Snow Leopard VS. Lion

[vansmith]

Try mplayer and you'll see what I mean. Somehow the way OS X handles it prevents other apps from encroaching on inactive RAM marked for it, so you can see situations where you have a whole lot of inactive RAM but any new apps being opened crawl like a snail. People haven't generally looked into this issue because the amount of such inactive RAM only really gets big enough to make it a huge problem if you're watching a very large file or a whole lot of them in succession, but it's most certainly there.

As far as I'm aware, that's not how it should work (not that I doubt your observations). Once RAM is made inactive, it is supposed to be reserved for that app unless you run out of free memory at which point OS X is supposed to start reallocating the inactive memory. It almost sounds as if the inactive RAM is protected.

As per the Apple KB article:

This information in memory is not actively being used, but was recently used.

For example, if you've been using Mail and then quit it, the RAM that Mail was using is marked as Inactive memory. This Inactive memory is available for use by another application, just like Free memory. However, if you open Mail before its Inactive memory is used by a different application, Mail will open quicker because its Inactive memory is converted to Active memory, instead of loading Mail from the slower hard disk.

Perhaps OS X can reallocate inactive before it runs out of free (or that's what I'm reading here) but that doesn't address why it never seems to be reallocated. In fact, this description seems to imply that inactive RAM is reallocated more often than I thought. I'm a little puzzled.

 

[Discerptor]

I'm well aware of how OS X is supposed to deal with RAM. The fact remains that there are a handful of apps that seem to break that management when it comes to inactive RAM, though. Those situations are just about the only times clearing the inactive RAM becomes a useful gesture. Back when I was more interested in looking into it, I think I may have tracked down something about how OS X handles big reads from the disk, but it's all foggy now.

 

[CaroleR]

I have upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard and am not very happy. There is no difference to operating the programme, but, for instance, your switch-on page is now a dark denim grey colour, which makes it very difficult to see the minute cursor. The cursor parks itself in the top left hand corner, but if it's not there it is extremely difficult to find it!!

My calendar colours are now pastel, so pale that it is difficult to distinguish between them (birthdays are one colour, holidays another etc. - but they all show very, very pale). Very frustrating. If I tilt my monitor I can just about make them out.

Contacting Apple: all I want to do is email Aple to see if I can change any of the above - make colours darker, change log-in page etc. I CANNOT FIND AN EMAIL OR APPLE FORUM CONTACT!! I have tried logging on and it tells me I am already a member, but I can't get any further.

Sorry to be soloing-winded and a moaner, but this is the first place I have been able today something!!

 

[chas_m]

Carole: Despite the name of this forum, we are completely UN-affiliated with Apple in any way, shape or form.

As for your visual complaints, you may want to try adjusting the screen brightness and contrast or just plain old re-calibrating the monitor. You mentioning that the colours seem very pale tips me off that this could be an issue for you.

Changing the log-in page texture is probably possible, but another option would simply be to make the mouse bigger/more visible, which you can do under Universal Access in the system preferences. Again, the fact that you find the login page so "dark" and the pastels so "pale" indicates that this might be a monitor problem rather than a Lion issue.

 

[Dysfunction]

Apples feedback page.

Apple - Feedback

 

[quin]

After using Lion for more than half a year now, I don't missed SL at all. The differences between the 2 wasn't enough to be a pain to acclimate. Love all the gestures navigation.

 

[chas_m]

My biggest issue with Lion was the "natural scrolling" -- I *hated* it at first and quickly turned it off. A month later, I decided to take my own advice )) and give it a full, open-minded try. Fifteen minutes later I was fine with it (brain re-wired itself I guess) and now it seems completely, well, natural.

 

[kamerdoc23]

Oh my. So I'm the originator of this thread. I've been a "switcher" for two months now and this forum has been invaluable in making the transition incredibly smooth. Thank you everyone for all of the help.

I was undecided on upgrading to Lion or not, hence the thread. I gave in and upgraded when my roommate came home with a new Mac. Had to buy the mouse, too =)

I can't believe, now that I have had Lion for more than a week, that it took me this long.
Seamless update.
No loss in performance.
No problem with the lack of scroll bars.
Ability to make multiple desktops! ----->
Ability to make multiple desktops! ---------> BEST FEATURE ONLY EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ability to make multiple desktops! ----->

I'm so happy I switched. I can't believe it only cost me $30 and took less than 2 hours.
If it wasn't for work I would never use Windows again.

 

[j0nb0y32]

My biggest issue with Lion was the "natural scrolling" -- I *hated* it at first and quickly turned it off. A month later, I decided to take my own advice )) and give it a full, open-minded try. Fifteen minutes later I was fine with it (brain re-wired itself I guess) and now it seems completely, well, natural.

haha, that was me also, although i haven't yet gone back...

 

[masqueofanarchy]

Can somebody summarize the above for me...?

New member, old user. I've got tons of questions, but the most crucial is this one. I'm getting to that point where all your favorite simplicities about your macbook become complexities. (ie. .docx and icloud)

Mid-2007 Macbook and an iPhone 4/iPad 2 don't mesh well. I think I'm just starting to figure 10.6 out, but 10.7 is laughing at me with iCloud. Apple may have lost a strong enthusiast in their cheap and pathetic refusal of 10.6.9.

1. Can the oldschool Macbook handle the switch? 2GB Ram, but not really spritely as it is.

2. Any way to make 10.6 more iOS/sync friendly?

 

[J.Fo]

1. Can the oldschool Macbook handle the switch? 2GB Ram, but not really spritely as it is.

What's the CPU? We have a white MacBook from that era with a 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo and it runs Lion just fine. Then again, it also has 4GB of RAM, so I'm sure that helps a bit. With RAM of that sort (2x 2 GB sticks) costing roughly $50 these days, upgrading isn't out of the question either, I think.

