Updates

[Peter Franks]

I'm still on 10.6.7, the blue screen sagas and all put me off the 10.6.8 update, but my questions is, I've only been on a Mac since May, and from you experienced guys point of view, should I bother with update and then Lion or will it just be another learning curve and programmes that won't convert over smoothly to Lion then I've got all the problems all over again? Will my emails, Word docs, PSE stuff be unaffected etc.. or is it another pain. Do I need to wait for all the Lion bug updates or is going to be smooth crossovers?

Views appreciated, old and new users.

I've seen the mission control/launch pad and that stuff and it doesn't really do it for me to be honest, so other than those features, anything else, is it a faster/more secure type thing or just the same?

 

[Macman45]

Mixed Opinions

There seem to be mixed opinions on Lion upgrades here. I can only speak from my own experience which was flawless. I backed up everything, downloaded Lion ( which I had free as my machine qualified for it) the install took about 15 minutes, and everything ( including all my Office stuff) was intact on re-boot.

There then followed a round of updates for stuff like iMovie, iphoto and office which took a further 15 minutes or so.

I have had no issues at all with either the installation or afterwards.

Having said that, mine is a high spec and nearly brand new iMac, and others here report problems.

As far as the learning curve goes, there isn't one really.....Apple have moved OSX towards the iPad with Lion with a lot more gesture functionality, something I like a lot.

All things considered, I would say go for it.....You can always roll back if you don't like it, and as long as you have full backups you have little to lose but time

 

[xlii]

Both 10.6.8 and Lion 10.7 have been very good experiences for me. I had no problems with either one worth complaining about.

 

[Peter Franks]

Thanks, it would be interesting to see what percentage of people on here who have made the move to 10.6.8 and or Lion who are happy, or those who wish they hadn't

 

[Rowf]

I updated via Snow Leopard when Lion came out and it all went smoothly enough.
I had a bit of a problem with locking my preferences in System Preferences, i:e, they wouldn't lock at all, didn't even make the little padlock sound.
Start up was about 10 seconds slower, shutdown was o.k.
Sending apps fullscreen worked o.k but they occasionally got stuck.

Anyway, one of the forum members provided me with a link for a clean install and that's the way I went, although part of that was my natural curiosity with the mac system and computers in general, rather than necessity.
I think that most of the bugs will be sorted in the first crop of updates.

Once I'd clean installed the few problems that I had disappeared and boot time was back to S/L speed.
The only problem that I have now is an intermittent wifi connection which is documented several times elsewhere on MacRumors and the Apple forums.

As for Lion itself, I'm really enjoying it, no great learning curve and I find it better and easier to use than S/L.
The apps that I use all work o.k, although I don't use Word or Photoshop.

 

[Peter Franks]

Pardon my ignorance.... clean install? What does that actually mean and what's the difference?

Longer start up I heard a lot about after the 10.6.8 updates yeh. One of the major plusses moving from Windows was quicker start up, but although I'm still 10.6.7 start up has got a bit longer than it was, but then I suppose you can't do much about that when you start putting stuff on the MBP....

Has Lion sorted the folder view problem, Every time I set folder to be icon instead of list, on occasion it always goes back to list at some point?

 

[paulsalter]

Pardon my ignorance.... clean install? What does that actually mean and what's the difference?

clean install is formatting your drive and installing the os from scratch, then re installing all your apps, and restoring your data from a backup

upgrade, just replaces the old os with the new one, all apps and data remain in place

unless there are major problems with your os installation, an upgrade will be fine

 

[Rowf]

unless there are major problems with your os installation, an upgrade will be fine

I agree that if there are no major problems an upgrade is fine.

As mentioned in my previous post, the only reason that I performed a clean install was in order to further my knowledge of how the mac operating system works, it was an ideal opportunity to go through a full install with a new system and go through the routine of making backups etc to ensure that everything went smoothly.
I was also interested in making my own install disk for Lion, so off I went and indulged my curiosity.
Happily, all went well.

The 'niggles' that I experienced when I upgraded via S/L were no more than minor inconveniences that I would expect (hope) will be fixed with system updates.

Just to stress the quote from paulsalter: no major problems an upgrade is fine.

 

[Peter Franks]

Thanks for that guys, I will wait a week or two probably for Lion, and do the 10.6.8 on the weekend, so if there is a problem it won't be on work time when it will stress the most!

Paul, did you get Lion yet?

You guys know whether Lion uses more battery life on the new MBP?
My biggest disappointment with the new MBP is the appalling battery life, gutted about that after reading the 7 to 10 hour lifes people are getting from it

How and should I make Lion disc?

 

[paulsalter]

Thanks for that guys, I will wait a week or two probably for Lion, and do the 10.6.8 on the weekend, so if there is a problem it won't be on work time when it will stress the most!

Paul, did you get Lion yet?

You guys know whether Lion uses more battery life on the new MBP?
My biggest disappointment with the new MBP is the appalling battery life, gutted about that after reading the 7 to 10 hour lifes people are getting from it

How and should I make Lion disc?

