Should I upgrade my Mac from Snow Leopard to Lion? I want to use iCloud, which I understand requires Lion. But I have heard it was surprisingly buggy and trouble prone. Is this true, or still true? Have they worked the problems out? I’d wait a month or two if I thought it would get more robust within that timeframe.
Thanks!
It’s stable enough, but there are a few annoying changes. Backwards scrolling, although that can be changed in System Preferences. The scroll bar is only visible when scrolling unless you change a setting in Sys Prefs.
The only thing that might be a deal-breaker is no more Rosetta, so PPC apps won’t work any more.
Yeah, it’s plenty stable, but unless you really like some of the new features, I don’t think it buys you very much. I’m running it on my MacBook Pro, while I’m still using Snow Leopard on my Desktop.
Where is that setting? That drives me nuts.
Same - and I had to install more RAM in my MBP to make it usable. Thankfully, RAM prices are really low at the moment.
Yeah - I had to buy new versions of Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite to upgrade. That was one seriously expensive operating system!
For $30 I thought it was a no-brainer, assuming you have a fairly recent machine that meets the system reqs. And as stated, are running Intel-only software.
Full screen apps and the improved gestures are really nice. And I have to say, Misson Control is a big improvement over Expose/Spaces.
Besides that, it’s all the quiet little detail enhancements that just make for a better user experience.
Also, the scroll bar and mouse/gesture settings are in the system prefs, under Trackpad or Mouse, I believe.
It’s in the General tab. Choices are: Automatically based on input device, When scrolling, and Always. When scrolling is selected by default. Unfortunately, the nifty little arrows at the bottom of the scroll bar seem to be gone for good.
Excellent, thanks! I somehow missed that.
Really? I want my F10 (application windows) back. I really, really want it back.
– On preview - It turns out you can turn a similar feature on in the settings. I still don’t think it’s a huge improvement, but it’s not as broken as I thought it was. Oh well…
Out of curiosity, what versions of MS Office and Adobe Creative Suite were you using? I’m asking because I’m considering upgrading my own laotop (which is running Leopard) to Lion, and I didn’t realize there were backwards-compatibility issues with those software products. My laptop’s running Office 2008 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 6, for what it’s worth.
Just do a get-info on the application and see if it says “Application (Universal).”
If it does, it will run on Lion (Office 2008 is fine). If it says PPC, you’re SOL.
Thanks! I’ll do that. I suspect all of the software I have on that laptop will check out fine, as it was all new in 2008 (which is a bit late for PPC-specific stuff to still be on sale), but it’s always good to check.
I was running Microsoft office 2003 or 2004 (I can’t remember which was the Mac edition), and Adobe Creative Suite 2. Old, I know, but it did everything I required it to do, and the upgrade cost a bundle.
How’s the performance, is it better or worse than Snow Leopard? I have an iMac that’s a few years old, 800 MHz bus, 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo, upgraded to 4GB of RAM. I’m wondering if upgrading will help or hurt my performance. That’s my main concern, not any new features.
thirdname, it sounds like you have the same iMac I do. I upgraded it to Lion a few weeks ago. It came with only 1 GB of RAM, so for $70 I splurged and put in 4 GB (Lion requires a minium of 2 GB). The system runs faster now, but that may be due to having 4x the RAM. Lion certainly didn’t slow it down and may have speeded it up a bit.
Office 2008 runs under Lion, but the installer does not. As long as you have Office 2008 installed before you upgrade, it will run fine. Office 2011 is fine for Lion. I can’t speak about the Adobe CS.
Does Lion want more RAM than Snow Leopard? Is upgrading from 4MB to 8 a good idea?
CS2 is the last PowerPC only version. However, it’s possible you’ll have to fix some settings to get CS3 or CS4 to work. It seems they had separate PPC and Intel modes.
I have 4 GB and I haven’t noticed any issues. If you don’t need more RAM now, then you won’t need more RAM when you upgrade either.
I have a Mac at work as well as a Windows PC.
I’m kinda annoyed by some of the changes. I was used to the way I could set up my screens and easily switch between them. Now it’s all different and not as easy to deal with working on multiple apps and web pages at once.
I don’t like the “open all pages you had open last time when you log back in” stuff. It sucks. I end up with multiple copies of some web pages and apps (seriously?) and they’re not all on the same screens they were last time.