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Snow Leopard is Better

Ansah

Ansah

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 27, 2011
27
0
After running my new used late 2008 MBP with the installed 10.7.2 for a few days and checking out the major new features in Lion, I decided to revert to Snow Leopard 10.6.8.

1) Lion is clearly geared for iOS gadget integration and iCloud, which doesn't interest me.

2) The Launch Pad and Mission Control are just minor irritants that I neither want nor need.

3) I like the old Dashboard style much better.

4) I intensely dislike the new Mail UI, (though I realize it's easy to switch to classic view, so not a big deal).

5) SL seems to run a little faster, with better response times. But this is slight. I've heard that Lion is perhaps faster on brand new '11 MBPs, but I'm thinking SL may be better optimized for my older model, even with the 8GB memory I have on it now. Lion seems to allocate memory less efficiently...

6) My own bias is to dislike any product that I perceive is trying to wow me with eye candy...

Anyone else deciding that Snow Leopard is a superior OS to Lion? Or that Lion may even turn out to be Apple's Vista?

Just curious.
 
blueroom said:
Switched to Lion recently from SL, I really like it aside from the reverse scrolling (which I turned off)
Click to expand...

I din't like the reverse scrolling either, but to Apple's credit, they don't usually implement changes like this without giving us a choice to easily disable/revert the new feature. But it does seem like a sort of artificial way to replicate the touchscreen scrolling on an iOS device.
 
blueroom said:
Switched to Lion recently from SL, I really like it aside from the reverse scrolling (which I turned off)
Click to expand...

lol im quite the opposite. i LOVE the opposite scrolling. it took a day or two to get used to, but now its fluid and completely natural :D
 
  1. You don't have to use any of the iCloud features.
    .​
  2. You don't have to use launchpad. As for mission control, I agree with you that it needs a bit of work (I'm sure Apple will eventually get it right)
    .​
  3. You can switch the dashboard back to its old style. The option is in System Preferences.
    .​
  4. The new mail view isnt bad, all you have to do is re-enable the Mailbox folder sidebar and leave the rest alone (give it a chance, it might grow on you).
    .​
  5. Snow Leopard is definitely faster in some cases, especially with scrolling on older model Macs. I'm not even running it on my MacBook Unibody because of the heat and battery issues. But it runs just fine on my Previous generation MacBook Air.
    .​
  6. Lion is sort of Apple's vista, but the changes were necessary. Just look at Windows 7, Microsoft would not have been able to do 7 without the feedback from Vista.

And remember, it could always be worse...I'm looking at you Windows 8. *shudders*
 
I only have two complaints that keep me from switching.

Bad battery life on everything that is not a 2011 Notebook. I'd really need some huge usability improvements to overlook that problem.

Mission control is for small toy notebooks the former spaces and exposé worked much better and works fine with multiple monitors. BetterTouchTool effectively gives me some almost full screen mode like behavior, without messing things up.
MC just doesn't offer enough options why not make a few things optional to make it a useful feature.

All in all some things got much worse or somewhat worse, nothing in any significant way better. Absolutely no reason to switch.
 
Lion is generally faster on my early 2008 iMac w/6 GB. Booting time is much faster. I don't use many of the extra features of Lion, although iCloud is the future, and I find the sliding web pages and mouse gestures annoying. But the extra speed of Lion is worth it alone.
 
Ansah said:
5) SL seems to run a little faster, with better response times. But this is slight. I've heard that Lion is perhaps faster on brand new '11 MBPs, but I'm thinking SL may be better optimized for my older model, even with the 8GB memory I have on it now. Lion seems to allocate memory less efficiently...

Anyone else deciding that Snow Leopard is a superior OS to Lion?
Click to expand...

This is an interesting idea, I wonder if anyone has ever put it to the test. To have an OS that runs better with different hardware, perhaps? I was able to try Lion at an apple store and it didn't impress me much, even on the new 15" MBP the animations were choppy (ie: bringing up MC and switching spaces). I do understand it has some really nice new features which I would use, the new mail had me keen to try it out. The others I wouldn't touch, ie: MC, but I just wouldn't use them. I'm waiting for a expose and multi-screen support fix before I make the move.

Currently, IMHO, SL is the superior OS but I'm hoping Lion will surpass SL in the long run.
 
Quad5Ny said:
  1. You don't have to use any of the iCloud features.
    .​
  2. You don't have to use launchpad. As for mission control, I agree with you that it needs a bit of work (I'm sure Apple will eventually get it right)
    .​
  3. You can switch the dashboard back to its old style. The option is in System Preferences.
    .​
  4. The new mail view isnt bad, all you have to do is re-enable the Mailbox folder sidebar and leave the rest alone (give it a chance, it might grow on you).
    .​
  5. Snow Leopard is definitely faster in some cases, especially with scrolling on older model Macs. I'm not even running it on my MacBook Unibody because of the heat and battery issues. But it runs just fine on my Previous generation MacBook Air.
    .​
  6. Lion is sort of Apple's vista, but the changes were necessary. Just look at Windows 7, Microsoft would not have been able to do 7 without the feedback from Vista.
Click to expand...

