So, is Lion worth the upgrade?

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Hi. I'm on a late '09 21" iMac running Snow Leopard. I have not felt the pull to upgrade to Lion like I did for Leopard and Snow Leopard. In part I am holding off because my wife wants for us to get the magic trackpad, and so I figured if I upgraded, I'd do those two at the same time, just so everything felt fresh. Then, I also started contemplating upgrading my hard drive to a 1.5 or 2 TB drive (from my current 320GB), mostly because I've realized adding significant drive space would add several years to the computer's utility. So, I've also been thinking that I'd just wait to get the hard drive installed and do a clean install from there.



But, I see a bunch of complaints about Lion, and don't really think that the full screen features would really be much of a benefit in an iMac size screen. Also, I don't really know what else it seriously offers. Plus, then today it looks like iCloud will be supported in Snow Leopard, which I guess was sort of a no brainer.



So, my question for those who have upgraded is: is it worth it? It's not really about the $30. That's not the issue. But do the enhancements you get to the experience really make a marked difference in your life, like I think an upgrade should? I felt that Leopard did in terms of both features and performance. Lion I'm not yet sold on.



So, your thoughts, now that it's been out for a bit....
«13

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 48
    Don't learn a new OS and a new way of interacting with said OS at the same time.



    Grab Lion first (or the Magic Trackpad, whichever) and get accustomed to it.



    It's worth it. Lion's the way OS' are moving. And with a Magic Trackpad, it navigates like a DREAM. It's so natural. When Apple goes to a fully-multitouch desktop OS, you'll have moved from mouse+keyboard to multitouch trackpad+keyboard to multitouch screen+keyboard seamlessly.
  • Reply 2 of 48
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Don't learn a new OS and a new way of interacting with said OS at the same time.



    Grab Lion first (or the Magic Trackpad, whichever) and get accustomed to it.



    It's worth it. Lion's the way OS' are moving. And with a Magic Trackpad, it navigates like a DREAM. It's so natural. When Apple goes to a fully-multitouch desktop OS, you'll have moved from mouse+keyboard to multitouch trackpad+keyboard to multitouch screen+keyboard seamlessly.



    I should have waited a few months for Apple to iron out the kinks. It broke the way I listen to music (can't use analog speakers and the Apple TV at the same time), forced me to upgrade MS Office (which I was planning to do anyway) and broke a few tools I use almost daily (input-free photo resize dropplets, for which I haven't found a replacement) Then my iPhoto crashed, and my backup library was from before the upgrade, and wasn't compatible with the new version, so I am in the process of completely reorganizing and tagging 24,000 photos. it will take months.
  • Reply 3 of 48
    To this point, I don't like it. I find in my small world and limited use, Lion is a step backwards. My primary use is web use for work and invoicing using Pages. We have designed an invoice in pages that I use all day, every day. I do not like the auto save feature in Lion. In my opinion, Pages does not work well with auto save. Spotlight will no longer search within Pages which is a big problem for us. My secretary and I are ready to switch back to Windows due to the poor performance after the Lion upgrade. We decided to change over to MacBooks last fall. After purchasing, we decided we would be forced to use Pages & Numbers for our company invoices instead of our previously designed Adobe PDF invoices. After the Lion upgrade, spotlight will only search within PDF files and not within Pages files. In Snow Leopard, we were able to search numerical values within pages files to find specific sales tax data necessary for accounting. This no longer works in Lion. Other problems I'm encountering are disappearing contacts in my address book and the Chrome browser is not working properly. I'm required to use a browser other than Safari because most websites within my industry don't work on Safari. I recommend waiting until Lion is fixed before trying. The things stopping me from going back to Snow Leopard are the issues I'm reading about regarding Pages & Numbers no longer working at all after going back.
  • Reply 4 of 48
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RVTech View Post


    After the Lion upgrade, spotlight will only search within PDF files and not within Pages files



    You sure this isn't due to the Spotlight plugin not being installed properly? Check if you have /Library/Spotlight/iWork.mdimporter. You can also try rebuilding the Spotlight database by putting your main drive into the Spotlight privacy section and taking it out.
  • Reply 5 of 48
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RVTech View Post


    ...After the Lion upgrade, spotlight will only search within PDF files and not within Pages files. In Snow Leopard, we were able to search numerical values within pages files to find specific sales tax data necessary for accounting. This no longer works in Lion...