I couldnt resist , I got Lion on Launch day

no problems running anything, just uses more ram than previous versions (to be expected though), just not to struck on some of the new features

I havent made a boot disc yet, but when you download Lion, before you actually install it, save the downloaded file as it gets deleted after installation, in applications, there is one called Lion Installer (or similar cant remember exact name), just copy this somewhere safe, then you can make a disc whenever you want

this should help with making the disc
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1189888/

havent noticed any battery problems on mine, but I only get 3 to 4 hours out of it if i am lucky

 

[Peter Franks]

I couldnt resist , I got Lion on Launch day

no problems running anything, just uses more ram than previous versions (to be expected though), just not to struck on some of the new features

I havent made a boot disc yet, but when you download Lion, before you actually install it, save the downloaded file as it gets deleted after installation, in applications, there is one called Lion Installer (or similar cant remember exact name), just copy this somewhere safe, then you can make a disc whenever you want

this should help with making the disc
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1189888/

havent noticed any battery problems on mine, but I only get 3 to 4 hours out of it if i am lucky

Thanks Paul

Remind me what you use again? Does more RAM mean more fan noise or...?
3/4 hours, you must be on the new MBP? oh no you're not are you..

 

[paulsalter]

Thanks Paul

Remind me what you use again? Does more RAM mean more fan noise or...?
3/4 hours, you must be on the new MBP?

mine is a mid 2007 MacBook, lovely machine, served me very well

more ram should really mean you can run more apps at the same time, and some apps run better with more ram

if the processor struggles or your video card is old, then this can cause the fan to be more active as it tries to keep up

mine has a really terrible graphics card in it, so with the updates in OS X and the apps, they use the power of the graphics card more, mine cant handle this so the cpu has to try and keep up

I want a lottery win, then a new iMac, possibly an iPad and a new iPhone 5 when it's out

 

[Peter Franks]

If my numbers come up I'll treat you...

I'm not swung by the iPad yet, although battery life is more impressive than the MBP, surprise surprise. I do hear the older MBP were better for battery?

The iPhone4, my old Nano, before they were made to look stupid, and MacBookP will do for now. BUT.... I have to say, every single day of my life is taken up by charging both of them far too much, and sometimes more than once a day. If they sort their battery life out I'd be far happier with their products
Showing me 49% and 2 hours 27 minutes left with nothing open other than Safari.

 

[paulsalter]

BUT.... I have to say, every single day of my life is taken up by charging both of them far too much, and sometimes more than once a day. If they sort their battery life out I'd be far happier with their products

Thats the biggest problem I had with the devices

I dont like to say this on a Apple forum, but that is one of the reasons I moved from an iPhone to a Blackberry+iPod Touch

I have most of the features of an iPhone, just no constant data and a phone that lasts me 4 days between charges

But I like to change each time i get a new phone, dont usually stick with one brand constantly, like to have variety

 

[Peter Franks]

Thats the biggest problem I had with the devices

I dont like to say this on a Apple forum, but that is one of the reasons I moved from an iPhone to a Blackberry+iPod Touch

I have most of the features of an iPhone, just no constant data and a phone that lasts me 4 days between charges

But I like to change each time i get a new phone, dont usually stick with one brand constantly, like to have variety

understandable, In fairness I've never had any mobile I've not charged every day, to be fair, but never had Blackberry. Had an Android HTC prior to iPhone, and there is no contest whatsoever. Abysmal OS that froze every day, there wasn't one thing I missed about Android when I made the change, apart from a one touch to turn Bluetooth on and off from home screen which to my limited knowledge you can't shortcut on an iPhone

 

[paulsalter]

understandable, In fairness I've never had any mobile I've not charged every day, to be fair, but never had Blackberry. Had an Android HTC prior to iPhone, and there is no contest whatsoever. Abysmal OS that froze every day, there wasn't one thing I missed about Android when I made the change, apart from a one touch to turn Bluetooth on and off from home screen which to my limited knowledge you can't shortcut on an iPhone

I usually do similar, go to bed, phone on charge, ready for next day

I use my phone for work also, so when it stars to run low on an afternoon, bit of a pain to stick it on charge, especially as I move around a lot

for ease of use and looks, iPhone wins hands down over other I have used

but if I can get long (ish) battery and have calendar and contacts available then thats all I need from a phone (plus making calls)

I have an upgrade due end of the year, and the new iPhone is tempting me back again, never used android, but would like to try one

 

[Peter Franks]

I usually do similar, go to bed, phone on charge, ready for next day

I use my phone for work also, so when it stars to run low on an afternoon, bit of a pain to stick it on charge, especially as I move around a lot

for ease of use and looks, iPhone wins hands down over other I have used

but if I can get long (ish) battery and have calendar and contacts available then thats all I need from a phone (plus making calls)

I have an upgrade due end of the year, and the new iPhone is tempting me back again, never used android, but would like to try one

I would say most people who go to iPhone from Android will never go back there, but I gave it up 7 months ago now and wouldn't use anything other than the iPhone. Android may have changed but I wouldn't go back to it, Don't know much about the '5' but heard they may be heading back towards the curved back again, don't know. They'll have a job improving the aesthetics...

Before I get complaints of being too OT, I'll say, if there is any way to check battery or for someone to tell me how to prolong then I'm all ears... because I feel pretty cheated, like I say it was the main reason this won out over bog standard laptops, 7 to 10 hour battery life. I'm sure if you don't use it, maybe yes, but I'm not doing THAT much on it

 

[paulsalter]

Before I get complaints of being too OT, I'll say, if there is any way to check battery or for someone to tell me how to prolong then I'm all ears... because I feel pretty cheated, like I say it was the main reason this won out over bog standard laptops, 7 to 10 hour battery life. I'm sure if you don't use it, maybe yes, but I'm not doing THAT much on it

Not sure if you read the Lion forums, but there has been talk in there about battery life

might be worth having a look through, see other peoples experiences with it

 

[Peter Franks]

Not sure if you read the Lion forums, but there has been talk in there about battery life

might be worth having a look through, see other peoples experiences with it

Good or bad? No mate, not looked, but would imagine it would be the same as SL, if it was worse then it's never coming near me, this is bad enough now