Let's Stop Avoiding The Hard Truth About Lion

[DustinT]

My guess is new version of 10.7.2 will have some speed improvements and probably a ton of bug fixes.

I agree... Any company producing a major new OS version will inevitably have a few issues. I dare say there hasn't been a major OS version from any company with some bugs, minor and significant.

When I upgraded to Lion on the day of release, I knew it would have a few bugs, but I was hoping to avoid any show stoppers. So far, so good. I'm expecting that 10.7.2 will improve things somewhat but there will probably be a few new bugs thanks to iCloud's arrival.

I completely understand how you feel though and I can certainly see how thats a definite possibility. When you are comparing 10.7.x to 10.6.x, I do think its important to remember that Snow Leopard has been on the market since 6/8/2009 and benefited from over 2 years of continuous development. I'm sure thats why the major and significant bugs, some leading to complete loss of user data, have long since been fixed. Consider the following quote:

On 21 October 2009, SFGate blogger Yobie Benjamin wrote that the "MacBook Pro that came preloaded with Snow Leopard kicks butt and is a screaming fast machine", but "when I tried to upgrade one of my 'older' MacBooks, it was a fricking disaster from hell". Apart from upgrading, Benjamin also tried a clean install. But he complained of slowness even after his clean install. He wrote, "I ended up downgrading back to OSX 10.5.8" then he concluded by writing, "I might try to do it again but it won't be till Apple releases at least 2 major fix updates. If you want to roll the dice and try, go ahead... your upgrade might work however random installs not working is not good for me. Lesson learned --- I'll wait."[62]

Doesn't that sound a lot like what we're seeing here with Lion? Wait a few more months until 10.7.2 or .3 is released and give it another try. I think you'll change your tune once Apple has had a chance to tune up the operating system.

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Since this is your first and only post in this forum, I suspect your intentions and I don't take your post very seriously.

You maybe right. I've asked a moderator to take a look at this thread. However, there's been plenty of relevant, reasonable discussion here so, even if it was an attempt at trolling, I'm not sure its working.

Nice catch, GG, I missed that one.

 

[Adamantoise]

Since this is your first and only post in this forum, I suspect your intentions and I don't take your post very seriously. While Lion isn't flawless (no OS is), your post sounds quite biased and not based on a realistic evaluation of the pros and cons and based only on one individual installation, which may have other factors affecting your performance beyond the OS itself. Is Lion perfect? Absolutely not? Is it as bad as you claim? Absolutely not.

Because his first post on this forum is criticizing Lion then he's not to be trusted?

Can your brand loyalty get any blinder? He's just pointing out things he doesn't like about Lion for crying out loud. He gave explicit examples, but you can't see past that because "... it's his first post"

Everyone has a first post, just because his isn't asking "ABOUT TO BUY MAC, DO I NEED ANTIVIRUS?" doesn't make it any less credible.

 

[basher]

Very pleased with Lion. Although there are a few issues with the O/S, for me, they are not enough to revert back to SL.

 

[YMark]

I love my Mac as much as everyone here - really. I'll never own anything else. But let's stop ignoring the Gorilla standing in the corner of the room because we are afraid to let Apple know that we are horribly disappointed in Lion. sure, it has a few cool bells and whistles that set it apart from Snow Leopard but compared to Snow Leopard in is slow as heck and dare I say the word, often unstable. I could not wait to upgrade to Lion and I was never more disappointed afterward. After about 30 days of using it and suffering from almost constant "spinning umbrellas" and an almost brand new MacBook Pro that hangs up during reboots making it necessary to hit the physical power button to complete the operation - I pulled up an old Time Machine backup and gave my Mac what it wanted - a Snow Leopard reinstall. The machine was immediately faster again and I am overjoyed.

Let's see a show of hands - who else finally decided to call Lion a loss of $29 and went back to Snow Leopard? Let's tell Apple what they need to fix to keep "We The Customers" happy.

I agree with you and have done what you did. Took my trusty Time Machine backup and put Snow Leopard back on my iMac. However, I'm still running Lion on my Air and while it runs better than it did on my iMac, I still prefer SL. Lion, IMO, is a premature release, and frankly the new "features" do nothing for me.

 

[GGJstudios]

Because his first post on this forum is criticizing Lion then he's not to be trusted?

No, because his first post is asking for people to jump on the "we hate Lion" bandwagon, rather than asking for help in dealing with issues. If the OP had posted something like "After upgrading to Lion I'm getting almost constant "spinning umbrellas" and an almost brand new MacBook Pro that hangs up during reboots making it necessary to hit the physical power button to complete the operation. What could be the problem? is this Lion, or something to do with my hardware?" Then I would have taken the post more seriously. The OP has shown more interest in talking trash about Lion than in sincerely seeking resolutions to their issues.

