Mountain Lion OS X 10.8 Launch Day Roundup

[pubwvj]

the removal of OS X Lion from the Mac App Store. While this isn't too big a surprise, it could leave some owners of older Macs stuck if their Mac isn't supported by OS X Mountain Lion but were supported by OS X Lion.

That is a very nasty, environmentally unfriendly, non-green move by Apple. They need to fully support older computers back 20 years. To stop supporting computers that are only a few years old (e.g., can't run MtnLion but could run Lion) is horribly wasteful of resources.

Remember:
Use
Reuse
Recycle

It is far better to REUSE rather than recycle. Older computers can be passed down or sold to others who can't afford the latest and greatest.

Bad Apple at the core.

 

[DakotaGuy]

How was it not a surprise? How would mac users expect that it would be pulled, particularly since ML doesn't run on some machines?

So let's say a user is running Snow Leopard on a Mac that will support Lion, but doesn't support Mountain Lion are they stuck on Snow Leopard forever if they haven't already purchased Lion in the past? If that is true that sort of stinks for those people, however Apple has found another way to sell them a new computer.

I guess they might be able to find a USB jump drive version of Lion on eBay, but you can see where Apple is heading on this one. With the USB drive version going away in the future it opens a new market for selling new computers.

 

[chaosconan]

Ml

1. The display icon in the menubar that allows you to change the resolution is GONE.
2. Now they are displaying my username in the menubar.

How do I bring back the display icon and get rid of the username?

NOTE: The display icon that I'm referring to is the one that allows you to display between resolution immediately.

 

[Banyan Bruce]

AirPlay Mirroring

If you are expecting to get Airplay Mirroring in Mountain Lion.....think again...check the very fine print.

Apple have pulled another one out of the bag.


4G ...what 4G. Airplay Mirroring...what airplay mirroring, only if you've got a very new Mac Book or iMac. Apple how can you be so brilliant and yet so inept at the same time ?

If Airparrot can get it to work fairly well and it works with iTunes on almost all platforms, then why not for all in ML. Where is Steve Jobs when you need him ?

 

[canuckle]

That is a very nasty, environmentally unfriendly, non-green move by Apple. They need to fully support older computers back 20 years. To stop supporting computers that are only a few years old (e.g., can't run MtnLion but could run Lion) is horribly wasteful of resources.

Remember:
Use
Reuse
Recycle

It is far better to REUSE rather than recycle. Older computers can be passed down or sold to others who can't afford the latest and greatest.

Bad Apple at the core.

Apparently the comedy festival is in town, that is hilarious. It's an OS update, and computer tech is advancing rapidly...would you expect a 10 year old cell phone to run iOS? Have another drink.

 

[eric_n_dfw]

That is a very nasty, environmentally unfriendly, non-green move by Apple. They need to fully support older computers back 20 years. To stop supporting computers that are only a few years old (e.g., can't run MtnLion but could run Lion) is horribly wasteful of resources.

Remember:
Use
Reuse
Recycle

It is far better to REUSE rather than recycle. Older computers can be passed down or sold to others who can't afford the latest and greatest.

Bad Apple at the core.

Agreed, (although 20 years is a but of a stretch), I have old machines still doing work as print and file serving such as a PowerMac G4 Dual 500Mhz and they work just fine.

That being said, it's not like Apple puts timers in their OS to self destruct after a finite number of years. People seem to think that upgrading to the latest OS is a mandate... It's not, old machines keep working on older OS's just fine.

Apple is a hardware company and their OS is tightly coupled to their products, that's why we buy Mac's. If they had to keep 20 years of backward compatibly it would have the same bloat and stability problems that Windows often has. (I actually am amazed at how well Windows works, given the compatibility nightmares their engineers have to deal with.)


The only negative is that a minority of new applications require libraries that only exist in newer OS versions.

