Upgrade Snow Leopard to Lion... tips, advice?

[InternetDude08]

OK, so I've got an iMac, I guess it would be a late 2009 edition. Intel Core 2 Duo 3.33 GHz, 8 GB RAM, ATI HD 4670. It's running great, it has Snow Leopard on it. Other than the builtin software, I mainly use MS Office, Dreamweaver CS4, and Fetch.

I'm looking to upgrade now to Lion just so I can keep up, and mostly so I can install the iMessage beta (which yeah I guess I'll eventually upgrade to Mountain Kitty update I don't really care about upgrading but I'm feeling left behind now with the announcement of mountain cat/lion/whatever.

Anyway, I've never done an upgrade on a Mac before. Do I need to do anything special before I do the upgrade? I've already got a Time Capsule and it's been backing up well for months now so I don't need to back anything up.

Any tips or tricks for me for the upgrade process? I read I should probably make a DVD/USB copy of Lion after I download, before I actually upgrade.

Thx.

 

[El Magnificante]

I just "upgraded" to Lion and am now looking for an external drive to clone to, erase and reinstall SL. All I can say about my Lion 10.7.3 experience is "it just doesn't work." SL is where it's at.

For me. YMMV.

 

[InternetDude08]

Well I already bought it and it's downloading right now so.....

 

[Bear]

...
Other than the builtin software, I mainly use MS Office, Dreamweaver CS4, and Fetch.
...

Just check that the versions of software that you have will work on Lion. A quick check of the Adobe site reports a couple of issues with Dreamweaver CS4 that may or may not affect you.

 

[jlrathke]

I'm running an early 2011 Macbook Pro with SL and have toyed with the idea of upgrading to Lion. I'm sure it will be just fine with Lion as I bought it a few months before Lion was released. I guess my only reservation is that this is my first Mac and I really love the OS, and I've been bitten my Windows too many times.

Should I? I guess if I don't like it I can revert back to Snow Leopard...

Jerry

 

[farmermac]

Anyone thinking of upgrading....make sure to clone your hd before you upgrade. You'll most likely need/want it after 4-5 hours on lion

 

[SRLMJ23]

Don't listen to everyone on this thread. Lion is NOT as bad as people make it out to be. I had SL and I did a fresh install of Lion and I have to say I like Lion a lot better (don't shoot me.)

If you want to do it the right way, do a fresh install...it truly helps a lot!

 

[InternetDude08]

Well I upgraded already. I don't "get" mission control, so far the upgrade can be summed up as "meh". The upgrade process was nothing like any Windows ones I've done in the past, it was so simple and easy. Dreamweaver works to edit and upload. I can still use MS Word. So far I have no real complaints...