I only referenced its unsuitable performance on machines with 2GB of RAM
I did everything I mentioned before I upgraded the RAM. I only upgraded it because I got a sweet deal on it. Though for me it was a 50 percent increase, it's still well under the 4GB I believe you previously claimed as the minimum, so it should be awful by that standard. Only it isn't.
If you're boasting about 720p playback and having trouble with Google Earth, your standards are about 6 years behind the curve. I wouldn't take this as a positive for Lion.
You know better than this. Those references VERY SPECIFICALLY refer to the shortcoming of the video chipset in my MacBook (the GMA 950) and have *nothing whatsoever* to do with the operating system (behaved exactly the same under Leopard and Snow). As you (should) well know, if for no other reason than because I made it quite clear.
I never said Lion was unsuitable for power users. I said it was unsuitable for people that do heavy multitasking and that it required more RAM than Snow Leopard did to perform acceptably.
I love subjective terms as much as the next guy, as long as the next guy understands that they are being subjective. What you really mean is that in your *particular* case you find Lion more taxing on some specific activities than you did under Snow Leopard. To this I have to reply "so what?" Either time will fix it or the market will. It seems to work fine for the majority, given that Apple is increasing its Mac marketshare by very significant numbers of late. Last quarter the company shipped nearly *5 million* Macs. In three months. An all-time record.
I suppose I could have been more specific and thrown in the implied "It's unsuitable for people with workflows that actually leveraged Exposé," but I thought my heavy focus on what a poor replacement Mission Control is covered that.
No, I think that's been made clear. Your big problem with Lion really boils down to "I don't like Expose now." Okay, fair enough. A valid but subjective complaint. You're unlikely to be alone in that, but I'm just pointing out that because something doesn't work well for you (or me) doesn't mean it doesn't work well for *most other users.* That's all.
Accusing all criticism of Apple as the work of Luddites is rather closed-minded.
Yes, good job nobody here did anything like that then! Nice straw man, did you build it yourself? Oh dear it's fallen down now.
As you'll recall, I both referenced and endorsed Ars Technica's Lion (10.7.0) review as fair and accurate. Had you bothered to read it (I forgive you if you haven't had time -- it's unbelievably long and detailed!), you'd have found that it specifically addresses some of your stated concerns.
I'm open to Exposé being enhanced or even replaced with something better
It is entirely possible that Apple will introduce refinements in a future revision. Or not. All I can say with certainty is that they put a lot of effort into thinking about this stuff, but that's not to say they're perfect. Remember when "stacks" first came out? It was a great idea in its way, but the original implementation was just horrible. They heard back on that point from their users and fixed it fairly quickly (not instantly, but fairly soon). You certainly have the same option on the subject of Expose and I encourage you to share your thoughts with Apple on it.
I'm open to new takes on the fullscreen idea that get around it "covering up" a bunch of windows - I didn't want multi-monitor fullscreen support to be killed off in the process.
This specific criticism I'm VERY confident will be addressed in a future revision.
The iMovie '08 "revolt" was justified even by Apple's tacit admission, since they made iMovie 6 HD available as a free download
Hey, thanks for falling into my little trap there. No, this is actually not true. Apple a) did not remove any existing installs of iMovie HD and b) had already posted iMovie HD as a free download BEFORE iLife 08 actually came out. I know this for a fact because I wrote numerous articles on the change of iMovie HD to a free download THE DAY BEFORE iLife 08 was released. Apple was (of course) very aware that iMovie 08 was a big change, that's specifically why they did what they did, it was NOT in reaction to consumer feedback, as they did both of these things before they'd gotten ANY consumer feedback. But thanks for playing the mythology card.
Yeah, iMovie 08 was brilliant but half-baked. No argument here on that point, not the first time nor the last time Apple will do something like that. But, as predicted by many, time fixed it. Magic takes time sometimes.
I predict more-or-less the same pattern with Final Cut X. People who jump into it fresh tend to LOVE IT in my experience, people who were used to the old way HATE IT but will come around in a year or so, particularly with the growth of the third-party plug-in market, and within another couple of years it will be THE standard and Premiere and Avid et all will announce "revolutionary new versions" of their products. Same old, same old.
since Apple is essentially forcing professional video editors to go through the costly process of switching to another software solution.
Nope:
Apple resumes selling Final Cut Studio | MacNN
Nobody is forcing anybody to do anything. If you want to ding Apple because sometimes they push the industry forward too hard, I think you have a fair point there. But it should also be noted that they are not deaf to criticism.
Apple's products are not exempt from criticism just because some of their actions push the industry forward.
Nobody here has said anything even REMOTELY contrary to that, so there goes another straw man. Apple exempt from criticism? Perish the thought! There are plenty of nits I can pick (some bigger than others) on any Apple OS or product. But I recognise that that's mainly due to their failure to consult me during the development process.
I'm not asking for Exposé back: I just want Mission Control, and indeed Lion itself, to be molded into worthy successors.
Magic takes time sometimes, and sometimes you have to have a little faith that Apple is self-aware of where improvements can be made and that they will -- in time -- make them. Generally speaking, in my long history with the company, they DO have that self-awareness and they generally get it right eventually. That it's not fast enough for some is the price of pushing forward, IMO (which is not the same as giving them a golden pass on every idea they've ever tried out. Look at the design history of the shuffle for a good example of this).
The entire computer industry is so consumed by competitiveness that it can't really spend much time or resources on looking back. Windows being the ultimate example of this. Some may see this as a shame, but I see it as the (sometimes very annoying) price of continuous innovation. The technological industry is more like a play -- full of minor mistakes the sharp-eyed will pounce on but ultimately ongoing -- than let's say a craft like horseshoe making, where the blacksmith generally has all the time in the world to get it right (or right enough, anyway). Is this a better or worse approach? Not for me to say, really.
As harsh as I may seem with my criticisms of Lion, I would never compare Lion to Windows Millennium Edition. For all its faults, OS X Lion is still better at window management than Windows 7 by a huge margin. And even though there are some bugs in a few of Lion's bundled apps, Windows doesn't even come with bundled programs that I deem acceptable to use over any alternatives to begin with. And if Apple continues as it's been doing for the last two OS X releases, 10.8 will probably only be $29 when it comes out anyway. Trust me: most of the criticisms of Lion I've made in this thread wouldn't be there if I were coming in brand new without any prior OS X experience. I just hold Apple to a higher standard than I do Microsoft because I know from experience that they can do better than this.
I don't have a problem with this sentiment at all. As much as I appreciate and enjoy Apple products, I would never suggest that they are immune from flaw and legitimate criticism (though I see a LOT of misplaced criticism on forums like this, where the user is often at fault rather than Apple. I'm not suggesting your points fall into that category in any way).
This is why although I'm often amused by some of the hypocrisy in the Mac community, I love it -- there's no better "check and balance" for a computer company around than what the Mac community -- as noisy and picky and hyperbolic as they can be -- provides. Though prone to hyperbole and inaccuracy, the basic criticisms we hear from user feedback usually have a foundation in truth ... which is why Apple tends to address them so often.
