OS X Lion Released Tomorrow

Deleted member 42 · Jul 19, 2011

Or tonight, if you stay up late enough.

Some stuff to keep in mind if you're not a Mac cult member.

OS X Lion or OS X 10.7 requires the following:

Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor.
Snow Leopard / Mac OS 10.6.8 (You can't upgrade from any other Mac OS X)
2 gigs of RAM minimum; 4 is much much better.
8 gigs of free space on your drive.

You can download OS X Lion only from the Mac App store. It's a four gig download for $29.99.

Your local Apple retailer will also help people who don't have a connection that supports a 4 gig download with disc images.

OS X Lion will not run PowerPC apps, or Classic apps. Rosetta, the in-the-background "translator" that allows PowerPC apps to run under Snow Leopard will not work under Lion.

You can find out what kind of processor you're using, how much RAM you have, and what software you have that is PowerPC or Classic based, look at About This Mac under the Apple menu. Click More Info.

If someone want's me to post more specific instructions, I can.

In the meantime, the real lyrics are The Lion Ships Tonight.

BenPanced · Jul 19, 2011

My mini: so-so ready. I just need to make the exchange on the wrong RAM I ordered by accident and it'll be better. Otherwise, I'm at bare minimum specs.

My MacBook: does everything twice as fast as the mini.

Deleted member 42 · Jul 19, 2011

I'm sort of idly contemplating a mac mini running Lion and two monitors with a Magic TrackPad as my desk setup.

Mind, my desk is some distance away, and in horizontal pieces, but I can see it working for me. I loved having two 20'' monitors.

That said, I'm not as excited as I would expect to be about this OS release. I'm upgrading because it's my living; not sure I would otherwise.

And I'm very worried about users who don't even know they have Rosetta installed, never mind that their PPC apps won't be working once they install Lion.

BenPanced · Jul 19, 2011

My partner has the proverbial shitload of documents on Appleworks. 98% of a project he's working on.

Guess what doesn't work on Lion.

amergina · Jul 19, 2011

Ooof. That's a PITA. I believe Pages will read AppleWorks files, but still converting everything...

Deleted member 42 · Jul 19, 2011

BenPanced said:
My partner has the proverbial shitload of documents on Appleworks. 98% of a project he's working on.

Guess what doesn't work on Lion.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Can he use LibreOffice or the free and rather nifty Bean?

Pages is quite good, and easy. The current version is $20.00 from the App store, and it imports AppleWorks and ClarisWorks word processor docs, and images in them, very nicely.

I'm also exceedingly fond of MarinerWrite, as well.

Let me know if I can help.

juniper · Jul 19, 2011

Medievalist said:
And I'm very worried about users who don't even know they have Rosetta installed, never mind that their PPC apps won't be working once they install Lion.

Yeah, that might be me, and I should be worried, or maybe it's not me, and I shouldn't be worried ... I don't know enough to be worried or not. :Shrug:

I'm on a MacBook Pro from Sept 09, running snow leopard. I think I'll keep that for now, until I see something from someone I trust that says I should upgrade.

I waited to upgrade on the iPhoto and then didn't, after reading several negative reviews of the new version. I just use my mac for personal use, so if I'm a little behind the times, well, that's my normal state of being.

kuwisdelu · Jul 19, 2011

So who will be pludging on day zero?

I'm not sure yet if I will or not. I have some important work to do this week, but I have two Macs and everything I do can be done over ssh to my school's servers if need be. I'll probably wait for the first flurry of forum posts on the tech fora I visit and see if there's anything show-stopping, and then decide.

I'm also not quite as excited as I'd ordinarily be, but stuff like Versions are easily worth $29 to me.

I definitely want to know whether I can still burn an install USB drive.

juniper said:
Yeah, that might be me, and I should be worried, or maybe it's not me, and I shouldn't be worried ... I don't know enough to be worried or not.

