Snow Leopard VS. Lion

Joined
Dec 26, 2011
Messages
23
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Hey all, new Mac user learning the ropes and having fun doing so.
Thanks so much for all the help this far, everyone has helped to make this transition a very smooth one.

I'm starting a thread curious about updating to Lion from my current Snow Leopard. What are everyone's thoughts on the updates? Should I do it? What are the main differences between the two? Will Snow Leopard soon loose support the way Microsoft phased out XP, etc.?
 
Joined
Mar 9, 2011
Messages
751
Reaction score
4
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
mbp 15 2009, mbp 13 2010
Go for the Lion by all means, it is the most advanced OS human beings ever invented. It is far superior than SL, in my opinion. It is a matter of buying from
apple store for $29 or so, it is worth it. Once you get the hang of Lion, you will never want to go back to older apple os.
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
10.6 (Snow Leopard) will eventually lose support, but it probably won't be for another few years. Apple typically doesn't drop support until 2-3 major subsequent releases have come out.

In my opinion, Lion is a gimicky train wreck of an update that tries to shoehorn a bunch of iPad/iOS-inspired user interface elements where they don't necessarily fit well. Some of the new features actually break existing functionality that had worked very well (Exposé for one example). In addition, other features are dropped entirely (Rosetta for older, PPC-based apps and Front Row support).

Personally, if I could do it easily, I would just roll back to 10.6 and stay there until such a time when Apple releases a real update to OS X that actually improves things instead of adding a bunch of bloat and gimicky, grafted-on changes that make little sense.

I'm certain others will feel differently, but for me, Lion hasn't been an upgrade... I've spent more time finding work arounds and "undoing" things that Apple has changed than actually using my computer, which is something I'm not accustomed to doing with Apple products.
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
25,564
Reaction score
486
Points
83
Location
Blue Mountains NSW Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Joined
Mar 9, 2011
Messages
751
Reaction score
4
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
mbp 15 2009, mbp 13 2010
All I can say is Apple new guards are following steve jobs mindset of forever reinventing computer technologies, putting best stuff in their products and never look back. For a newbie it is to learn the new ways and go forward.
 
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
1,229
Reaction score
75
Points
48
Your Mac's Specs
2.6GHz Core i7 15" MacBook Pro - 8GB DDR3 SDRAM - 750GB 7200 RPM HDD - GeForce 650M GT 1GB VRAM
Having used Lion and Snow Leopard side by side since a few weeks after Lion released, I can honestly say Lion is a step down from Snow Leopard in terms of reliability, usability, and resource efficiency. That said, you may not notice these shortcomings depending on how you use your Mac. I'll summarize the basic reasons for my assertions here for the sake of clarity:

Reliability
Every application that comes with Snow Leopard is stable and relatively bug-free. Lion, on the other hand, continues to plague a number of users with wireless connectivity issues and has the buggiest version of iCal that has ever been released. I have not personally experienced the wireless connectivity issue, but all the Macs at the office running Lion had to have BusyCal installed to be able to connect to our CalDAV server calendar, whereas the ones running Snow Leopard had no issue connecting via iCal.

Usability
Lion adds a lot of fluff, much of which is optional, and I am honestly fine with that - I'm not one of those blowhards that screams about Launchpad daring to exist even when I don't have to use it (and in fact I kind of like it). Mission Control, which replaces Exposé and Spaces, however, is an unmitigated disaster.

Have several windows open in a few applications and want to see them all at once (say, Photoshop and InDesign)? Sorry, you can't do that in Lion because Mission Control chooses to immediately obscure any window with other windows from the same application with its window-grouping mess. Apple even tried to soften the blow here by allowing you to use the four-finger-spread gesture to slightly spread out the windows - guess what, it still leaves parts of the windows obscured.

Want to drag that window from one space to another? Whereas you used to be able to very intuitively just click and drag while in Spaces view, now you have to first switch to the space where the window resides and then drag it to its destination.

Want to fullscreen a movie to your external monitor while you work on something light on your laptop display? Nope, Lion took that away because with Apple's fabulous new fullscreen implementation, all monitors you might be working on aside from the one with the content is grayed out.

