Mac OS X Lion Can Run in Chrome OS-Like Browser Only Mode

[skinned66]

I'm not a huge fan of Safari, but I can see how this would be useful. Definitely more than the "$4000 USB disk" mode my Mac Pro has.

 

[lewis82]

Yes, but, will Safari be snappier in this mode 😛

They also dropped the Mac from OS X Snow Leopard. Let's face it, "Mac" isn't figuring too much in Apple's calculations lately.

Why are people booting up machines anyway? On mac or pc. Done working? Close laptop. Want to work? Open laptop. Even a crappy machine is ready to work in a matter of seconds. Just make sure you have a password set when waking from sleep.

-Saves electricity

-Booting is not so long (~30s), so it's not a problem.

-RAM is cleared each time, which means more of it is free (no swap problems).

-I'm just used to it.

 

[JoeG4]

Porn browsing mode ftw, but still, I don't think it's as secure as you're being lead to believe.

Besides, with a laptop you're up a river regardless. Without an EFI password, the thief that has your laptop will install a fresh copy of OS X on it before it has a chance to be found. With an EFI password, it is still very easy to get rid of the password and reinstall the OS. Easy. Piece of cake.

This would be great for helping an owner locate their LOST mac, but it sounds too complicated and a bit too misleading to actually be helpful. Ideally, the Mac would ping out and try to beam up its location when you wake it.

 

[res1233]

Spare your deluded waffle for elsewhere please. Claiming that just because a certain feature is now in an Apple product, it is much better, is utter nonsense. Not saying it can't be, and it has been in the past.😉 But there has also been times when Apple's version of a certain feature has been trash.

This is hyperbole, right? He said that the features generally "become" better over time once they're introduced to Apple's OSes, which isn't wrong. Doesn't mean other competitors don't improve their own features too, but Apple often makes fairly nice improvements over time, while some competitors just add unneeded bulk. There is a fairly fine line between the two.

 

[marty177]

Still have a separate search box ... idiots!

 

[MorphingDragon]

You mean like ASUS ExpressGate, which has been available for years now?

ExpressGate is just rebranded SplashTop, which was available years before. SplashTop is just a Linux Live OS, which was available decades ago.

How far do we want to go? 😀

 

[caspersoong]

This is really awesome. I think it would be better if they let users press a button near startup to immediately start into this mode which would be faster if you only want to check something on the internet.

 

[mijail]

-Saves electricity

Would be interesting to calculate the energy cost incurred while sleeping vs. the energy cost needed for the flurry of activity while booting and going back to a productive state (open apps, docs, etc)

If you just want to save energy, hibernation surely is a better option than a full shutdown and reboot. And even then, would be interesting to compare the energy used in that whole RAM dump and read to disk vs. sleeping for x hours.

And I will also be interested in the comparison between hibernation and Lion's type of reboot...

-Booting is not so long (~30s), so it's not a problem.

I don't know about you, but after booting, I personally still need to open apps, docs, and place everything as it should. Sleeping the computer is unquestionably a faster way to jump right back to a productive state.

-RAM is cleared each time, which means more of it is free (no swap problems).

Again, quite a partial way to see it. I don't want RAM to be cleared, I want it to be working hard! That's why I paid for it, after all ;P

-I'm just used to it.

I prefer to find what I'm doing wrong, or could do better ... and change it.

 

[silentnite]

I'm loving all the new features that Lion has to offer. However, my concern is not being able to run certain vendor software and some of my midi musical equipment... M-audio, native instruments etc. under this new upgrade. Thinking about doing a dual install of O.S. Snow Leopard/Lion, wondering does anyone have the same idea.😕

 

[angrylawyer]

This will come in handy about as often as the browser mode for my HP came in handy. Never.

As some others have pointed out though, I wonder how much it will improve battery life. If you're at an airport and just trying to read some news, it would be nice to not waste all your battery just so you can browse reddit.

 

[wirelessness]

So it's not clear to me if Browser Plug-ins will be available in this mode or not? If you had previously installed plug-ins will they be available in this mode? It seems clear that you would not be able to install any new plug-ins if wanted to.

 

[Shasterball]

I'm actually really excited about this. I figure I can take my 5 year old MBP, wipe it, install Lion and just load in it Safari mode. Then I can have it attached to my TV. This way, I can watch Hulu, etc... right off it and Safari mode means the older chip will still be able to handle video smoothly. Hopefully this works out! 🙂

 

[kocoman]

Has anyone got this to work in the GM version?

 

[sissified84]

How to set it up?

I have Lion installed... I don't see this feature anywhere. People have mentioned needing iCloud - is that a requirement for it to work? How do I get this to work? Does it yet?

Thanks!