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In my opinion, Snow Leopard wasn't a monumental release, and it is appearing Lion won't be either. The best features Apple have added in the past 5 years include Spotlight, Time Machine, and implementing multitouch gestures. Everything else has had no obvious impact on my daily usage. Then again, desktop OSes are getting mature and the industry will move away from the keyboard and mouse paradigm to a touch based platform.
 
I am in here 8 pages too late but here
are my thoughts after having LION installed
on my system for the past month.....

It's the most enjoyable OS I have ever used.

First and foremost, I think those that will mostly
benefit from LION are trackpad owners -- specifically
MagicTrackpad. LION is all about gestures. It's
really amazing how much finger swiping improves the
overall OS experience. You swipe through browser
windows and zoom in and out of open windows across
your desktop. It's just amazing.

Those with a MagicMouse will be able to use most of
the gesutres, but I think the MagicTrackpad takes it
to a whole new level.

Secondly, the animations are spectacular. You swipe
through browser pages as if you were moving from one
picture to another. Scrolling is greatly enhanced, and
there's a "Rubber Band" effect that makes the motion more
realistic.

My favorite enhancement is Apple Mail. This was a much
needed overhaul that Apple ignored for years. It's going
to put the WIDEMAIL plug-in and SPARROW out of business.
The mail now looks exactly as it does on iOS. It's rather
astonishing to see how nicely threaded replies are handled
whereas each reply is properly numbered and all the text
junk is removed, leaving only the important parts of the
message. It's hard to explain, but those who have seen
the keynote now get it.

Since I had been using a program called WINDOWSHADE X
for the past few years, I was rather pleased that LION now
enables you to have several windows open at once and you
can immediately get to whatever is behind another window
simply by using a 3-finger gesture downwards to zoom out
and give an "ariel view" on your desktop and then zoom back
in on any window that you want.

Those of you who think this is just a minimal upgrade to
Snow Leopard have got it all wrong. Apple has done an
excellent job of giving us an operating system that works
very close to iOS 5. At first, I did not like the concept of
having a desktop OS that looked like a mobile one -- but
now seeing that I can arrange my application icons into
folders just like I do on the iPhone, I am really pleased.
After all, iOS is a very successful and popular platform and
I can totally understand Apple's attempt to have all their
devices work as one.

Really, I think LION is pretty incredible. Again, I think
anyone with a Macbook or MagicTrackpad is going to see
the immediate benefits.

I can't wait for the final release, and I wish Apple would
throw out a date for us to salvate over.
 
one other thing i miss is the customization of how lion looks. don't get me wrong, i think the aqua interface looks pretty nice, but after seeing for three years the same gray windows and blue folders, i got a bit tired of that. it would be nice if apple gave us 3-4 themes to choose from or, even better, give us a theme manager and let the people create some nice themes, which you can then download and apply.

How new are you to the Mac? Apple never gives you a choice, and I think the trend is getting stronger. I wish the same thing you do, but it's not going to happen, because unnecessary choice appears to be against Apple's ethos. Not that I agree. But that's why we power users have the Terminal, ThinkerTool and third party apps.

BTW, I meant no condescension or insult. I am merely expressing my own frustration with Apple's choice of excluding choices for the user.

That aside, I am encouraged by your Lion report and am really looking forward for the upgrade.
 
How new are you to the Mac? Apple never gives you a choice, and I think the trend is getting stronger. I wish the same thing you do, but it's not going to happen, because unnecessary choice appears to be against Apple's ethos. Not that I agree. But that's why we power users have the Terminal, ThinkerTool and third party apps.

BTW, I meant no condescension or insult. I am merely expressing my own frustration with Apple's choice of excluding choices for the user.

That aside, I am encouraged by your Lion report and am really looking forward for the upgrade.

i'm a mac user for almost three years. i know there was a tool for customizing the appearance of leopard (apply themes and so on), but that tool stopped working on snow leopard. i can't understand why apple makes it so hard to customize the os, i mean even microsoft lets you do that! coming from linux, this feature is something i really miss.

as you pointed out, the terminal and tools like tinkertool or onyx are always good to have around ;)
 
1. Watch keynote again.
2. There's about 250 new features, you mentioned like 2 features, and those were the most similair to SL that you possibly could find.
3. 30$ For an all new operating system? I thing that it's a pretty good deal.
 
Read the first couple pages then got bored.

My debate is whether to get the Snow Leopard and Lion upgrades for $60 or the Mac Box Set for $130. I have no use at all for iLife though iWork may be useful. Even then I can get along with out it. The two upgrades are looking more and more like the best deal.


As for the $30 for Lion, try to get a Windows upgrade for that cheap.
 
http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/features.html

Here's a list of 250 new features, most of which have not been discussed much.

Personally, I'd say the majority of them are tweaks rather than new features. If Lion was £120, I doubt I'd upgrade. However, at £20.99, I simply cannot find a reason why not to. The actual new features look good, certainly looking forward to full-screen apps the most.
 