Go the the Apple menu and click "About this Mac," and then click "More Info." Scroll down to "Software>Applications" and you'll see a long list of all applications installed. (This will include some system applications that your Mac require but you may never use; don't worry about those, since naturally they'll be updated automatically.) Scroll down and look for any with "PPC" listed under "Kind." Anything with "Universal" or "Intel" as the Kind will continue to work.

There is the problem of a few apps that are Universal/Intel binaries but have PPC installers... but if they're already installed, you'll be fine. At least until a hard drive crash and you need to reinstall.

I have mixed feelings about cutting Rosetta support. Yeah, it'll be a pain for some people, but I see why they want to do it, and I can't really blame them. It may be some pain now, but in the long run, it's a much better idea to move on from Appleworks.

Deleted member 42 · Jul 19, 2011

kuwisdelu said:
So who will be plunging on day zero?

I'm rolling back to a pre-dev release OS so I'll be able to write about Lion as an end-user.

To be honest, I'm more excited about the release of BBEdit 10 than I am Lion, but BBEdit is where I do an awful lot of my work.

kuwisdelu said:
Go the the Apple menu and click "About this Mac," and then click "More Info." Scroll down to "Software>Applications" and you'll see a long list of all applications installed. (This will include some system applications that your Mac require but you may never use; don't worry about those, since naturally they'll be updated automatically.) Scroll down and look for any with "PPC" listed under "Kind." Anything with "Universal" or "Intel" as the Kind will continue to work.

In the Software section of About This Mac, click on the column label that says Kind, and it will group all the Classic apps, all the PPC apps, etc., together.

kuwisdelu said:
I have mixed feelings about cutting Rosetta support. Yeah, it'll be a pain for some people, but I see why they want to do it, and I can't really blame them. It may be some pain now, but in the long run, it's a much better idea to move on from Appleworks.

My real issue is that non-Geeks, and non-technical professionals don't even know that they're using Rosetta.

Regarding Appleworks, Apple's Pages imports both AppleWorks and ClarisWorks (the previous incarnation) Word Processor documents very nicely.

kuwisdelu · Jul 19, 2011

I'm eagerly awaiting John Siracusa's review. Should be out by the end of the week.

vivalalauren · Jul 19, 2011

I think it's great that you can download it right from the app store. I'm excited to see what improvements they have to voiceover, apple's built in screenreader.

Deleted member 42 · Jul 19, 2011

vivalalauren said:
I think it's great that you can download it right from the app store. I'm excited to see what improvements they have to voiceover, apple's built in screenreader.

There are some nifty new voices, and the phonology is also better.

kuwisdelu · Jul 20, 2011

kuwisdelu said:
I'm eagerly awaiting John Siracusa's review. Should be out by the end of the week.

Holy crap, it's already out. Reading now...

s.m.s · Jul 20, 2011

I feel silly for asking this. I've never owned a Mac before but I was thinking about asking my folks for one as a present. What does the new OS release mean for new Mac purchases? I assume they will still have the older OS? I'm totally clueless about Macs.

kuwisdelu · Jul 20, 2011

s.m.s said:
I feel silly for asking this. I've never owned a Mac before but I was thinking about asking my folks for one as a present. What does the new OS release mean for new Mac purchases? I assume they will still have the older OS? I'm totally clueless about Macs.

I'm not sure about the store versions — I assume they're being updated as we speak or were in the past few days. For those, you can always ask in-store. But any new Mac you order will ship with the new Mac OS X Lon starting now. New, updated Mac Minis and MacBook Airs were just released alongside it that they apparently wanted to hold off on announcing until they could ship with the new OS. I'd say it's safe to assume all other models will ship with Lion as well.

(The MacBook Pros and iMacs were also updated recently, and are still good buys. I wouldn't get a white MacBook at this point, as it's not been updated for a long while.)

kuwisdelu · Jul 20, 2011

Just finished John Siracua's Mac OS X 10.7 Lion: The Ars Technica Review. 19 pages of techy goodness. Where do I apply for my nerd cred?