I have no brand loyalty. I just believe in resolving problems rather than simply complaining about them and jumping to conclusions about a product before determining that the product is the source of problems, rather than my own installation.

 

[ggg05a]

Lion is a disaster.

 

[webpoet73]

It has been pretty much smooth sailing. I have a 'magic trackpad' on my 2009 iMac and use several new gestures and really like MC. So, no issues there except I did remove launchpad from my dock. That is the biggest 'useless' feature for me.

There are still some intermittent wi-fi issues with my 2011 MacBook Pro. I thought those were fixed with the .1 update, but still linger but happen far less often.

Apple did well with Lion for me.

 

[Taz Mangus]

I love my Mac as much as everyone here - really. I'll never own anything else. But let's stop ignoring the Gorilla standing in the corner of the room because we are afraid to let Apple know that we are horribly disappointed in Lion. sure, it has a few cool bells and whistles that set it apart from Snow Leopard but compared to Snow Leopard in is slow as heck and dare I say the word, often unstable. I could not wait to upgrade to Lion and I was never more disappointed afterward. After about 30 days of using it and suffering from almost constant "spinning umbrellas" and an almost brand new MacBook Pro that hangs up during reboots making it necessary to hit the physical power button to complete the operation - I pulled up an old Time Machine backup and gave my Mac what it wanted - a Snow Leopard reinstall. The machine was immediately faster again and I am overjoyed.

Let's see a show of hands - who else finally decided to call Lion a loss of $29 and went back to Snow Leopard? Let's tell Apple what they need to fix to keep "We The Customers" happy.

Have you contacted Apple about the issues you are having with Lion on your almost brand new MacBook Pro?

 

[scottsjack]

(history; MBP twice on Lion, now on SL/W7. MP once on Lion, now on SL/W7. extra Mini now on Lion/W8 developer preview)

Here is how Apple could win me back to Lion and stop my eventual migration to Windows 7/8. Release Lion with the bugs and performance errors fixed, and include a "Desktop Mode" (aka SL mode) that brings back colored icons, the SL version of spaces, off switch for Versions, off switches for all the sliding/zooming stuff and a SL Finder arrangement.

Do that and I'm back.

 

[aziatiklover]

I love Lion.

this!

I have none of the problems you list. That's the hard truth.

And this!

 

[Washac]

Hello

I went back to Snow Leopard last weekend and soon realised how much more stable and solid it is compared to Lion.

 

[baryon]

I agree that Lion is much more unstable than Snow Leopard. However, in my experience, it is not slower at all, nor is it faster though, than SL. I don't get spinning beach balls a lot, and the occasional beach ball was something that happened just as often in SL.

I'm on a late 2008 MBP with 4GB of RAM.

I've heard many people complaining about beach balls in Lion, and many people aren't experiencing the issue. I think that a Lion clean install might help you, as this seems to be a well-defined, have-it-or-not issue, rather than just general slowness.

 

[50548]

I have none of the problems you list. That's the hard truth.

Ditto here.

But whiners continue to infest these forums with their anecdotal "evidence", without even confirming whether this is a specific problem with their personal setups in any form...apart from freezing video bug already fixed under 10.7.1, there is ABSOLUTELY nothing else to report for the moment.

Lion is smooth as butter on my 3.4 i7 iMac with custom-installed SSD, hundreds of apps installed and huge media libraries. Can it be better? Sure, just wait for the next updates.

 

[Steve's Barber]

If you guys give up on Lion you may as well dump your macs. It's not about the bugs. Those will get fixed. It's the move to a more unified iOS user experience and also feature changes that will never be undone. (Like mission out-of-control).

Yeah, I have issues with Lion and will continue to piss and moan about it but going back to SL is just a short term fix. Can't stay on 10.6 forever.

 

[wikus]

My Macbook Pro came with Lion. I got rid of it. Until Apple gives me the option to ungroup windows in Expose (when showing ALL the windows) I am not going to use Lion.

 

[scottsjack]

If you guys give up on Lion you may as well dump your macs.

Exactly, that's why I'm running two Windows 7 installations on my Macs and have moved my Macs from Mail/iCal/Address Book/Pages/Numbers to Office 2011 for Mac. Office and financial work are now done on W7 Office. Photoshop CS 6 will be upgraded on Windows only. The Macs will be entertainment only (EyeTV, RipIt, etc.)

