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Lion Reviews Are Out: 'Great Value', 'Shakes Things Up', 'Very Few Bugs'

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Now that Lion has been released, NDA's are lifted and reviews are starting to come in. Here are some choice excerpts:

David Pogue - New York Times:
In Mac OS X 10.7, known as Lion, Apple went with the "shake things up" philosophy. It follows an old Apple pattern: embrace what's cool and progressive, and ruthlessly jettison what it considers antiquated. That's great if you love stuff that's cool and progressive, and not so great if you hate people moving your cheese...

The Lion upgrade, in other words, is classic Apple: innovative to some, gimmicky to others, big leaps forward, a few stumbles back. It may never be the king of the jungle. But once the world's software companies have fully Lionized their wares, and once Apple exterminates the bugs, Mac OS X 10.7 might be something even more exotic: a fast, powerful, good-looking, virus-free, thoroughly modern operating system.
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Walt Mossberg - All Things Digital / Wall Street Journal:
There are, however, downsides to anything this new and major. In my view, the biggest of these is that switching to Lion will require a major adjustment even for veteran Mac users, though it will be easier for those who use iPhones or iPads. Lion will significantly increase the learning curve for Windows users switching to the Mac...

Lion is very different. It's a big leap, and gives the Mac a much more modern look and feel for a world of tablets and smartphones. If you are willing to adjust, it's the best computer operating system out there.
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Harry McCracken - Time:
Most of the highest-profile changes share a unifying principle: They make a Mac feel a little less like a cranky, complicated personal computer, and a little more like a 21st-century appliance...

Lion feels, to revive an old OS X tagline, like a new Mac for your Mac. At $129, it would have been a meaty good value. At $29.99, it's a steal -- the no-brainer upgrade that defines the notion of a no-brainer upgrade.
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John Siracusa - Ars Technica (a staggeringly long review):
Though the Lion name suggests the end of something, the content of the operating system itself clearly marks the start of a new journey. Seemingly emboldened by the success of iOS, Apple has taken a hatchet to decades of conventional wisdom about desktop operating systems.
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Jesus Diaz - Gizmodo:
I love Mac OS X. I've used it since the very first and painful developer preview, back in September 2000. I love iOS too, because its modal nature simplifies powerful computing, and, at the same time, empowers normal people. I hoped Mac OS X Lion was going to merge both perfectly. Sadly, from a user interface point of view, it has failed to achieve that. And by failing at this task, it has made a mess of what was previously totally acceptable.
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Matthew Panzarino - The Next Web:
Yeah, yeah, but should I buy it?

The short answer is yes. OS X Lion offers enough value in its security enhancements and improvements to features like Exposé and Spaces, in the form of Mission Control, to justify the $29.99 price tag alone. There's really very little reason not to purchase the upgrade if you're already a Mac user on Snow Leopard.
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So, Lion appears to be worth $29.99 but as with any dot-zero release, users are encouraged to backup first and be careful about using it for mission-critical applications until Apple -- and your fellow users -- have gotten all the bugs out.

Article Link: Lion Reviews Are Out: 'Great Value', 'Shakes Things Up', 'Very Few Bugs'
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/20/lion-reviews-are-out-great-value-shakes-things-up-very-few-bugs/
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'Lion is very different'
I think he's mistakenly booted into Windows
 
I might wait a week, I heard of few bugs on the Mail app. I just want to make sure to not run on that kind of trouble right now.
 
I honestly didn't think I would like Lion at all and was going to stick with Snow Leopard. But impulse got the best of me and I installed it anyways.

I LOVE LION.

It's ridiculous how nice it is. I was not expecting to be surprised at all.
 
So far it I can't understand the naysayers -- unlike in SL which offered little usable new features. I haven't really played around w/ it too much but I like what I see on the surface. The new mail app will take some getting use to but generally it makes the GUI a lot more intuitive and easier to find your files. It is iOS-like, but it's not iOS, nor does it feel like it. It feels like a 21st century computer OS.
 
I don't know about 'very few bugs,' as there are some important functions that are not working right now. There is also lots of room for improvement in some areas.

