Don’t get me wrong, I like the new OS X Lion, there’s plenty of good stuff in there…but i believe there are some good reasons of why you should wait and make some considerations before upgrading.
To begin with, I know that iOS is an amazing operating system…but it’s a mobile operating system.
Lion is meant more for new users that are switching form an iPhone or an iPad to a MacBook, not for a veteran Mac user that has gone through a bunch of felines already (Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard).
iOS does things the way it does because it’s a touch screen, and designed specifically for that. But our computer is not…and you can’t put things like the reverse scrolling onto my MacBook Pro!
Trying to turn my mighty MacBook Pro or an iMac into an iPad, might not be everyone’s cup of tea.
Lion is still buggy. Yes it is but we knew that since it’s a Golden Master version.
I encountered intermittent glitches with the Resume feature, MobileMe syncing alerts, missing menu bars, various Mail features and, on one very special day, dog-slow program opening.
Apple is no longer including the Rosetta layer that allowed PowerPc apps to work. Microsoft Office 2008 will not work for example, as well as Eudora 6 and Quicken for Mac.
Lion has several issues with Flash on Apple’s new OS, the central being related to the fact that Flash doesn’t seem to be using hardware acceleration on Lion machines. After upgrading you’ll probably experience high fan speeds as the processor, instead of the GPU, is forced to bear the load of Flash computation.
Some of the new iOS like functions may not work for everyone:
The new Autosave feature for example will yes spare you from saving your work, but what if I have an SSD and I’m trying to eliminate unnecessary writing cycles to maintain the light speed on my SSD? And why eliminating the “Save As” menu item? What if I need to create a copy of my saved work?
Too much grey color everywhere. Grey scrollbars… grey toolbars. What was wrong with the Aqua?
Not having an installation disk is a pain in the butt. Maybe Apple will fix that. Apparently in August an installation USB key will be available but for $69!!
My final advice, don’t rush to upgrade.
Lion will be around for years. Wait for app developers to fix their apps and for new ones to be released. But most of all wait for Apple to exterminate the bugs.
[Update: Some users rightly commented that Office 2008 is working with Lion. Yes it does if you have Office already installed on the machine when you upgrade to Lion. Office 2008 installer is Rosetta based therefore it won't work on Lion if you attempt to do a new installation]
![Selected iOS apps gone free, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch [January 29]](/wp-content/themes/freshnews/functions/thumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2012/01/mzl.fmreqloq.320x480-75.jpg&w=55&h=55&zc=1&q=90)
![Selected iOS apps gone free, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch [January 28]](/wp-content/themes/freshnews/functions/thumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2011/05/apple-app-store-apps.jpg&w=55&h=55&zc=1&q=90)
July 21, 2011 at 12:40 am
Microsoft Office 08 does work…
Reply
July 21, 2011 at 5:50 am
Mac office 2008 will work with lion because I’m using it right now;however, I do think that you are referring to the 2004 edition which was made for the PowerPC Macs.
Reply
July 21, 2011 at 8:35 am
My question is such: if Office 2008 existed on a computer and then a user chose to upgrade to Lion, will the auto update still function correctly? Do the auto updates run off of Rosetta technology like the installer?
Reply
July 21, 2011 at 2:47 pm
hi Megan, i think you are safe with the updates.
Reply
July 24, 2011 at 8:15 pm
Spend 60 seconds and tell Apple that they should SELL Rosetta for Lion on the App store.
How would this not be a total win? Fewer people delaying upgrade, enough cash to cover the development and support, more happy customers.
http://Apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
Reply
July 28, 2011 at 7:24 am
I upgraded and now my imac is a mess! Can’t use facetime, keynote freezes and is unusable, My past upgrade to snow leopard was smooth with no glitches but this new upgrade has gone windows! I’ve seen several commenta online with the same problems looking for a downgrade back to snow,
Reply
August 1, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Same here Alex, Keynote crashed frequently. Most of the times it happens when switching back to it from another application.
Reply
July 30, 2011 at 8:36 am
I just purchased a new iMac without lion installed but since I got it within a certain time period I was able to download it for free. As soon as my download was complete I downloaded Microsoft office 2008, Photoshop, etc and all of the applications work flawlessly. Most of lion doesn’t seem to buggy to me, but there are a few things that NEED to be fixed like adobe flash.
Reply
September 5, 2011 at 7:46 pm
I wrote a script that checks if your installed apps are compatible with lion. Get it at http://www.0project.com
Reply