 

[sidewinder]

Exactly, that's why I'm running two Windows 7 installations on my Macs and have moved my Macs from Mail/iCal/Address Book/Pages/Numbers to Office 2011 for Mac. Office and financial work are now done on W7 Office. Photoshop CS 6 will be upgraded on Windows only. The Macs will be entertainment only (EyeTV, RipIt, etc.)

You are overreacting. But please, move everything to the Windows platform (and buy Dell PCs or equivalent) so we don't have to read your vitriolic text anymore.....

S-

 

[maflynn]

It's the move to a more unified iOS user experience and also feature changes that will never be undone. (Like mission out-of-control).
...
Can't stay on 10.6 forever.

Agreed at some point people who are on 10.6 need to make a hard decision, embrace the apple ecosystem that will mean a more iOS like OS for the desktop, or move on to windows.

I was one of the people who had a difficult time with this move, but I'm adult enough to admit I was wrong.

I'll re-evaluate how OSX fits my needs when future versions come out and if need be shift over to a different platform if OSX does not fit my needs but at the moment Lion and Macs fill that need quite nicely

 

[marzer]

On day one upgraded two iMacs, a mini and an AirBook, all have been running well without slowdown, beachballs or hiccups. They were all clean installs, as I've always done when upgrading to a new OS version.

My son and I do alot of gaming (Steam and Crossover), the wife and I use MS Office quite a bit, the mini serves iTunes to many locations throughout the house (8 total counting ATV's and computers) and all network peripherals (Time Capsule, Airport Express, 2 printers, scanner, file storage) have been available and accessible without a hitch. So I guess I can attest to Lion performing well under heavy and diverse use.

I enjoy the cleaner Finder interface and new features like airdrop, mission control and especially multi-user VNC, makes it easier accessing the family machines w/o interrupting the current user. In fact, this feature paves the way for easily implementing thin clients.

What I don't understand is why Launchpad is repeatedly brought up as an example of an unwelcomed OS change. Its simply an added application. I don't use every feature/application that's ever been included in every OS but I don't bitch because it's there--I simply remove it from the dock.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever used Colorsync Utility or Audio Midi Setup in ten years of Mac use, but it doesn't keep me awake at night knowing it's there.

 

[mrsir2009]

I'm very happy with Lion. No problems on my MacBook Pro or iMac that have been running Lion for weeks now.

 

[ZipZap]

OP - the hard truth about Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion... is that some users will not have a smooth transition. They then come on MacRumors and complain, giving readers the incorrect impression that the newest OS is the worst thing since unsliced bread. MOST user are having little to no issues. My 2009 MacPro has new life and is way faster than it was on SL. I've held off on my wife's 2011 iMac because of sore reported issues. And, as mentioned before, most feature you don't like can be turned on/off.

Sorry for your experience. It is the exception rather than the rule.

I dont think you can assume the majority of users are not having problems as you have no basis for that statement.

I will say that the vast majority of users are not on macrumors.

 

[DeaconGTG]

I dont think you can assume the majority of users are not having problems as you have no basis for that statement.

I will say that the vast majority of users are not on macrumors.

So we're at a stalemate then. No one can conclude whether the majority of users are or are not having problems.

 

[Dave Felix]

I was actually thinking about upgrading my macbook today. I doubt I'll be complaining like this guy, but I'd like opinions on if I should upgrade or not.

Model Identifier: MacBookPro6,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz

What do you think?

 

[50548]

I was actually thinking about upgrading my macbook today. I doubt I'll be complaining like this guy, but I'd like opinions on if I should upgrade or not.

Model Identifier: MacBookPro6,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz

What do you think?

Go for it and forget about the whiners - they do NOT represent the universe of satisfied Mac users at all. Not to mention that all this myth about a faulty iOS-Mac OS merger is absolute BS.

Apart from updated gestures and the (weak) Launchpad, Lion is Mac OS top to bottom and was probably the most stable .0 OS X release ever, with performance and stability that are second to none, especially on newer machines.

Just be aware of the most common sources of post-upgrade issues:

- Non-clean installs over bloated or custom-tweaked OS X setups;
- possible permissions issues with Migration Assistant or manual migration, especially on SSD/HD systems;
- incompatibility with certain third-party software;
- low/insufficient RAM.

 

[WSR]

I don't mind Apple trying to give an iOS interface to those that want it, but what I definitely don't like is removing functionality, i.e. downgrading of Spaces and Expose, the near uselessness of a 2nd monitor in Full-screen mode, and the loss of "Save As..." and "Do You Want to Save?", from those that want it.

I'm going to stay with Snow Leopard until Apple wises up.