I agree with OP.
Lion brings a handful of new features, none of witch are groundbreaking or incredibly important.
It also drops Rosetta, fail.

Look at Windows 8 videos, looks awesome. The tiling scheme (same implementation as on their new phones, which I am currently trying to get and sell my IP4) makes the OS feel fresh truly new.

Windows 8 I have a feeling is going to destroy OSX in terms of what changed from version to version this time around.

Very soon I won't be an iPhone user (been once since a week after the first one arrived) and if Windows 8 really nails it, a mac user either.

Just out of curiosity, what is different about Windows 8 other than the Metro Tile UI, which makes it more touch-friendly? The UI under the tile UI is eerily similar to Windows 7. What's different about that?

Windows 8 may destroy OSX but OSX will have a year's head start. At this point, Windows 8 has yet to be demoed in person on an actual device and no release date has been set-in other words, vaporware.
 
Just out of curiosity, what is different about Windows 8 other than the Metro Tile UI, which makes it more touch-friendly? The UI under the tile UI is eerily similar to Windows 7. What's different about that?

Windows 8 may destroy OSX but OSX will have a year's head start. At this point, Windows 8 has yet to be demoed in person on an actual device and no release date has been set-in other words, vaporware.

... How is Windows 8 vaporware? It is coming out. MS is aiming for a 2012 release. And it has been demoed in part.

No one knows what the difference between 7 and 8 will be we'll find out when MS formally shows it off next year.
 
Note the 10.7

Its not meant to be a 'major upgrade', osx is 10.6.8, ad a 00.0.2 and u get lion, just that it costs £20.99 or $30. I think its a worthy upgrade, they have added over 250 features or something... I dont have to pay for it (got my mac after the keynote) but even if i had to pay for it i would.
 
It's definitely "worth it" because it's only $29 which is an extraordinary price. It is however, just a small upgrade. Before we knew anything, I thought it would be much bigger, but it's great nonetheless.
 
Just out of curiosity, what is different about Windows 8 other than the Metro Tile UI, which makes it more touch-friendly? The UI under the tile UI is eerily similar to Windows 7. What's different about that?

Windows 8 may destroy OSX but OSX will have a year's head start. At this point, Windows 8 has yet to be demoed in person on an actual device and no release date has been set-in other words, vaporware.

Just look at his post history. He doesn't like iOS. He doesn't like OS X.

In all his previous posts, you can clearly see that he believes that Windows is more productive and innovative than OS X.

I seriously don't know why people like those come to these forums to address these things. If they are so not bothered about OS X, just stay in the news section or whatever. To him, the tile interface is an innovation but is not able to see the wonderful features like Resume, Gestures, etc in Lion.

I understand his intentions and have crossed his opinions in various other threads. In a nut shell it is:

1. Windows is more productive than OS X. It is definitely more innovative.
2. iOS is no innovation as the silly notifications were copied from Android. From the entire iOS keynote, he was able to pick this up and starts blabbering on any topic. Doesn't realise that the notifications are just a drop down menu implemented in Windows Mobile or even SBSettings or clearly the Mac OS X status bar.

There's too much one can argue here. Windows 8 might be a success; but seriously, MS has just stopped innovating with Windows operating system. It's the stale underlying architecture since XP. Obviously it has been beautified or one would say glorified but that's about it. Loving OS X with new features in every release. The only thing that bothers me is the Expose which is gone. I hope it comes back as there is no reason why Apple cannot implement it in Mission Control.

Too much fanboy **** as mrbrown claims so I'll troll at some other place.
 
I don't know why Windows lovers participate
here either. If you are throwing stones at OS X
and praising Windows in a MAC forum you are
simply trolling.

From my personal usage, I think LION offers
users a far more enjoyable computing experience
than Windows ever could.

The poster above is quite correct: Microsoft stopped
being innovative with its operating system long ago
while Apple has been slowly changing and enhancing
the way people interact with their PCs.
 
There's too much one can argue here. Windows 8 might be a success; but seriously, MS has just stopped innovating with Windows operating system. It's the stale underlying architecture since XP. Obviously it has been beautified or one would say glorified but that's about it. Loving OS X with new features in every release. The only thing that bothers me is the Expose which is gone. I hope it comes back as there is no reason why Apple cannot implement it in Mission Control.

Can you expand about why windows as you mention above is different to OS X

Not really used anything later than XP, been OS X for last 4 to 5 years

you say windows is the same but with a nicer GUI
OS X is the same unix style OS underneath with a slightly changed GUI on each release
 
I don't know why Windows lovers participate
here either. If you are throwing stones at OS X
and praising Windows in a MAC forum you are
simply trolling.

From my personal usage, I think LION offers
users a far more enjoyable computing experience
than Windows ever could.

The poster above is quite correct: Microsoft stopped
being innovative with its operating system long ago
while Apple has been slowly changing and enhancing
the way people interact with their PCs.