 

[Russlush3]

It's a hardware requirement and it affects iOS devices just the same as it does OS X computers. Specifically (and someone correct me if I've got this wrong) AirPlay Mirroring requires a GPU that can handle on-chip H.264 encoding. That means 2011 hardware or later. On iOS I think you need either an iPhone 4S or an iPad 2 to access it (don't have an iPhone 4 handy to check but I think that was the cutoff).

Now you can do the necessary encoding work via CPU instead but this is a non-trivial operation. It's been a while since I looked this up but I seem to remember it's between 10 and 20% on modern systems. That cuts into battery life and, of course, needs more cooling so Apple have decided to go with the GPU option only, though there are third party apps that use the CPU on pre-2011 machines if you want to use them.

My understanding anyway, if anyone knows differently please correct.

Thanks, obviously I know basically nothing about GPUs, just conceptually it's hard to accept, the GPU on my late 2009 iMac (and others up to mid 2011) can support playing video on the 1920x1080 built-in screen (2+ million pixels) while the GPU for the iPhone 4S is designed for the 960x640 screen (600k pixels or a 3.5x difference). Even if it did use the CPU, obviously iMac users aren't worrying about battery life.....

Just a scary thought that the standard quo will become any computers older than 1 year are considered outdated and inadequate, as people have noted before, these are not a couple hundred dollar smart phones, these are multi k computers.

 

[KnightWRX]

Hi - I don't suppose anyone knows if the Mountain Lion release contains a fix for the 2012 MBA i7 Turbo Boost issue under Windows? I'm assuming not, as guess this might need a firmware patch, but was just wondering...

An OS update cannot fix problems with another OS that runs completely seperately.

 

[Banyan Bruce]

Air Play Mirroring

Does airplay only allow mirroring?

Only available on a selected number of new Mac Book Pros and iMacs. ML purchasers beware. Apple pulled a fast one here. Airplay mirroring NOT available for all ML compatible Macs.

 

[KnightWRX]

That is a very nasty, environmentally unfriendly, non-green move by Apple. They need to fully support older computers back 20 years. To stop supporting computers that are only a few years old (e.g., can't run MtnLion but could run Lion) is horribly wasteful of resources.

Remember:
Use
Reuse
Recycle

It is far better to REUSE rather than recycle. Older computers can be passed down or sold to others who can't afford the latest and greatest.

Bad Apple at the core.

A 1992 computer. Really. You're getting more disconnected with reality with each posts. A thing to consider : ML suddenly being released does not prevent older computers from working. They will keep working fine.

There is nothing bad about EOS and EOL from vendors. The open source community offers a greater length of support and so you can REUSE your older computers with open source software (I have a Sun Ultra 5 at home, runs BSD and Linux flawlessly if not the newer Solaris 10/11 releases).

Bad Apple ? Look, Apple isn't exactly into LTS or lengthy support, but they aren't doing anything actually bad here. You just have a huge disconnect with what it takes to support older systems.

 

[Russlush3]

It's a hardware requirement and it affects iOS devices just the same as it does OS X computers. Specifically (and someone correct me if I've got this wrong) AirPlay Mirroring requires a GPU that can handle on-chip H.264 encoding. That means 2011 hardware or later. On iOS I think you need either an iPhone 4S or an iPad 2 to access it (don't have an iPhone 4 handy to check but I think that was the cutoff).

Now you can do the necessary encoding work via CPU instead but this is a non-trivial operation. It's been a while since I looked this up but I seem to remember it's between 10 and 20% on modern systems. That cuts into battery life and, of course, needs more cooling so Apple have decided to go with the GPU option only, though there are third party apps that use the CPU on pre-2011 machines if you want to use them.

My understanding anyway, if anyone knows differently please correct.

And just remembered, iTunes can throw 1080 from older computers, so why not other video? I (and I'm sure many others) could care less about throwing my whole desktop on the TV (actually would be nice if it wasn't so friends didn't see the clutter it can sometimes have), just enable the video I am playing on it.

