A few first impressions of Lion

I thought it relevant to at least give some of you my own impressions on Lion.  At MacSource, we get asked about upgrading on a regular basis, so to answer those questions I feel a review is in order.

Obviously there is a lot of reviewers out there, and a lot has already been written about Lion.  It has, after all been available for close to two months and soon we will see Apple’s second update to their system to 10.7.2, which is supposed to bring iCloud support.

I just want to touch on my own first impressions, for an extensive review I’d look into Walt Mossberg’s, of The Wall Street Journal, review- Click Here.  I’m sure he was using a very current Mac for his review, and that is where I can say I’m definitely not.

Currently the Mac I’m using is a 3 1/2 yr. old MacBook Pro that was the top of its class at the time.  I’m always good about updating anything that comes down through Software Update, in order to be as compatible as I can be, and hopefully fix any bugs that Apple has come across.  I figure if Apple is paying millions a year to their engineers to make things run better, why wouldn’t I want to install those updates.  I’m always surprised by people who refuse to update, and then call us wondering why they have a problem.  It’s a first step into fixing issues a lot of times.  I do understand though that people fear downloading/ installing things that may end up causing their Mac to slowdown in its performance.

Running a 3 1/2 yr. old Mac, this was my concern and hesitation, performing not just an update, but a full OS upgrade.  When Snow Leopard was released, Apple promised improved performance over Leopard, mostly because of how the RAM talked to the processor and vice-versa.  Snow Leopard was a great improvement as performance goes, but didn’t provide much in the way of User experience improvements, or changes, and functioned very much the same as Leopard had.  Lion on the other hand is full of User tweaks and changes, some good, even great, others are so-so.  After biting the bullet and performing the upgrade on my old MacBook Pro, I have been really surprised at the speed of my Mac.  It hasn’t slowed a bit, and in some instances, feels more responsive than before.  As far as first impressions go, this was the first thing I noticed, that my Mac is running really fast.

Before upgrading to Lion, what I kept hearing about was “Mission Control”, Apple’s new method of giving the user a quick idea and view of everything running.  Mission Control is a hybrid of Exposé and Spaces, combining the two in a unified method of switching not only a “space” but what Applications you are using as well.  First demoed in Nov. 2010, Apple showed the public what to expect from Mission Control, but I was a little skeptical.  After using this feature though, I think it is a great improvement over what they had with Exposé and Spaces.  Especially if you are using a more modern Mac than mine, with a more sophisticated touch-pad.  Apple has touted the multi-touch gestures in Lion and Mission Control is one place they absolutely shine.  With minimal effort, it is so easy to get a quick glimpse of everything that you’re working on or have open.  And with a bunch of Apps offering full-screen mode, this change to Mission Control is crucial, showing you which page each App is being used in and where it is located.  Which brings me to one of my new fave’s, Full- Screen Apps.

Again, Apple demoed this early on for the public, and my initial thoughts on this so-called feature was that it was going to be very hokey.  But after using Lion for a good 3 1/2 weeks now I simply love this feature.  At first, I wanted to just try it out, just to see what it was like, having a few Apps take up the entire screen.  Honestly I wasn’t blown away at first, just seeing your Application fill the screen isn’t a big deal.  But switching between Apps and not seeing the clutter that is my desktop has become a thing I never knew I was missing until running my Apps in Full-Screen.  Not all Apps support Full-Screen mode, but most of Apples current Apps do, and plenty of 3rd party Software titles have promised future support.  My typical environment has iCal, Mail, Safari and iTunes all running concurrently in Full-Screen mode, and I can’t imagine going back to smaller windows of each program stacked on top of each other, or even keeping a few minimized.  Because my trackpad doesn’t support more than 2 finger touches, I’m not able to perform a 4-finger swipe to enter Mission Control.  So for me the fastest way to switch Apps is still Command (⌘) -“Tab”.  This is probably the case for you Desktop Mac users as well, although the Magic Mouse has a lot of different touch capabilities in Lion.  If you didn’t already know, ⌘-“Tab” brings up your App switcher for any running App.  Tremendously helpful (I use this dozens of times a day), but requires using your left hand, awkward if your reading email and scrolling with one hand, and sipping a cup of coffee with the other.  I’d prefer to be able to use the 4-finger gesture on a Magic Trackpad, or any current portable Mac.

Lion has a ton of new tweaks and App upgrades that are amazing, and these are just a few of the things that have stood out to me as I’ve begun to use Lion.  I love the cleaner look of the Operating System, and have been very pleasantly surprised by the continued speed of my machine- the exact opposite of what I expected.  As far as Operating System improvements go, the combination of Full-Screen Apps and Mission Control are what I think have been perfectly implemented.  Some people may miss having Spaces, but I believe that is a minority.  Overall, I highly recommend upgrading to Lion from Snow Leopard, but you will want to double check that your 3rd party software is compatible.  Call or email us if you aren’t sure and it goes without saying to backup everything before performing an upgrade.

I’ll be posting my thoughts on some of Lion’s App improvements, i.e. Mail and iCal, on our next Blog Post so be sure to check back for that, and you can follow us on Twitter or FaceBook for Blog updates.  Feel free to leave a comment or question for us, and let us know what your own impressions of Lion are!