Mission Control is a horrible implementation of what I'm sure were well-intentioned ideas that ends up being objectively less functional than what it replaced - as far as I can recall, this is the first OS X release to actually take away features. If Steve Jobs were alive, I imagine he'd give the team behind it a speech similar to the infamous one he gave the MobileMe team. Lion took a huge step backwards in multitasking workflows and window management.

Resource Efficiency
I'll be blunt here: Google any Benchmark comparison between Lion and Snow Leopard, and you'll see that Lion is either identical or a minor downgrade. This is the first version of OS X to ever achieve this. But given that benchmarks often don't reflect real-life usage, let's focus on that.

Lion takes longer to both start up and shut down than Snow Leopard, thanks to the only mildly useful (and not very graceful unless you have an SSD) feature that restores your session upon startup.

Lion uses a ridiculous amount of RAM compared to Snow Leopard - my coworker only uses her Mac mini for office tasks (spreadsheet, word processor, calendar, email) and the base 2GB of RAM wasn't enough to keep it from lagging. Let this sink in. Lion is so inefficient with RAM that many of the machines Apple is shipping it with are incapable of running it smoothly even when doing the least intensive of computer tasks. Sure, many people have more than 2GB of RAM anyway, but consider where this places your machine now. Suddenly 4GB is the amount of RAM you need for light multitasking and 8 GB is a "good" amount of RAM. Your performance is going to get shot in the foot with this upgrade unless you have 8GB or more of RAM. And all for a few shiny new features that mostly add more flash than substance or actually make the user experience worse.

The one and only thing I can see someone upgrading to Lion for is the iCloud functionality that Apple refuses to put into Snow Leopard, assuming you own iOS devices.

All in all, I strongly recommend against upgrading to Lion. Apple doesn't need any more dollars encouraging them to go in this direction with the OS. I can only hope 10.8 brings back what Lion took away.
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
Just wait till you see 10.8. You might go to Windows 8 with that horrible cell phone interface!
 
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
1,229
Reaction score
75
Points
48
Your Mac's Specs
2.6GHz Core i7 15" MacBook Pro - 8GB DDR3 SDRAM - 750GB 7200 RPM HDD - GeForce 650M GT 1GB VRAM
Oh, don't even get me started on Windows 8. It's as if the entire OS market is trying to push me towards obscure Linux distros. >.>
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
Even some of the more popular Linux distros like Ubuntu are doing things I am not happy with.

Agreed on Windows 8. I tried to like it. I really did! :D
 

robduckyworth


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2011
Messages
2,971
Reaction score
109
Points
63
Location
Reading, UK
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP, 2.5GHz i7, 750GB, 6770M 1GB, iPad 3, iPhone 4, custom PC
Even some of the more popular Linux distros like Ubuntu are doing things I am not happy with.

Agreed on Windows 8. I tried to like it. I really did! :D

i never did release my video review of Windows 8... haha.

I actually rather liked it. about time they changed it up a bit. though basically attaching a front end to Windows 7 probably wasnt the most tactile way they could have done it...
 
OP
K
Joined
Dec 26, 2011
Messages
23
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Thanks for all the information. I'm a pretty casual user and don't use much more than basics, so I think I'll hold off on the update for a little while. Everything is working so smoothly right now I don't think I want to take a chance of ruining a good start.

Much appreciated everyone...
 
Joined
Sep 14, 2011
Messages
231
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Your Mac's Specs
Imac 21.5 2011 Stock with Time Capsule. Ipad2 Colecovision
I have started out with Lion. It came with my 2011 IMac.

