I have been contemplating upgrading to Lion ever since iOS 5 came out,But what i wanna know is,Is it worth it? ....or do you still prefer Snow Leopard?
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is Lion worth it?
- Thread starter chrisbetty
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I still use SL, currently for my needs it works well. I don't plan on upgrading for a while, partly because I'm too busy and partly because I'm not so hot on the whole mission control thing. My multitasking needs are being met well with spaces and expose. I also use a dual monitor setup and I've heard Lion doesn't play well with duals. Is there an apple store near you? You could also go there and check it out.
I kept off from installing Lion until the day before yesterday…
I never upgrade first thing and I wanted to wait for the 7.2 release.
Also it was important that my main production applications work without any (major) problems or glitches.
So far so good… it works and runs beautifully — just had to get TrackPads for the Mac Pros.
Spotlight is not up to scratch though… perhaps it takes a while to get it all indexed.
I am glad I upgraded and the price is really *really* a bargain.
Good luck.
So many nay-sayers going back to SL but they're the squeakiest wheel in this case.
Best way to see if it's worth it to you would be to watch the keynote address from June or any of the videos on apples site showing off the features of Lion.
To me Lion is a focal point bringing to gather the functionality of a mac with the interface of an iOS device.
I'll gladly say Lion is the best OS out there.
Best way to see if it's worth it to you would be to watch the keynote address from June or any of the videos on apples site showing off the features of Lion.
To me Lion is a focal point bringing to gather the functionality of a mac with the interface of an iOS device.
I'll gladly say Lion is the best OS out there.
of course. some say it's not as good as SL. some people will always say, the last version of the previous is better than, the second update of the new, lol. go with Lion and soon you will find it hard to remember SL. granted, Lion will have it's bumps but so did 10.6.2.
I prefer Lion. Its no huge thing, just a lot of little things that you won't find until you've used it for several months at least 
There really isn't a single feature of Lion that can't be optionally added to Snow Leopard in some way by a third party app... not exactly an OS upgrade. And the key word there is OPTIONALY. You don't have the option with most of the things in Lion. The lack of the option itself is less features. Lion is a whole lot of change for the sake of change, and it is not an upgrade to Snow Leopard. Its an iOS sales pitch. iOS is great for what it was intended for, iPhones and iPads.... not for a desktop workstation, especially with multiple monitors.
Not only that, but Lion removed features:
Fully working Spaces and Expose
The ability to have an app in Full-Screen mode on 1 monitor and continue working on a 2nd monitor
Save As...
Do You Want to Save?
All of the above are available in Snow Leopard.
Yup to the last 3-4 posters.
If you need your machine for work, don't upgrade. If you want to diddle with a trackpad to launch apps then go ahead.
Honestly, 10.5 was a huge leap from 10.4. 10.6 was a welcome under-the-hood upgrade to 10.5. 10.7 is a mistake, and if it doesnt get fixed in 10.8 there's going to be a lot of people switching back to windows when the time comes to replace their current mac.
If you need your machine for work, don't upgrade. If you want to diddle with a trackpad to launch apps then go ahead.
Honestly, 10.5 was a huge leap from 10.4. 10.6 was a welcome under-the-hood upgrade to 10.5. 10.7 is a mistake, and if it doesnt get fixed in 10.8 there's going to be a lot of people switching back to windows when the time comes to replace their current mac.
I have been using Lion for months, I downgraded to Snow Leopard 6 days ago. There is no denying that SL simply has the superior performance. Also my WIFI is better now.
I think it's a bold statement to say that you'll forget SL if you use Lion. Launchpad and Mission control is nice, but in the end a reliable and fast OS is more important than some GUI changes.
What he said. Long term early-adopting Mac user here (since System 7) and Lion is the first OS release from Apple that has truly disappointed me.
Leopard (2007) had "300+ new features".
Snow Leopard had no real new features, but many "under the hood" improvements.
That means Apple has had four years to make OS X's interface shine with Lion.
Four years. For what? Grey generic sidebar icons and a broken Exposé?
Lion is a half-arsed cock up of a system release. I installed it on my iMac, but there's no way I'm making that mistake twice with my laptop.
Not really so bold. By the time Lion gets it's 4th upgrade, many will forget SL just like SL made many forget Tiger and so on.
I think Lion is great. I was hesitant to upgrade, but haven't had any problems. It's fast and smooth. The new Mail is great. Gestures, once you get used to them makes navigating awesome. The autosaving takes a little getting used to, but it's not that big of a deal. And really, the upgrade is only $30.
Depends on your useage
Like others have said, if you use your system for heavy work and are dependent upon certain applications you may want to wait. I have Lion on a few systems and since the initial upgrade 10.7.0 it has been a minor pain.
