I put Lion on my MBP on day one and on my MP the next day. After two days I reverted the MP back to SL via Time Machine (worked great). I decided to work with Lion for a while on the laptop. Some of the swiping stuff was OK and FileVault 2 was much appreciated. As time went on I disabled, dumped or reskinned much of the Lion stuff I didn't like. In the end I just like SL much better so I did a SL fresh install.
I'm wondering if some of the difference between the Lion lovers and Lion haters is due to machine type and size. On a 24in monitor the lack of a usable Spaces, the worthlessness of full screen mode and the still ugly iCal and Address Book really ruined my computing experience.
On a small laptop much of that iOS small screen stuff might come in handy. It makes me think that SL is a fantastic OS designed for real, full-sized computers that could have used a few additional tools for those working on small screens.
On the other hand Lion is an OS designed for smaller screens that managed to ruin some of the full-screen tools and be less artistic and adult looking at the same time.
If Apple doesn't get the SMB shares issue resolved, I'm switching back.
I am sticking with Lion for the moment but what they have done to the finder is terrible. I hate the apology for a scroll bar, it is useless. And as for active buttons being barely darker than inactive ones is this supposed to make it easier to use? The changes to iCal and Address book are tasteless and counter productive and the 'natural' scrolling only works if you think you are moving the document rather than moving the window on the document. When you look at a paper document do you move your eyes up and down and left and right or do you stare fixedly on one point on your desk and move the page? It's just plain wrong, a Mac is NOT an iPad. I don't mind the things you can change back because I've changed them back but the stuff that's plain missing or broken is very poor. I haven't changed back but for the first time I am considering it- I wonder if my new Air will run on SL?
Because Apple is innovating things so quickly they can't maintain even code that is just a few years old. (e.g., the impending iCloud release this fall).I also don't understand Apple's policy that don't provide drivers for the older versions of mac osx.