    Something's wrong with YOUR set-up, it's not an OSX problem.



    Lion still spotlights Pages docs just fine.
  • Reply 6 of 48
    We have this on 2 MacBook Airs. They both do the same. We have tried forced reindexing. Neither has iworks mdimporter, but we purchased Pages & Numbers from the apps store and did not purchase iworks. Spotlight searches , but it will not search numerals. When searching for a numeral, it finds each and every amount searched for in all the PDF's, but none in Pages docs. The PDF's are there because some Pages invoices get converted when we email an invoice to a client. This is frustrating. We have been searching for a solution for weeks, but don't find any related posts anywhere. It seems we must be the only ones trying to search numerical values in Pages documents.
  • Reply 7 of 48
    I just checked again, out of curiosity... searched in spotlight for numeric values... turned up the proper results in Pages docs.

    So I'm still gonna stick with my answer that it's not a generic Lion problem... there's something wrong with your setup. (Like the aforementioned Spotlight/Library item.)
  • Reply 8 of 48
    Whatever happened to "it just works"?



    Who needs all those bugs? Who can afford hours and hours to get it all set up and performing properly? Sofar Lion looks like a serious step back for user friendliness.
  • Reply 9 of 48
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Parttimer View Post


    Whatever happened to "it just works"?



    Who needs all those bugs? Who can afford hours and hours to get it all set up and performing properly? Sofar Lion looks like a serious step back for user friendliness.



    That certainly hasn't been MY experience.

    My installs "just work" as advertised.
  • Reply 10 of 48
    cgjcgj Posts: 276member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by KingOfSomewhereHot View Post


    I just checked again, out of curiosity... searched in spotlight for numeric values... turned up the proper results in Pages docs.

    So I'm still gonna stick with my answer that it's not a generic Lion problem... there's something wrong with your setup. (Like the aforementioned Spotlight/Library item.)



    Ditto for my MacBook Air. Finds new Pages documents fine.
  • Reply 11 of 48
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Don't learn a new OS and a new way of interacting with said OS at the same time.



    Grab Lion first (or the Magic Trackpad, whichever) and get accustomed to it.



    It's worth it. Lion's the way OS' are moving. And with a Magic Trackpad, it navigates like a DREAM. It's so natural. When Apple goes to a fully-multitouch desktop OS, you'll have moved from mouse+keyboard to multitouch trackpad+keyboard to multitouch screen+keyboard seamlessly.



    Is it the way OS' are moving? I love gestures. When I can remember them. I'm starting to lose track of how many there are though. I think Apple interfaces are becoming less and less discoverable and intuitive. They're good but...losing something. I feel this on the iPad and on Lion.



    Then again, the tutorials for how to use gestures and the mouse etc. in System Preferences ARE excellent. Old school Apple actually. Kind of like Balloons and Apple Guides. But definitely not as good.



    Apple STILL needs to put Balloons (Tool Tips on Windows, the hovering hints) and ALSO Apple Guides back. Apple Help is only useful to someone who knows roughly what they are looking for already. This is the difference between reference and tutorial. Guides are tutorials. And Balloons are WYSWIG...Gestures are the opposite. They remain hidden until used. A lot of good old-school Apple ideas seem to have died back in the 90s. And it's not entirely good. I'm not nostalgic for floppy disks or anything. But some of the old interfaces WERE simply BETTER. In my humble opinion. As you may see Lion is really rubbing me the wrong way so far on a variety of user interface issues...
  • Reply 12 of 48
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Aquatic View Post


    Is it the way OS' are moving? I love gestures. When I can remember them. I'm starting to lose track of how many there are though. I think Apple interfaces are becoming less and less discoverable and intuitive. They're good but...losing something. I feel this on the iPad and on Lion.



    Then again, the tutorials for how to use gestures and the mouse etc. in System Preferences ARE excellent. Old school Apple actually. Kind of like Balloons and Apple Guides. But definitely not as good.



    Apple STILL needs to put Balloons (Tool Tips on Windows, the hovering hints) and ALSO Apple Guides back. Apple Help is only useful to someone who knows roughly what they are looking for already. This is the difference between reference and tutorial. Guides are tutorials. And Balloons are WYSWIG...Gestures are the opposite. They remain hidden until used. A lot of good old-school Apple ideas seem to have died back in the 90s. And it's not entirely good. I'm not nostalgic for floppy disks or anything. But some of the old interfaces WERE simply BETTER. In my humble opinion. As you may see Lion is really rubbing me the wrong way so far on a variety of user interface issues...