No issues to speak of. First time my computer woke up from sleep it was all beachballs and I hard to do a restart and no issues since then.
I do like the logo better for Snow Leopard and that is my wallpaper :)
 
C

chas_m

Guest
I've been running Lion without any significant issues since day one, and in particular I **strongly** dispute discerptor's claim that it's slower than SL. Quite the opposite in my experience, particularly with Safari.
 

vansmith

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2008
Messages
19,924
Reaction score
559
Points
113
Location
Queensland
Your Mac's Specs
Mini (2014, 2018, 2020), MBA (2020), iPad Pro (2018), iPhone 13 Pro Max, Watch (S6)
i never did release my video review of Windows 8... haha.
Yes, we're still anticipating this video. The wait is killing me! ;)

I agree with you Discerptor about the speed/efficiency. While SL was nice and nimble, some of the changes made in Lion have done little but slow down my machine. It's making my already aging MacBook look even older. While it's still very much usable, it's not as quick as it was with SL. However, I still think it was a worthy upgrade if only for the sake of future proofing a machine.
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
I have to agree with Van. I have also noticed the slow down on my 2008 MacBook after upgrading to Lion, however, the 2011 iMac seems just as fast. Van also makes a good point about future proofing.
 
Joined
Sep 25, 2011
Messages
295
Reaction score
6
Points
18
Location
Seattle, WA
Your Mac's Specs
2011 MB Air Core i7 256GB, 2011 Mini with 8GB RAM, iPad 2, iPhone 4S, 2TB Time Capsule
The point about RAM requirements must be something that I am managing to miss somehow. My Mini has 8GB, but my MBA only has 4GB of RAM and the thing just chugs along fine. Right now I have Xcode, Safari (3x windows), and iTunes running. Zero lag whatsoever. Maybe there is a processor efficiency thing to do with the new i5/i7 series chips and Lion, vs SnowLep and the C2Ds?
 
Joined
Nov 26, 2009
Messages
315
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Ontario, Canada
I have had my first Mac since 2009 running Snow Leopard. Never any problems. Very happy with it. Now I have my MacBook Air with Lion. Have only had it since Christmas Day but have to say I think my needs are pretty basic and I prefer Snow Leopard so far. However, with the mid-2011 MBA's Snow Leopard is not an option.
 

vansmith

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2008
Messages
19,924
Reaction score
559
Points
113
Location
Queensland
Your Mac's Specs
Mini (2014, 2018, 2020), MBA (2020), iPad Pro (2018), iPhone 13 Pro Max, Watch (S6)
The point about RAM requirements must be something that I am managing to miss somehow. My Mini has 8GB, but my MBA only has 4GB of RAM and the thing just chugs along fine. Right now I have Xcode, Safari (3x windows), and iTunes running. Zero lag whatsoever. Maybe there is a processor efficiency thing to do with the new i5/i7 series chips and Lion, vs SnowLep and the C2Ds?
Your MBA has flash memory which will make it considerably faster as well. That helps to compensate for the lower processor speeds.
 
Joined
Mar 30, 2009
Messages
205
Reaction score
4
Points
18
Location
Sandusky, Ohio
I had Leopard installed on my older MacBook, but bought a new MBP recently that obviously came with Lion.

Between the two, Lion wins hands down. Just a much better user experience, IMO.

I never really got to mess with SL though, as I always felt it was a slight update from Leopard.

I feel Lion was a much bigger update from SL than SL was from Leopard.
 
Joined
Sep 7, 2008
Messages
311
Reaction score
19
Points
18
Location
Shakopee, MN
Your Mac's Specs
iMac, late 2012 model, 21"
Have several windows open in a few applications and want to see them all at once (say, Photoshop and InDesign)? Sorry, you can't do that in Lion because Mission Control chooses to immediately obscure any window with other windows from the same application with its window-grouping mess. Apple even tried to soften the blow here by allowing you to use the four-finger-spread gesture to slightly spread out the windows - guess what, it still leaves parts of the windows obscured.

Don't go into Mission Control before you do the four-fingered downward swipe. If you swipe down first, you'll see all the windows currently open for the selected app.

Want to drag that window from one space to another? Whereas you used to be able to very intuitively just click and drag while in Spaces view, now you have to first switch to the space where the window resides and then drag it to its destination.

When in Mission Control, try swiping left and right – two fingers on a Magic Mouse, four on a Magic Trackpad. You'll switch between the currently selected spaces (and any full screen apps you have open). This should make it easier to drag and drop windows into different spaces without having to switch back and forth between them.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top