Apple’s New “Lion”, and More for Your Monday

Apple announced that it had 1 million downloads of its newest operating system, OS X 10.7 codename “Lion”, on its first day of availability. Available through the Mac App Store for $29.99, Apple says people are buying Lion faster than any other OS release in Apple’s history.

Microsoft could take a lesson from this (IMHO). Not from adding a feature or two and a dozen tweaks and calling it a new version (with a new name), but to get a clue about their archaic pricing structure. If I could get Windows 7 Home upgrade licenses for $30 – $40, I would buy a dozen of them today.

I am not an iFanatic, and do not know any more about Apple machines than what I have to as a Technician living in Appleland (aka ‘silicon valley’) — yes, I fix Macs. But I don’t use them. I haven’t powered up my “Tiger” machine in.. oh, let’s call it 2 years. And, so far, I do not own any iGadgets either.

With that said, I have looked at various “reviews” and it seems to me that the main thing Lion gives you (new) is direct integration with the iStore, and touchscreen ‘gestures’.
Hmmm… I don’t want either of those things.
It kind of looks to me like Apple is “blending” their operating systems for their gadgets into their desktop OS. (People are accusing Windows 8 of this same kind of thing..)

It also has something called “natural scrolling”, which apparently nobody likes.

I will say, it is kind of hard finding less-than-enthusiastic reviews.. ahem. Such as this one: Here Are 12 Amazing Hidden Features In Mac OS X Lion

“Lion touts more than 250 new features, but Apple only advertises a few of them. We picked out some of the best tips for customizing and making the most of Lion. Read more..

I dare you to look at those, and then I ask you think about the definition of the word “amazing”, and then find any correlation. (And note that one of the ‘tips’ is how to turn off natural scrolling..)
I was kind of surprised that some of the ‘features’ are only now available…

I had questions if improved 64-bit capability would make Lion “faster” than Snow Leopard, so I found this article interesting (though, it is way too early to really tell): Snow Leopard vs. Lion: Performance head-to-head

Since we had the 27-inch iMac on hand, we thought we’d see if OS X Lion introduced any performance changes. Read more..

(And for those considering “upgrading” to Lion, I would suggest reading the comments, too.)

As I said earlier, I am not an “Apple guy”, and I do not have any ‘hands on’ experience with Lion. So I am not going to presume to advise you Apple users on whether to upgrade to Lion or not. I will only offer (repeat, really) my ‘general policy’ which goes — yes, you want to keep all your software up to date with the newest versions; but, you do not want version 1.0 of anything.
A seeming contradiction.

I – myself – would wait a bit on Lion. Until the first patches have been released. Then I would upgrade. And learn the new “productivity enhancements” like “spaces”. Maybe (probably) even buy a “gestures” mouse.

If you are at all curious about Apple’s new operating system, (“The World’s Most Advanced Operating System”) the place to start is to take a look at the official Apple page, here.

Today’s reading reco: Four Things Google Plus Could Do To Fix Google Plus
(There are “big” issues here.. I urge a read.)

“Saturday’s Google Plus user account deletion purge plunged the new social network into a crisis of user trust: the community wants it fixed.” Read more..

• Read also: Google Plus Deleting Accounts En Masse: No Clear Answers

“Google+ is not warning users before deleting user accounts, and some people have reported being locked out of all Google services, including docs and Gmail.”

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Today’s quote: “Joy is a flower that blooms when you do.”  ~ Unknown

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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