    My thoughts exactly.

    I'll wait a bit more. It's not ready for me yet.
  • Reply 13 of 48
    steve666steve666 Posts: 2,600member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Parttimer View Post


    Whatever happened to "it just works"?



    Who needs all those bugs? Who can afford hours and hours to get it all set up and performing properly? Sofar Lion looks like a serious step back for user friendliness.



    Lion is buggy. When I download pics and movie clips sometimes the icon is invisible. It's bizarre. It happened on my current Mini after upgrading, and it also happend to the Mini i just purchased so it's not an upgrade issue.

    I don't need mission control or the fancy way windows now open, it's not necessary. I just want my computer to work and snow leopard for me worked better and smoother. I don't like the grayed out icons, it makes it look like I've clicked on it before and it can't be clicked on again, it just doesn't look right.

    Yahoo mail isn't happy with lion but to be fair yahoo itself ruined their web based mail with the new layout, it just plain sucks now and the classic yahoo mail was brilliant in it's simplicity and design.



    Why can't companies keep what works and stop F'ing around all the time!?
  • Reply 14 of 48
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by steve666 View Post


    Lion is buggy. When I download pics and movie clips sometimes the icon is invisible.



    Just the icon or the icon and its text?



    Quote:

    It's bizarre. It happened on my current Mini after upgrading, and it also happend to the Mini i just purchased so it's not an upgrade issue.



    I've never heard of this on any version of any machine, either updated or clean installed.



    Quote:

    I don't need mission control or the fancy way windows now open, it's not necessary.



    Neither is a GUI.



    Quote:

    I don't like the grayed out icons, it makes it look like I've clicked on it before and it can't be clicked on again, it just doesn't look right.



    I'm confused. What do you mean by this?



    Quote:

    Yahoo mail isn't happy with lion but to be fair yahoo itself ruined their web based mail with the new layout, it just plain sucks now and the classic yahoo mail was brilliant in it's simplicity and design.



    But then again, it's Yahoo!, so...



    Quote:

    Why can't companies keep what works and stop F'ing around all the time!?



    Heaven forbid technology progresses.
  • Reply 15 of 48
    steve666steve666 Posts: 2,600member
    It's just the icon that is invisible, the text appears. If I click on it and move it around it appears.



    By greyed out icons I mean the controls you click on in a window. They used to have some color to them (most likely blue), now they appear washed out and gray. I don't like the way it looks, it looks to me as if you clicked on them nothing would happen. Not sure if I explained that correctly.



    I don't mind progress but things should get easier not more complicated. I'm more into function over form I guess.
  • Reply 16 of 48
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by steve666 View Post


    It's just the icon that is invisible, the text appears. If I click on it and move it around it appears.



    Strange. Sounds like an issue with the OS not updating the icon preview correctly. Do you have icon previews turned on or do you just have the generic icons show up?



    Quote:

    By greyed out icons I mean the controls you click on in a window. They used to have some color to them (most likely blue), now they appear washed out and gray. I don't like the way it looks, it looks to me as if you clicked on them nothing would happen. Not sure if I explained that correctly.



    No, I get it. You're talking about the monochrome buttons in the Finder's top bar; I see.
  • Reply 17 of 48
    steve666steve666 Posts: 2,600member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Strange. Sounds like an issue with the OS not updating the icon preview correctly. Do you have icon previews turned on or do you just have the generic icons show up?







    No, I get it. You're talking about the monochrome buttons in the Finder's top bar; I see.



    I have the generic icons show up.



    Yes, that was what I meant-the monochrome buttons
  • Reply 18 of 48
    So, so far the answer seems to be a..... "meh."
  • Reply 19 of 48
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by icibaqu View Post


    So, so far the answer seems to be a..... "meh."



    You're on a forum where people come to get help with their problems. Of course all you're going to see is problems. Millions of people have no trouble with Lion.
  • Reply 20 of 48
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    You're on a forum where people come to get help with their problems. Of course all you're going to see is problems. Millions of people have no trouble with Lion.



    And you are 'millions of people', right?
Sign In or Register to comment.