Snow Leopard 10.6.8 Vs Lion OS

OK installing from a USB stick (partitioned with MBR, no less). Booted up fine from USB stick, Install Lion. Asked to connect to Internet, downloaded some updates in a few minutes.

Computer restarted, then back to install screen, couldn't choose my main HD because it says "Locked".

Googled.

Tried Shut down computer. Restarted booting from USB stick installer. Didn't ask to connect to Internet.

Now installing showing 30 minutes left.

So far, a bit weird. Will update with my impressions.

29 minutes left. Doesn't seem to be reading from the USB stick at all! Yes, I'm old skool, micromanaging my OS install LOL.

OK, everything looks kinda slick, has an iPad feel to it. The inverse scrolling is ridiculous though, so immediately changed that. Kinda fun so far. Let's see how long the novelty lasts.

Had to download Java for Glimmerblocker.

Also says iTunes is "too old". I guess have to update it. (I did an upgrade not fresh install)

The Launchpad gesture is tough.

Mission Control is quite nice.

Trying to download iTunes latest through Software Update. The update window disappeared.

Just buy Lion, for heaven's sake.

Ah, it's kind of fun so far. I'm beginning to like Mission Control and like the way you add spaces and remove spaces, and three-finger slide between full screen apps and spaces. Some weirdness though: sometimes app windows seem to not appear "shrinked" properly in Mission Control.

Running full-screen Safari now. Feels like... BIG. I know full-screen browsing has been around for a while, but it seems done OK in Safari for Lion.

64bit-ness feels good as well.

Hmm... Autocorrect spelling works too.

A tab was beach balling in Safari but could switch to other tabs.

I like the new iPad-like Mail layout.

Niggles:

1.
Finder windows still don't expand fully (aka maximise like Windows, yes, old habits die hard). So I still use RightZoom app which still works.

2.
Pinch-to-zoom in Safari doesn't expand text like before but follows iPad behaviour. You have to Cmd+ or Cmd- if you want the old behaviour. New behaviour is good for fixed-width kind of website text but not so good for full-width websites like AI. More on this here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1196517

3.
A little dash of lagginess on my MBP Core 2 Duo 13" 2010 model with Nvidia 320M. But I find things pick up alright as things get cached into RAM, VRAM, HDD, whatever.

4.
Wow. Autocorrect lets you type quite fast but may take some getting used to.

5.
Bug: "When Safari and MAil is in full screen app (Lion), Cmd-I brings mail compose window in the Mail window, but Cmd-Shift-I opens the mail compose window in an unused workspace. That’s not the way it’s meant to work, so I class it as a bug." See also: http://www.macworld.com.au/help/10-m...ortcuts-34010/

6.
Safari rubber-banding cuts of a tiny bit of the top of a web page sometimes (maybe all the time).

CONCLUSION: Unless you've got something mission-critical that you've researched will mess up bad, go for Lion. Heck, for $29 it's worthwhile entertainment, if nothing else. You will have to tinker with it a bit to get used to it. Some features are good, some are not so polished up yet.

Marv, what mission-critical stuff do you use? What important-but-not-critical stuff do you use? That would give me a better insight.

But overall, unless you've researched and found any deal breakers, I'd say go for it. It's kinda fun. Gestures are a bit overblown but it's starting to grow on me. I like having full-screen apps and then just three-finger swiping between them. I think I'll be more productive with full-screen apps and it helps my need to singletask since I can't multitask that well nowadays for various reasons.

For me, I haven't found any major bugs in the past few days. Nothing annoying.

But definitely those that love their iPad will feel the "iPadness" brought to OS X, albeit with some quirks.

Most surprisingly VMWare Fusion 3.1.3 with Windows 7 seems OK so far in my (very light) testing.

OK that helps. Honestly since you're new to Apple and if the games you want to play are Lion-compatible I don't see anything that should hold you back from getting Lion. Autosave in Pages may help in your writing.

If you like Apple, iPhone and iPad then Lion will feel quite nice. Some things are quirky but it is interesting to see the ideas and innovation Apple is trying to bring to the ageing era of the "PC".

If you watch a lot of Flash video I don't know if there will be any issues but you may want to browse through the following or ditch Flash as much as possible: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/905/cpsid_9...n_Flash_Player

I would stick with Snow Leopard ---at least for a while until Lion is out for a while and some of the bugs--like wifi connections are sorted out---