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Why I'm Not Committing to Lion Yet

dtravis7


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I would love to try Air Drop but both my Intel Macs are not supported. I don't see why as it can't take that much to run a network file copy program over WiFi. If Apple cut out older machines because of the Airport card they use, that is just wrong. How hard would it be to include support for say my late 2007 iMac? Not at all hard in fact.

On MC, I am a power user. I run 25-30 apps at once and use them all. I find MC easier to get where I want and to make a space and move an open app into it. Some of the missing things can be triggered by F-Keys.
 
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It would be very difficult to include support for any of the Macs Apple produced before relatively recently because of how AirDrop works. It uses an ad hoc wireless network to look for the Macs in close physical proximity and then transfers the file over. The catch is that it does this without ever dropping the connection to the wireless network the Mac is using for the Internet. This is only possible with a wireless card that supports being connected to two wireless networks at the same time. None of the Macs before late 2008 had such a wireless card. It's the same reason older Macs can't take advantage of a dual-band wireless N router in the same way more recent models can. So Apple could enable AirDrop for older Macs, but it would only be available when not already connected to a WiFi network. Yes, this might actually make a lot of sense in the context of a desktop connected by ethernet, but I'm guessing Apple didn't want to deal with millions of user complaints about AirDrop's availability being inconsistent since a lot of people use their iMacs and Mac minis on wireless networks.

On MC, all I have to say on power use of it is that everything that can be done in MC, I can do with Snow Leopard's Spaces or Exposé in at least one less click/key press/swipe... and there are a number of features that simply can't be replicated. Below is the list of things Mission Control can't do that Spaces/Exposé accomplished quite well:

- Ability to tell which Space you're using by looking at the the menubar
- Ability to align Spaces in a grid and switch between them non-linearly (going to the next row)
- Ability to see all your spaces in a view large enough to actually see the windows easily
- Ability to "Exposé" all your windows in all your spaces at once when in "Spaces" view (now Mission Control view)
- Ability to manually rearrange the order of Spaces
- Ability to freely drag windows between Spaces when in "Spaces" view (now Mission Control view)*
- Using Ctrl+ [Space number] to get to a specific space **
- Ability to fullscreen something on a second display without killing your ability to use other displays entirely (this is a direct consequence of the new fullscreen mode creating a new Space)
- Ability to see the second monitor when viewing/organizing your Spaces***

- Having the windows in "Exposé" (now Mission Control) view each labelled with their titles
- Ability to see all your windows in full on the "Exposé" (now Mission Control) screen; currently, any application with more than one window open has most of its contents obscured****
- Ability to see minimized windows****

*This can be worked around if you're willing to bring a window of interest to the front every time you want to move a space. Extra clicks/swipes.
**This can be done for some of the spaces in Lion, but it does not work for any space that was created by a fullscreen application.
***You can run Mission Control on the second monitor to see this separately from the main one. This is highly disorganized and not all that useful, though.
****This can be worked around if you use the Application-specific Exposé, again requiring extra clicks/swipes unless you only have minimized windows in one app.

Needless to say, Mission Control has a long way to go before I accept it as a real power user tool. The complicating of multi-monitor workflows is an especially egregious offense since this used to be an area where OS X's way of doing things far surpassed Windows', but I at least have some degree of confidence Apple will fix that. I'm mainly worried that Apple's approach with OS X may be taking a direction similar to what they did when they crippled Final Cut Pro for the sake of making it more accessible to casual users. I hope that isn't the case and am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I'm certainly going to be paying a lot of attention to what Apple does with Mountain Lion.
 
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I'm honestly getting kind of tired of the Lion recovery option. It's way too cumbersome, even with the backup being on a 4gb usb stick.
 

dtravis7


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Wondering why the Memory Stick is cumbersome to you ? I much prefer a memory stick to a DVD that can scratch and get smudges. Otherwise once you have the memory stick, the install is about the same. Just my opinion anyway.

I love installing from Memory Sticks.
 
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Wondering why the Memory Stick is cumbersome to you ? I much prefer a memory stick to a DVD that can scratch and get smudges. Otherwise once you have the memory stick, the install is about the same. Just my opinion anyway.

I love installing from Memory Sticks.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong or something, but the usb Lion recovery doesn't actually have the Lion install on it, just a connection that allows you to re-download it. I wish it was an actual file, like the past OSX dvd's, but in usb form. That's about the only thin I really hate right now.
 

dtravis7


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Are you talking about the USB stick you purchase from Apple or the one you make with that recovery utility? I have never made one with Apples utility but burned my own bootable stick with the full install on it.
 
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Are you talking about the USB stick you purchase from Apple or the one you make with that recovery utility? I have never made one with Apples utility but burned my own bootable stick with the full install on it.

I've only treid Apple's recovery usb option. I haven't yet tried making my own bootable stick. I'm reinstalling OSX right now, and will try it when everything is done. Apple's Lion recovery takes SOOO long. Too long imo.
 
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Well, that and Apple's new fullscreen implementation with Desktops makes it impossible to fullscreen something to one monitor while still being able to use the other for stuff. I can get into more details if you'd like to chat privately, but I'm worried I might go into rant mode if I start. :p

What issues are you having with fullscreen?

I have Plex running fullscreen on 1 monitor and do my work i.e. Word, Photoshop, browsing in another. Works great for me.
 
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What issues are you having with fullscreen?

I have Plex running fullscreen on 1 monitor and do my work i.e. Word, Photoshop, browsing in another. Works great for me.

I should have clarified: I was referring to Apple's new implementation of Fullscreen where it creates an additional space and uses the whole thing up, greying out all the other monitors. Applications that don't use it are fine, but it makes QuickTime and iTunes completely unviable for full-screening a movie to a second monitor. If Apple's version of fullscreen starts to actually catch on, it will become a bigger problem.

EDIT: Wait no, I did clarify in the original post. You just didn't read carefully. Not even the part you quoted it seems. ;)
 
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I should have clarified: I was referring to Apple's new implementation of Fullscreen where it creates an additional space and uses the whole thing up, greying out all the other monitors. Applications that don't use it are fine, but it makes QuickTime and iTunes completely unviable for full-screening a movie to a second monitor. If Apple's version of fullscreen starts to actually catch on, it will become a bigger problem.

EDIT: Wait no, I did clarify in the original post. You just didn't read carefully. Not even the part you quoted it seems. ;)

Sorry I probably should have just not commented on what I know very little about. I'm just a 2 month newbie to Macs, yet alone the differences in various fullscreen implementations.

My bad.
 
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No worries. I wrote the original thing assuming more familiarity with Lion's new features than I probably should have, especially considering it was supposed to inform readers about them and their shortcomings.
 

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Only thing I've noticed is that at start-up it's quite a lot slower than before (SL). In general I guess that it works a bit slower, but it's not a huge difference and you barely notice it. The big different is at start-up though and it annoys me, do you think a clean install would help on that?
 
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Only thing I've noticed is that at start-up it's quite a lot slower than before (SL). In general I guess that it works a bit slower, but it's not a huge difference and you barely notice it. The big different is at start-up though and it annoys me, do you think a clean install would help on that?

Have you tried disabling the feature that restores your open windows on login? I imagine that would be responsible for most of the increased startup time.
 

Bcn


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It's not when logging i, but when turning on my Mac. Thanks.
 

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