People have all the right to come here and say that Windows 8 is better than OS X LionPuppy. Point is, they have nothing in return to explain: 'Why' or 'How'.
There's an argument but that argument is void of all reasoning and facts.

Can you expand about why windows as you mention above is different to OS X

Not really used anything later than XP, been OS X for last 4 to 5 years

you say windows is the same but with a nicer GUI
OS X is the same unix style OS underneath with a slightly changed GUI on each release

OS X has changed drastically over the years. If you look at the GUI, the basic interpretation of window and screen still remains intact but each and every control has changed during the existence of OS X.
Point is it hasn't been over down. I use windows 7 everyday but honestly I hate the looks of it. It really bothers me. I have dumb it down to absolutely zero gloss so I can work without being bothered. Windows7 is glossified to a very large extent. There are some animations to enhance user experience but that's about it. The user experience is quite poor when using Windows7 comparing it to OS X. Animations and functionality of those animations matter a lot and adds to the user experience. Windows lacks them altogether.

Look at different OS X elements. The scroll bars, option control, check boxes, slider, etc. all have evolved since the beginning. They have never been over done. They have just been bettered keeping things in well defined limits. User facing features like MissionControl/Expose/Spaces/dashboard, a good user interface and tonnes of other features have always been missing from windows.

That's the reason I call it stale. There's very less that has changed. And the changes are just glorified to make them intense and provide a sense of feeling that the OS has been improved majorly. It's not.
 
People have all the right to come here and say that Windows 8 is better than OS X LionPuppy. Point is, they have nothing in return to explain: 'Why' or 'How'.
There's an argument but that argument is void of all reasoning and facts.



OS X has changed drastically over the years. If you look at the GUI, the basic interpretation of window and screen still remains intact but each and every control has changed during the existence of OS X.
Point is it hasn't been over down. I use windows 7 everyday but honestly I hate the looks of it. It really bothers me. I have dumb it down to absolutely zero gloss so I can work without being bothered. Windows7 is glossified to a very large extent. There are some animations to enhance user experience but that's about it. The user experience is quite poor when using Windows7 comparing it to OS X. Animations and functionality of those animations matter a lot and adds to the user experience. Windows lacks them altogether.

Look at different OS X elements. The scroll bars, option control, check boxes, slider, etc. all have evolved since the beginning. They have never been over done. They have just been bettered keeping things in well defined limits. User facing features like MissionControl/Expose/Spaces/dashboard, a good user interface and tonnes of other features have always been missing from windows.

That's the reason I call it stale. There's very less that has changed. And the changes are just glorified to make them intense and provide a sense of feeling that the OS has been improved majorly. It's not.

Fair enough, it's all personal preference how you like the look of it, thats why there are mostly options to change how things look

I personally hate many of the new looks in Lion, and will be turning these off when I get it

iOS scroll bars - no thanks
No Dock Indicator for running apps - no thanks
Launchpad - no thanks
Dashboard - never liked - so again no thanks
lack of colour in os - have no choice - but would put colour back if i could
versions - no thanks
auto save - the way it works - no thanks

cant say I ever found features missing from windows when i have used it
 
The poster above is quite correct: Microsoft stopped
being innovative with its operating system long ago
while Apple has been slowly changing and enhancing
the way people interact with their PCs.
I guess that is why Windows 7 had a lot of innovative new features such as Aero Snap and Peek and Snow Leopard had no new features.

Swings and roundabouts. And all down to peoples opinions at the end of the day. Some people will be excited for the new features that Lion will bring. Other people, such as myself, are more intrigued about what Windows 8 will bring and think Lion as a bit of a meh.

Don't get me wrong, Lion has some good features (like Fullscreen, Autosave and Resume), but some rather terrible ones as well (like Launchpad and Mission Control). £20 for it makes it a 'why not?' purchase, however, if it was £120, I don't think I'd be purchasing it.
 
I don't know why Windows lovers participate
here either. If you are throwing stones at OS X
and praising Windows in a MAC forum you are
simply trolling.
So I'm prevented from issuing my opinion that windows is not a bad operating system because I'm on a mac board :rolleyes:

At this point in product development, both OSX and windows are very similar and it all boils down to personal preference. There are some things that windows does better then OSX. There are some other things that OSX does better then windows. Neither one is inherently bad at this point and you use which tool best suits your needs and helps you get your work done.
 
I personally hate many of the new looks in Lion, and will be turning these off when I get it

iOS scroll bars - no thanks
No Dock Indicator for running apps - no thanks
Launchpad - no thanks
Dashboard - never liked - so again no thanks
lack of colour in os - have no choice - but would put colour back if i could
versions - no thanks
auto save - the way it works - no thanks

cant say I ever found features missing from windows when i have used it

Just asking, but what features of Lion are you looking forward to? Seems to me that you named some of the biggest features and aren't interested in them.
 
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