For those only interested in the assessment:

Even at Ars Technica, a certain percentage of readers just want to know the bottom line about a new operating system. Is this a good release? Is it worth the price and the hassle of installing it? Excluding the first few dog-slow, feature-poor releases of Mac OS X, the answer to all those questions has always been a resounding "yes." Lion continues this tradition, more than earning its $29 price with a raft of new technologies and a substantially revised interface and suite of bundled applications.

The standard caveats apply about software and hardware compatibility. Don't just run out and upgrade your system as soon as you finish this review. Lion's digital distribution makes hasty upgrades even more likely. Patience! Take a few days—weeks, even—to research all of your favorite applications and make sure they all run fine on Lion. If you're still using some PowerPC applications, don't upgrade until you have replaced them with Intel-native alternatives. And before you upgrade, back up, back up, back up.
...
In the same way that Mac OS X so clearly showed the rest of the industry what user interfaces would look like in the years to come, Apple's own iOS has now done the same for its decade-old desktop operating system. iOS was less shocking to users because it appeared to come from nothing, and the mobile operating system conventions it defied were ones that nobody liked anyway. The same is not true on the desktop, where users cling like victims of Stockholm syndrome to mechanics that have hurt them time and again.

It may be many years before even half of the applications on a typical Mac behave according to the design principles introduced in Lion. The transition period could be ugly, especially compared to the effortless uniformity of iOS. In the meantime, let Apple's younger platform serve as a lighthouse in the storm. The Mac will always be more capable than its mobile brethren, but that doesn't mean that simple tasks must also be harder on the Mac. Imagine being able to stick a computer neophyte in front of an iMac with the same confidence that you might hand that neophyte an iPad today.

The technical details of Apple's operating system that were once so important that they practically defined its existence (e.g., memory protection, preemptive multitasking) are now taken for granted. Mainstream reviews of software and hardware alike spend far less time pondering technical specifications and implementation details than they did only a few years ago.

This phenomenon extends even to the geekiest among us, those who didn't just skip to the conclusion of this review but actually read the entire thing. Fellow geeks, ask yourselves, do you know the clock speed of the CPU in the device you're reading this on? Do you know how much RAM it has? What about the memory bus speed and width? Now consider what your answers might have been ten years ago.

Over the past decade, better technology has simply reduced the number of things that we need to care about. Lion is better technology. It marks the point where Mac OS X releases stop being defined by what's been added. From now on, Mac OS X should be judged by what's been removed.

Pludging now... wish me luck! Aside from Apple's own software, my only absolutely vital apps are basic Unix programs, so even if the worst happens, I'm not too worried about getting up and running.

BenPanced · Jul 20, 2011

Medievalist said:
Yeah.

Exactly.

Can he use LibreOffice or the free and rather nifty Bean?

Pages is quite good, and easy. The current version is $20.00 from the App store, and it imports AppleWorks and ClarisWorks word processor docs, and images in them, very nicely.

I'm also exceedingly fond of MarinerWrite, as well.

Let me know if I can help.

We're going to get more in-depth with importing the documents later this week, but if necessary, I'll pass along his contact information and questions, 'k? Thanks!

kuwisdelu · Jul 20, 2011

kuwisdelu said:
(The MacBook Pros and iMacs were also updated recently, and are still good buys. I wouldn't get a white MacBook at this point, as it's not been updated for a long while.)

As it turns out, Apple has decided to entirely discontinue the white, plastic MacBook line, reasoning the $999 MacBook Air has been incredibly popular and is priced the same as the entry-level MacBook. I have to admit, this really doesn't surprise me in the least.

Some other notes:

The new MacBook Airs and Mac Minis released today will support an Internet recovery option, allowing download and installation of Lion onto a blank hard drive. Since Mac OS X Lion is only available as an Internet download, this is very important and a nice solution for regular consumers.

Furthermore, it has been confirmed that Lion will soon be available on physical media (a USB thumb drive) for installation, but this will be priced at $69 rather than the online price of $29. This is good news for those who require more traditional media for installation and cannot get a fast Internet connection or get to an Apple Store. (The developer versions of Lion have allowed burning the installation media to a USB drive or DVD all along, but this has never been an Apple-supported solution, though I intend to try it once I buy some new USB thumb drives for the purpose.)

kuwisdelu said:
Pludging now... wish me luck!

