what will lion do for me?

vix2000

Mac bashers please do not read!!!

Having gone over to the dark side last december I originally intended putting win 7 on my new MBA, but working on the basis cows milk is for calves decided to give snow leopard a try. I won't say it was easy having used windows for 20 years, and I'm sure I haven't used a tenth of what it does, but I got used to it. All the things I couldn't live without from windows were available from little downloads, and for quicken and autoroute I added virtual box. And some things it makes so easy, ie. unzipping, converting formats via preview, scanning just to mention a few.

Liking to be up to date, and liking the price,I downloaded Lion on Wednesday afternoon. Up to now I am liking the 2 finger scrolling aka iphone scrolling. Apart from that what else is there? (That I can't access my linkstation is a problem.) I'm not being facetious, its a serious question, and remember I'm a os x novice please.

What are the benefits of Launch Pad and Mission Control, and is there anything else I really should be using in Lion? I would welcome any advice. thanks.

boxst

The multiple desktops is quite good and full screen with safari and other applications.

The launchpad allows you to quickly launch an application, you "pinch" the trackpad it brings up the list of applications and you click on one to run.

If I were not using a MacBook (i.e. I was using a desktop) I'm not sure what the big deal about Lion is.

macman

I have held back from upgrading, as I still have a number of PowerPC applications running under Rosetta. With Lion these are no longer supported (for example MS Office for Mac 2004 will need upgrading to 2008 or 2011).

paddyrg

FWIW, on the Macs I use (I prefer other hardware myself, so this is at work), I have found the frequent OS updates to be pretty minor incremental updates. They are more akin to a service pack in Windows world, so if you're from a windows background you'll understand. I don't know the OSX upgrade prices, I don't think they're especially expensive, but then you don't get much extra for it. I think service packs is a pretty fair comparison.

Hammyman

£20 is the cost and its a bit more than a Windows service pack.

vix2000

Thanks for the replies. whats the multiple desktops? I have hyperdock on mine as I missed windows aero peek. Is this the same as mission control?

Cant seem to pinch my MBA trackpad???? Am very much liking the trackpad scrolling now I've got used to it.

I was given the impression that Lion was a major OS launch, similar to going from Vista to windows 7. Is that a fair comparison?

boxst

It is a five finger pinch!

Look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoTPoaiITog

pennineman

Some users of Lion have found shut-down and start-up issues. In my case, on my iMac, Lion hung on Shut-down. Had to shut-down holding down the power button.

Others have found slow start-up.

So Lion would appear to be not quite out of beta yet!!

But I do like mission control and launchpad.

Hammyman

vix2000 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. whats the multiple desktops? I have hyperdock on mine as I missed windows aero peek. Is this the same as mission control?

Cant seem to pinch my MBA trackpad???? Am very much liking the trackpad scrolling now I've got used to it.

I was given the impression that Lion was a major OS launch, similar to going from Vista to windows 7. Is that a fair comparison?

Yes...several under the hood changes and a fair few GUI tweaks and a lot of new touchpad gestures. For example, to see the desktop, place your thumb and fingers on the touchpad closed together and spread them apart and it shows the desktop. Under the hood, things like hard drive encryption now applies to the whole drive and you can save the key with Apple.