The future of the operating system looks grim for power users.
Windows 8 has turned the worlds #1 OS into a toy, and even Linux is under attack with the clusterfuck known as
GNOME 3. It seems that technology has evolved to make us stupider rather than smarter. The overall trend so far has been to merge the desktop and tablet/smartphone, leading to what has been called the "post PC era". While it may sound convenient for the masses, the neck-beards and hackers are being pushed aside, even though without them, the computer would not be what it is today. It seems inevitable that most desktop OS's will try to merge with mobile OS's. How its done can make all the difference, and Apple has done it well.
Heres the
tl;dr summery:
PROS:
Slightly retouched interface, a welcome change after none for the past two releases
Launch Pad makes accessing applications faster than ever
Mission Control gives you a full overview over your work, it does everything you wish Expose did
Text Edit is more format friendly
System Information is much cleaner, tells you your Mac's model year upfront
Mail gives you more options, messages are more organized
Safari gets a "read later" button
Easy fullscreen
New iOS inspired visual effects
New Log In Screen
CONS:
Everything is much grayer, many buttons look disabled when not
Noticeably slower on older machines
Minor bugs
Some software incompatibility
Some features could be considered bloat
Java Runtime and Flash are not installed by default, may pose problems for illiterate users
Scrolling is reversed by default
Some gestures can be triggered by accident (but can be disabled)
App Store only release can be inconvienent for many people
Lion is Apple's attempt to bring the user friendliness (or "Magic") of the iPad to the desktop computer. User friendliness is a good thing, unless it dumbs down the machine too much for more advanced users. Fortunately, Lion has continued to keep the balance between user friendliness and functionality that I praise OS X for. There are many new features that have come strait from iOS, and Apple has integrated them very well.
Upgrading is as easy as upgrading an OS can can get. You just download Lion and click on the installer app. Type in your password and OS X does the rest. After an hour or so install, Lion is ready to use with all your files and settings in place and intact. However I must criticize the App Store only distribution. Downloading a 4GB installer can be troubling for people with slow or capped internet or those without iTunes accounts. Optical media may be dying, but it is still very important to have a back up bootable medium for your OS incase your hard drive crashes or something so you can perform a clean install.
Steve Jobs has stated in an e-mail that users should boot from their Snow Leopard DVD's in such an event. But if you bought a Mac with Lion or don't have a Snow Leopard DVD, you're fucked and are at the mercy of Apple to help you, which they typically won't if your out of warrenty or don't have Apple Care. Fortunately,
its easy to make your own Lion boot DVD. Apple says they also plan to sell Lion on bootable usb sticks for $69, more than double the price of the App Store. Those better be 32GB reusable aluminum flash drives for that price, but thats
typical Apple hardware markup.
The first thing you will notice is a new login screen. It looks much nicer, with the login options embedded into the brushed metal background rather than a window. After logging in, everything looks mostly the same. If you open an application, you will notice the buttons and loading bars are more square and they have a grayer look. I like the square buttons, its a small change but really makes the OS feel fresh and new.
If your Mac is older you may notice things working a bit slower. I have a mid-2009 13" MBP with a Core 2 Duo and 4GB RAM, and I noticed a little lag at sometimes, but nothing I couldn't adjust to. I should also point out that early Intel Mac's (those with Core Duo's NOT Core 2 Duo's) are not supported, and speed is likely the reason. If it's too annoying for you, reinstall Snow Leopard, it will keep on working just as it did before.
I went into my Applications folder to see some of my more archaic applications crossed out. Older software, even if its built for Intel Mac's, may not work in Lion until they're updated. Also Rosetta is gone, which allowed PowerPC applications to run on Intel Mac's. But at this point, you shouldn't be using PPC Mac apps anymore.
Next I explored two new items in my dock, Mission control and Launchpad. Opening Launchpad, an iPad like screen pulled up with all my Applications. I could rearrange them and even organize them into folders without touching the Finder. It used to be if I wanted to open an Application not in my dock I had to go into the Finder, but now all I have to do is hit a hotkey to enter Launchpad and click on my Application. Im surprised no one implemented something like this earlier (although technically GNOME 3 had it before Lion). But its one of my favorite new features.
Mission control is a lot like Expose, except it groups windows by Application rather than just scattering them. It also gives a pane for your desktop as well. Expose was my favorite feature when I first got a Mac, because now I could find what I want when I have a ton of windows open, and now its even better.
Next I tried the new Mail. Its been redesigned to look like the iPad version. It has your messages on the side with your mailboxes in the top bar and the e-mail in a large field on the right. Although its a more efficient design, I don't like it anymore than the classic Mail. Fortunately Apple gives you that option too, in Preferences, you can check "Use Classic Layout" and bam, you have you're old Mail back. Mail also organizes your messages by sender, so you don't need to dig for an old message if your inbox is huge.
I looked at some of OS X's smaller built in applications, many of them have changes as well. For example, Address Book is now an actual address book! A lovely new look.
TextEdit is also has more format options, making it more friendly for writing simple documents without having to open Pages or Word. Photo booth even opens to look like a photo booth. And Dictionary, instead of opening it each time you want to define highlighted text, the definition pops up in a bubble next to the word.
I then ventured into Safari, and noticed a set of reading glasses in the bookmarks bar. Clicking it opens a tab that you can drag URLs into for later, like a temporary bookmark. You can delete them once you've read the page.
OS X also now includes some new iOS visual effects. When a new window opens, it pops out like an app opening in iOS, and scrolling to the end of the page causes it to "bounce", an empty space shows up on the bottom until it bounces back into place.
Lastly are some new features built into old applications, one is fullscreen. You could technically go fullscreen in Snow Leopard, you just stretch the window until it fills the screen. But now you just tap the icon in the upper right-hand corner. However, unless you have a super small screen, OS X doesn't seem like it was meant to make use of full screen. Ive never felt the need to go full screen even on my 13' laptop. Seems stupid for them to wait until 10.7 to implement something that has been standard for ages on other OS's, just so they can pass it off as an "innovative", "new" feature. Thats Apple for ya.
One feature I find hard to adjust to is Resume, which is basically autosave but more intrusive. It used to be that you saved your documents manually and opened them later. If your computer crashed, there was usually an auto-saved version that appears when you reopen the application. Now that is the norm, you don't ever save manually, you just close the application when you're done for the day and your document opens with the application the way it was when you closed it. Its hard to get used to. When you finish a document, or just like the old way of doing things, instead of "Save As" you select "Export" and it lets you save it where you want and you can open and edit it later, you just have to re-export it and replace the old file, a bit more troublesome than ⌘+S.
Finally there is Versions. Which is Time Machine for individual applications. This can be very useful for working on large, complicated documents where you have to carefully watch what you edit. I used to save multiple copies of a document before making any major edits, but now I just have to enter the time vortex and retrieve the older version if I make a big mistake. You can even take elements from older versions and import them to your current document. Not to sound like an Apple fanboy, but its probably one of the most ingenious features Ive ever seen built into an OS.
While I wouldn't call it extraordinary, Lion is the next logical step in the evolution of OS X. Apple has merged (at least partially) the desktop and mobile OS and they have done it without making any changes that are too sudden or making it too dumbed down. Lion takes the best features of iOS and integrates them perfectly into OS X, increasing both usability and functionality. Its no wonder that the Macintosh is gaining ground in the PC market, despite their marked up price. Lion is a must get upgrade for Mac users. Even if you're the type who doesn't like change, you will enjoy whats new in Lion.