Well, after my Time Machine backup finishes anyway...

ETA: Pludging now (for realz this time)...

Deleted member 42 · Jul 20, 2011

Don't forget to run Software Update before upgrading.

kuwisdelu · Jul 20, 2011

I would have been better off running Disk Utility first. My drive had some corruptions somewhere, so the install failed. Managed to boot back into Snow Leopard but my Finder always hangs. Currently making some extra manual backups before reformatting and reinstalling to try again. Maybe I'll swallow my wallet to try to order an SSD sooner rather than later.

Deleted member 42 · Jul 20, 2011

kuwisdelu said:
I would have been better off running Disk Utility first. My drive had some corruptions somewhere, so the install failed. Managed to boot back into Snow Leopard but my Finder always hangs. Currently making some extra manual backups before reformatting and reinstalling to try again. Maybe I'll swallow my wallet to try to order an SSD sooner rather than later.

While you're at it, check your firmware.

And here's how to make a bootable DVD:

http://www.macworld.com/article/161069/2011/07/make_a_bootable_lion_installer.html

And this guide from a friend about installing/prep is pretty good:

http://www.macworld.com/article/161064/2011/07/installing_lion_complete_guide.html#lsrc.rss_main

kuwisdelu · Jul 20, 2011

Medievalist said:
And this guide from a friend about installing/prep is pretty good:

http://www.macworld.com/article/161064/2011/07/installing_lion_complete_guide.html#lsrc.rss_main

Heh, of course they recommend running Disk Utility first. I shouldn't have overlooked that. My gray start-up screen has looked glitchy since the most recent firmware update, but since verifying everything a while back, I chalked it up to immature AMD drivers. Bah. Everything else aside, it's times like this I wish my old MacBook had a Thunderbolt port to talk to the thrashed MacBook Pro. *still waiting for extra backups to finish...*

Deleted member 42 · Jul 20, 2011

kuwisdelu said:
Heh, of course they recommend running Disk Utility first. I shouldn't have overlooked that. My gray start-up screen has looked glitchy since the most recent firmware update, but since verifying everything a while back, I chalked it up to immature AMD drivers. Bah. Everything else aside, it's times like this I wish my old MacBook had a Thunderbolt port to talk to the thrashed MacBook Pro. *still waiting for extra backups to finish...*

Do you have FireWire on both MacBooks?

kuwisdelu · Jul 20, 2011

Medievalist said:
Do you have FireWire on both MacBooks?

I do, but gigabit ethernet is proving much faster.

I'm not sure if it's valid to check it from a different computer, but MB's Disk Utility verified my mounted Time Machine backup for the MBP is okay at least.

ETA: Whatever the problem was, I don't doubt it was there before this, so it's good I'm seeing it sooner rather than later. For anyone else, I recommend checking the guides Lisa posted. Forgetting to make sure your current installation doesn't have any problems before upgrading should probably be considered a rookie mistake in my hastiness, ennui, and boredom. Needless to say, I'll now remember to check my relatives' disks for errors before upgrading them.

RyanLKing · Jul 20, 2011

Installed Lion this morning. Smooth as silk. 10 min download, 30 min install. Still getting used to using swipe motions on the touchpad but so far, I like it. Now if only the screen was really a touch screen..

OS X Lion Released Tomorrow

Deleted member 42

BenPanced

THE BLUEBERRY QUEEN OF HADES (he/him)

Deleted member 42

BenPanced

THE BLUEBERRY QUEEN OF HADES (he/him)

amergina

Pittsburgh Strong

Deleted member 42

juniper

Always curious.

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

Deleted member 42

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

vivalalauren

Deleted member 42

kuwisdelu

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s.m.s

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

BenPanced

THE BLUEBERRY QUEEN OF HADES (he/him)

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

Deleted member 42

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

Deleted member 42

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

Deleted member 42

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

RyanLKing