This is why I haven't "upgraded" to Lion.

I don't see the point in paying for software whose new features I plan to turn off. Not to mention it will break some of my old universal applications.

I'm crossing my fingers that iCloud compatibility will be available in SL in the form of a future update, but otherwise I'm not keen on any of the new iOS-like features in Lion.
 
I'm keen on getting a new MBA... But the thought of being stuck on Lion ruins the idea.
 
Interesting comments. I have 3 machines I use regularly. 2 iMacs and a MBP. I upgraded the 2009 iMac and the 2010 MBP to Lion. I hated reverse scrolling and disabled it (had to connect a trackpad on the iMac to disable it but disable it I did). As to Lauchpad, Expose, Spaces debate I really never used this feature until people brought it up as an issue. Going back and forth between machines I can't say either method is any better than the other. I prefer two monitors to handle moving between open apps.

VMware and Parallels seem to work ok with Lion and none of my apps require the old powerpc emulator bits so I don't miss that.

Really the main thing I like is the auto correction of words in almost every app. That's the main thing I notice is missing when working on the SL-based iMac.

I've heard Winclone is broken for good on Lion so that may delay me but recent experimentations on a disk cloned from an ASUS G73 and booting on the iMac have been successful so perhaps Winclone won't be necessary.


Once I've successfully cloned a working Windows drive connected to my iMac (by cloning it on the PC) I guess I'll move the last machine to lion.

Cheers,
 
roadbloc said:
I'm keen on getting a new MBA... But the thought of being stuck on Lion ruins the idea.
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat - sort of. When I finally replace my ageing white MacBook I'm going to have to look for the last generation MBP that can run SL. Dumbed down Lion interferes far too much with my workflow on so many levels.
 
panzer06 said:
Interesting comments. I have 3 machines I use regularly. 2 iMacs and a MBP. I upgraded the 2009 iMac and the 2010 MBP to Lion. I prefer two monitors to handle moving between open apps.
Click to expand...

I usually use two monitors as well at home but if I'm out I heavily rely on good ol' spaces and expose to navigate my 13" MBP. I do a bunch of work with multiple windows (ie: terminal) of the same app and I can't wrap my head around MC. Not being able to cycle through windows of the same app seems painful, maybe it's not?

Do you happen to use any apps in full screen mode? Does this still take away the use of the second monitor? I have the same year MBP as you, did you notice any other hick-ups once you upgraded, ie: runs hotter, slower animations...etc.
 
Doesn't a fully updated copy of Snow Leopard support Apple's current lineup?

I could have sworn I read somewhere that cloning a fully updated copy of 10.6.8 to a new Lion iMac worked just fine.
 
Quad5Ny said:
Doesn't a fully updated copy of Snow Leopard support Apple's current lineup?

I could have sworn I read somewhere that cloning a fully updated copy of 10.6.8 to a new Lion iMac worked just fine.
Click to expand...

The current iMacs once shipped with 10.6 so that would work, but Macs that have been updated since the release of Lion (like the MBP) will not work.
 
mreg376 said:
Lion is generally faster on my early 2008 iMac w/6 GB. Booting time is much faster. I don't use many of the extra features of Lion, although iCloud is the future, and I find the sliding web pages and mouse gestures annoying. But the extra speed of Lion is worth it alone.
Click to expand...

My MBP boots up in 25 seconds in SL, with Lion it takes ages. Do you use a SSD or something?

I have a feeling that Lion is made for people with SSD. Cause the shutdown and sleeping is incredibly slow too with a HDD.
 
After reading many "warning posts" re Lion, I waited until 10.7.2. Even then I placed it on an external drive. Installed it from a DVD then placed my programs and data onto the drive. I'm using the first issue iMac with 27" screen. I am a home (non-work) user who uses my machine primarily for photography editing and general use.

My experience after 4-5 days of adjustment has been very positive. I enjoy the new Mail and Safari tweaks. Sliding Safari windows with a side to side finger flick has become additive. I adjusted Mission Control to lock in my preferred apps to fixed windows and it now seems to work for my usage flow. I do hope they will enable naming of Mission Spaces in a later version.

For still depending on Microsoft Office 2004, it will lose its' functionality if moving to Lion.
 
Quad5Ny said:
Doesn't a fully updated copy of Snow Leopard support Apple's current lineup?

I could have sworn I read somewhere that cloning a fully updated copy of 10.6.8 to a new Lion iMac worked just fine.
Click to expand...

iMac yes, new Air and mini, not so much.

----------
Jolly Jimmy said:
The current iMacs once shipped with 10.6 so that would work, but Macs that have been updated since the release of Lion (like the MBP) will not work.
Click to expand...

I thought the current macbook pros did work? I wasn't aware they were refreshed, except for minor speed bumps very recently.
 
You definitely not alone. Im stuck with the hardware I have now (that's not a bad thing - yet) and hope lions successor will be better.
 
I remember when Snow Leopard was Apple's Vista.

And Leopard.

You can pretty much bet on 10.8 being Apple's Vista when it is released, and people will be calling Lion the greatest yet. And the circle of life continues.
 
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