 

[Pianoblack3]

1. The display icon in the menubar that allows you to change the resolution is GONE.
2. Now they are displaying my username in the menubar.

How do I bring back the display icon and get rid of the username?

NOTE: The display icon that I'm referring to is the one that allows you to display between resolution immediately.

I sure Display's Pref pane should have a tick box for you to turn it on mate

 

[Jonze]

Uh so if I ever have to reinstall Lion on a Mac that is unsupported by Mountain Lion I can't download it again although having paid for it?

Update: Nevermind. Seems like people who already purchased it can still redownload it!

You can still download, it shows in your purchased tab on the App Store.

 

[kazmac]

thanks for the round up

I'm going to wait a while before I upgrade for the kinks to be taken out etc.

I really do not need to wait since I've cut back on using software that is SL specific (and you can do screenshots in QT rather than needing a third party app now.), but it sounds like it much better than Lion was.

 

[Pracht]

Or, in this case, you start with your fingers right off the edge of the pad and the screen still scrolls

You start off the trackpad and move onto it. The video zooms in before their hand gets onto the actual trackpad surface area.

 

[chaosconan]

I sure Display's Pref pane should have a tick box for you to turn it on mate

Yeah, I checked that, but the option to display it on and off in the menubar is no longer there.

----------

How nice. I never got past the "Mountain Lion OS is not compatible with your computer". I'm SO SORRY, Apple, that I keep my computers for 6+ years. My mid 2006 MBP is just too old to support anymore huh? Wow, what great longevity of your products. Why don't you just implant a self-destruct chip so that the $2k laptop just implodes after a year so you have to buy a new model.

Windows, Papa is comin' home after a brief affair for 6 years.

Apple is going downhill fast. Who the hell uses all this iCrap software?Kindergartners? It's useless junk.

I downloaded windows 8 consumer beta and tried it out. OMG, this windows metro is so awful. I felt like everything was going backwards in time. I think windows 8's metra interface is going to be its downfall.

 

[Stonefly]

1. The display icon in the menubar that allows you to change the resolution is GONE.
2. Now they are displaying my username in the menubar.

How do I bring back the display icon and get rid of the username?

NOTE: The display icon that I'm referring to is the one that allows you to display between resolution immediately.

You can get rid of your username in menu bar in system preferences - users & groups - login options. You can select to to have the icon show or take the check out of the box (show fast user switching menu) to remove it.

 

[bigcat318]

That is a very nasty, environmentally unfriendly, non-green move by Apple. They need to fully support older computers back 20 years. To stop supporting computers that are only a few years old (e.g., can't run MtnLion but could run Lion) is horribly wasteful of resources.

Im going to write a stern letter to Packard Bell that the computer we got in 1994 that had a 66mhz processor doesn't work with Windows 7.

 

[chaosconan]

You can get rid of your username in menu bar in system preferences - users & groups - login options. You can select to to have the icon show or take the check out of the box (show fast user switching menu) to remove it.

View attachment 349949

Thanks so much! Now I just need my display icon with different resolutions back.

 

[milo]

I believe that you had to call Apple and explicitly ask for them; they weren't listed on the site. Presumably it's the same for 10.7 now.

The difference is that since those earlier versions were on disk, they were still available from the apple store for a while, they did have the disks printed up and were happy to sell what remained. Plus on disk, it was available from third party sellers at the same price. With the download, it's only available from Apple and the availability stopped immediately, that's a very different situation than previous releases.

Also, I know someone who has already contacted Apple about 10.7. They were told it is no longer available.

It's dumb I'll give you that, but I can't see any reason not to upgrade unless there really is some bit of stoneage software that can't run on your machine.

You mean upgrade to ML? There's a huge one - many machines that can run Lion don't support ML.

In fact, nobody used the RSS feature on Safari or Mail...

Tip for the day - hyperbole comes off as stupidity.