Overall, though, the new features and feel to OSX are great. A couple of updates should have everything is working order.
 
I literally cannot wait to crown my mac the king of the forest or jungle.
 
Outside of the look of the new Address Book (and to a lesser degree the new iCal), Lion is looking fantastic.
 
I can't wait.

I'm in the middle of 4 different Final Cut projects that need to be done this month, though, so I'm gonna wait on Lion for a few more weeks. :mad:

Really can't wait for next month. I'm gonna jump on this the instant I can.
 
Are these reviews a joke? I've been running the GM since it came out, and it's buggy and not really any better. Spaces is ruined, not improved. You can't even drag full screen apps around to change the space. I almost downgraded to Snow Leopard. A steal at $29 is a complete lie, it's not a steal if it's free. After a couple updates I'd say it's wort upgrading from Snow Leopard at no cost. The new mail, the idea of full screen apps (but not how these are implemented), and the disappearing scroll bar are nice, but that's not worth $29.

And I love the Mac OS. These reviews are just too outrageous for me to understand. I was very disappointed because I was looking forward to Lion, and so was a friend of mine who already has downgraded back to Snow Leopard.

Luckily it's gotten a little better since I downgraded to iTunes 10.4 today. 10.5 Beta 3 is unusable there are so many bugs. Firefox has a lot of bugs in Lion, but that's not Apple's fault.
 
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I haven't noticed any major bugs yet. I'm loving the new gestures and how easy it is to make new spaces and swipe between them. I also love all the new little animations that they put on things, along with the resizing a window from any edge. I think the scrollbars look kind of fugly in apps that apparently aren't ready for them yet. Like Firefox? Shouldn't the scrollbars fade in and out over the content like Safari? Mail is awesome too. Launchpad makes my Mac look like a giant iPad and I lol every time I use it, haha. But I can see myself moving some of the extra icons from my dock that I use less often and using launchpad instead.

Does anyone know why when I open a link in Twitter for Mac that is in one space, it doesn't switch to the other space that Firefox is in to open it? It loads the page fine, but I have to manually switch to that space. Is there a preference for this somewhere? Thanks!
 
I can't stand anything Gizmodo. I haven't read an article on there since they paid a photographer -- paparazzi style -- to get pictures of Steve Jobs' house. I wish they'd go under.
 
Could any one really expect a different comment from any one from Gizmodo?

Losers...
 
So far the bugs are minor for a .0 release when compared to Leopard and Snow Leopard.

My biggest issue so far has been with Aperture in full screen. Very buggy.
 
mark12 said:
Anyone else having problems with the new effects in Photobooth?
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Overall they seemed good. The birds seem to lag a bit. I did have it stop using the camera once too.
Xtremehkr said:
I don't know about 'very few bugs,' as there are some important functions that are not working right now. There is also lots of room for improvement in some areas.

Overall, though, the new features and feel to OSX are great. A couple of updates should have everything is working order.
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Just curious what major functions you have found problems with. Other then the photo booth glitches I have found everything to work well. I think it will be even better when spotlight and time machine finish their fun.
 
I'm with ArsTechnica on this one. A new release based on GUI changes to make it look more like iOS. For me, it kills some of the greatness of OS X gui. Spaces was awesome, exposé worked really well even thought it wasn't too organized. Full Screen apps, why? I just have this little bar on top that holds all the important stuff anyways, and then having a full screen app kills Spaces... Sure there are some nice features like versions and and AirDrop, but for the most part, Lion is empty and just dumbs down the OS for the average user.

In my mind, Leopard was the last real update to OS X.
 
I'm delighted with Lion, seems to be faster and more responsive on my 2010 MBP13. It also seems to be a bit cooler, now running at 50ºC instead of between 53-60ºC.

One little thing that's upset me is that my Time Machine backup is no longer available =[
 
i.mac said:
Could any one really expect a different comment from any one from Gizmodo?

Losers...
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its ok, nobody cares what that blog says anyways. they lost what little credibility they ever had a long time ago. nothing different than some random clowns on blogger now as far as i'm concerned.
 
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