand. All that being said, it was stable and fast until I killed it, though 24 hours might not be considered a fair test. But I did put it through some paces while it was on there.
As for my Air, I like it. I can "practice" on that before I make the switch.
As for my Air, I like it. I can "practice" on that before I make the switch.
Considering the typical price of operating systems, yes, it's worth it, even if you do not like it. $29 is nothing.
Why is the OP not even running Snow Leopard? You shouldn't even be concerned with Lion if you haven't made the jump to SL, which you need to do anyway in order to install Lion on your Mac.
You don't need to run SL, it's just cheaper to upgrade if you already are. Otherwise, you have to buy it on a thumb drive for $69.
With respect you are missing the real cost. Your time! in other words opportunity cost of capital. What could you be doing with all the time you'd be wasting installing and getting to grips with an OS that doesn't really benefit you (for a pre-2008 Macbook Pro anyway as per previous post on this thread; that is my experience so don't want to generalise)