I prefer to use Outlook '11 for my email so I do not use the upgraded Mail.app so one of the nicest upgrades is lost on me.
IMO, Versions, Mission Control, LP, and the monochrome look are a major step in the wrong direction. Overall, if I could go back in time I would never have upgraded.
On the positive side, Lion has advanced security features that by themselves could justify the upgrade for many. I would still prefer SL with Sophos AV installed.
This is just my opinion. Depending on what you use your system for will determine if you will enjoy Lion or should stick w/ SL.
Like others have said, if you use your system for heavy work and are dependent upon certain applications you may want to wait. I have Lion on a few systems and since the initial upgrade 10.7.0 it has been a minor pain.
I prefer to use Outlook '11 for my email so I do not use the upgraded Mail.app so one of the nicest upgrades is lost on me.
IMO, Versions, Mission Control, LP, and the monochrome look are a major step in the wrong direction. Overall, if I could go back in time I would never have upgraded.
On the positive side, Lion has advanced security features that by themselves could justify the upgrade for many. I would still prefer SL with Sophos AV installed.
This is just my opinion. Depending on what you use your system for will determine if you will enjoy Lion or should stick w/ SL.
I think that if battery life and performance/snappiness are important factors, then Lion should be skipped for now.
However, as more applications go Lion, and more features are easier or more integrated on Lion, Snow Leopard will grow old each day.
At some point, if Lion is used solely on a Macbook that isn't connected to an external monitor very often, and is used primarily for light workload (anything less than making spreadsheets and presentations), then the extra enhancements of Lion would be worth it. It keeps the focus on the task at hand.
However, as more applications go Lion, and more features are easier or more integrated on Lion, Snow Leopard will grow old each day.
At some point, if Lion is used solely on a Macbook that isn't connected to an external monitor very often, and is used primarily for light workload (anything less than making spreadsheets and presentations), then the extra enhancements of Lion would be worth it. It keeps the focus on the task at hand.
Lion, for me, became a need to have upgrade because of iOS 5 and the ability to sync contacts and calendars through iCloud for free. Having 2 calendar apps on my iOS devices has been a pain. Only the native iOS app understands dates in emails.
There are other features I may enjoy, but the "big" features of Lion are going to be disabled on first launch. Don't need them or want them.
There are other features I may enjoy, but the "big" features of Lion are going to be disabled on first launch. Don't need them or want them.
I would personally say yes. The only major thing I hated about the move was the trashing of Expose and Spaces, but I've since moved onto using a dual monitor setup which has alleviated my need for either, I have more than enough screen real estate to run all of the apps I need. If you rely on either of those features, however, I'd personally avoid it.
Just a question about your dual monitor setup, if you have one app in full-screen mode on one monitor is the other (second) screen still unusable?
I moved over to Lion and I've been very happy.
I was a vocal against Lion for a long time, mostly because of the "ipadification" of the OS and to some degree, I still have issues with that.
However, I found that Lion does a lot of little things better and to be honest it is the future. So you can defer upgrading but sooner or later if you want to use apple's latest hardware or some of the latest apps you'll have to upgrade.
For me, the OS has been very stable but then I have 8gb of ram, and I did a clean install.
I was a vocal against Lion for a long time, mostly because of the "ipadification" of the OS and to some degree, I still have issues with that.
However, I found that Lion does a lot of little things better and to be honest it is the future. So you can defer upgrading but sooner or later if you want to use apple's latest hardware or some of the latest apps you'll have to upgrade.
For me, the OS has been very stable but then I have 8gb of ram, and I did a clean install.
Also a lot of the iOS/'iPadification' can be turned off through System Preferences if it is that much of a bug to you. I can imagine switching from always scrolling one way to scrolling in the opposite direction can be a bit annoying.
Another thing, when are 250+ new features not features? You may not like them, that doesn't discount them as features, for every vocal person out there that doesn't like Lion there are 20 people who love it, but say nothing; You're the vocal minority.
Another thing, when are 250+ new features not features? You may not like them, that doesn't discount them as features, for every vocal person out there that doesn't like Lion there are 20 people who love it, but say nothing; You're the vocal minority.
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I honestly believe Lion is an OS you have to try it to make that call, worth it or not. It has its good and bads.
Me personally, no. If I could go back in time I'd definitely tell myself to save 30 dollars and few months of frusturation.
I honestly believe Lion is an OS you have to try it to make that call, worth it or not. It has its good and bads.
Me personally, no. If I could go back in time I'd definitely tell myself to save 30 dollars and few months of frusturation.