Thanks so much! Now I just need my display icon with different resolutions back.

Shame they yanked that. The beta testers complained to apple but got a response that it was by design. So weird that Apple seems to think that in so many cases taking away functionality is the way forward.

 

[chaosconan]

The difference is that since those earlier versions were on disk, they were still available from the apple store for a while, they did have the disks printed up and were happy to sell what remained. Plus on disk, it was available from third party sellers at the same price. With the download, it's only available from Apple and the availability stopped immediately, that's a very different situation than previous releases.

Also, I know someone who has already contacted Apple about 10.7. They were told it is no longer available.



You mean upgrade to ML? There's a huge one - many machines that can run Lion don't support ML.



Tip for the day - hyperbole comes off as stupidity.



Shame they yanked that. The beta testers complained to apple but got a response that it was by design. So weird that Apple seems to think that in so many cases taking away functionality is the way forward.

Oh, okay. I guess I'll have to find a third party menubar for this removed feature. Thanks.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

That is a very nasty, environmentally unfriendly, non-green move by Apple. They need to fully support older computers back 20 years.

20 years! What possible use would a PowerBook Duo or PowerMac LCII be today? You should think about what you write before you write b/c when you say 20 years you just look like a pie-in-the-sky idealist.

If Apple or any other tech company had to support machines 20 years back it would be a severe hit to technological advances b/c it would always have to serve the least capable denominator.

If you said 5-8 years, I'd agree. Some of ML's non-supported machines are not that old, mostly because of GPU, not CPU processing. Certainly Apple could allow ML to install on these older machines but strip out certain features that wouldn't work optimally as iOS does.

 

[Thunderhawks]

That is a very nasty, environmentally unfriendly, non-green move by Apple. They need to fully support older computers back 20 years. To stop supporting computers that are only a few years old (e.g., can't run MtnLion but could run Lion) is horribly wasteful of resources.

Remember:
Use
Reuse
Recycle

It is far better to REUSE rather than recycle. Older computers can be passed down or sold to others who can't afford the latest and greatest.

Bad Apple at the core.

And I thought only Jim Carrey could talk out of his behind

Are you for real?

Ever heard of being able to recycle ANY computer through Apples recycling program? Note to yourself : check website!

A 20 year old computer cannot do what a 2012 generation can do.

But, if you are still attached to floppy disks, I will sell you my 1984 Mac. Still works in all it's black and white glory.

Also have a G3, G4, DP Tower, several iMacs PPC, duos etc.etc. .

They are all in use and do certain basic things ML is not needed for.

All the Macs people have work with all the programs they currently have, with whatever OS legacy system software they can get to.

So, put that tinfoil hat on the shelf and let's have a good chuckle.

Great comedy

----------

Where is Steve Jobs when you need him ?

Dead!

 

[rantexan]

Mountain Lion Up to Date Code Website

I submitted for a code. No code after 24, so I called. They tried to resend the confirmation email, but I never received it. They did however give me the code, but I can't use it without the web link. Could some one with an email post that link?
It would be greatly appreciated!!
Nevermind...I guess it is redeemed thru the redemption page on the apple store and the code they gave is a claim number....the wait goes on.

 

[Jynto]

Just a scary thought that the standard quo will become any computers older than 1 year are considered outdated and inadequate, as people have noted before, these are not a couple hundred dollar smart phones, these are multi k computers.

This. Some people already replace their iPhones on a 1 year cycle, which I think is wrong and irresponsible, but people do it because they're not designed to be repaired or upgraded.

And now that Apple has designed a Mac that can't be repaired or upgraded (the Retina Macbook Pro). I am worried that this will become the new paradigm of computing. Screen cracked? Send in your old computer and get a new one at a discount price. Battery dead? New computer. Need more RAM? New computer. Hard drive full? etc...

A lot of energy and resources goes into making a computer, including rare earth metals, which we are running out of. Disposable computers are not the way forward.