 

[chas_m]

Apple may have lost a strong enthusiast in their cheap and pathetic refusal of 10.6.9.

Really? You think Windows is going to treat you better somehow? Seriously, are you that fickle or are you just venting?

1. Can the oldschool Macbook handle the switch? 2GB Ram, but not really spritely as it is.

I have a late 2007 BlackBook running Lion just fine on 3GB of RAM. Use it for business and pleasure for way too many hours per day.

2. Any way to make 10.6 more iOS/sync friendly?

Snow Leopard is perfectly sync friendly right now, it just doesn't have iCloud. I have a number of clients and friends using 10.6 and they're not having any trouble at all with their syncing to the iDevices.

 

[delfromnsw]

Hey just adding my experience.....

Upgraded from SL to Lion on my 27in Imac! What a disaster!!!!! Wifi printing would not work at all! Yet had just purchased Macbook Pro with Lion pre-installed and it worked fine so knew the network was all good. After 2 months of talking with the "genius" (sic) at Apple, no help at all and searching forums... I found I needed to update my driver from THE APPLE SITE. Yep, you go to Epson, no driver for Lion!! Then stumbled upon forum that said Apple have written their OWN drivers for the printer suppliers who are too slack? dumb? lazy? to do it themselves! It was a real dig around, but finally found it and go it working!!

Another "what the ****" question is..... I have high school kids, and we use imovie a lot to create school projects etc, there is no longer idvd in Lion!!! What is so stupid is when you purchase a BRAND NEW LAPTOP not the upgrade as I also did, you get imovie which still says "share with idvd" - are apple so stupid as to not remove this function so us "oldies" who are used to idvd - don't spend hours of their life (which I will never get back again) searching for copies of this to find it doesn't exist any longer in Lion! Okay found a work around, but still!

I love my magic trackpad with lion operating system, once you get used to the hand movements, it's fantastic! Although a little sore on the finger tips, I found using a slight sprinkle of baby powder on the trackpad does the trick. (hope it doesn't stuff up the electrics in the long run)

I'm even using Microsoft products on the Mac - Remote Desktop Connection to a TS within our office has enabled us to do away with the PC - (piece of crap) and go all out Mac. We can now use our Microsoft Access and PC accounting software on our macs on a seperate desktop - with the easy swipe between desktops back and forth it's a breeze!!!!

Hope this has been helpful to anyone. Conclusion, stick with Snow Leopard until they get all the final bugs out of Lion!

 

[Discerptor]

Mid-2007 Macbook and an iPhone 4/iPad 2 don't mesh well. I think I'm just starting to figure 10.6 out, but 10.7 is laughing at me with iCloud. Apple may have lost a strong enthusiast in their cheap and pathetic refusal of 10.6.9.

It is kind of ridiculous that Apple is willing to support even Windows Vista but not OS X Snow Leopard. Oh well, you can still use the web interface.

1. Can the oldschool Macbook handle the switch? 2GB Ram, but not really spritely as it is.

Mid 2007 should be able to install Lion, since it has a Core 2 Duo. I would advise installing an additional GB of RAM if you really want to install Lion, though. Running Lion on 2GB is like running Vista on 512MB. Technically possible, but not at all recommended.

2. Any way to make 10.6 more iOS/sync friendly?

Even if you don't use iCloud to sync, iOS 5 introduced syncing over WiFi so you at least don't have to plug in a USB cable anymore. The icloud.com web interface also provides basic control over several iCloud items, assuming you've already set up iCloud on your iOS device. Finally, if your primary use for iCloud is going to be syncing music and apps you buy on the iTunes store, you don't actually need Lion to do that: iCloud on the phone and iPad automatically detect what you've bought through your AppleID on the computer's iTunes and vice-versa. Just make sure you activate iCloud on your iPad or phone first and make sure that AppleID is the one you have assigned to the other iOS device as well as iTunes on your Mac.

EDIT: Forgot Apple lied about the maximum installable RAM for the mid 2007 MacBooks.

 

[Tubbycub]

I just downgraded back to Leopard.
Lion was a bit silly.

You no longer can see what HDD you have left when opening any folder..
I know you can get that info at About this mac but it was much more easier the leopard way.

I also hated the auto spell check. Annoyed the **** out of me. Among a few other things.
Why ruin something that was magnificent?

 

[J.Fo]

You no longer can see what HDD you have left when opening any folder..
I know you can get that info at About this mac but it was much more easier the leopard way.

You can see this. Just select View > Show Status Bar. There it is!

 

[Spellbinder]

Did a clean install of Lion on my iMac that shipped with Snow Leopard. Lion is ROCK SOLID. No issues from 10.7.1 through 10.7.3

Brilliant release, Apple!

 

[Germany_chris]

you guys can keep Lion I think I'll opt out..

 

[dtravis7]

I just downgraded back to Leopard.
Lion was a bit silly.

You no longer can see what HDD you have left when opening any folder..
I know you can get that info at About this mac but it was much more easier the leopard way.

I also hated the auto spell check. Annoyed the **** out of me. Among a few other things.
Why ruin something that was magnificent?

You had something set wrong in Lion. Look at the screen shot. 10.7.3.

You can turn off Auto Spellcheck.

 

[dtravis7]

you guys can keep Lion I think I'll opt out..

Your choice but SL will be very out of date in the very near future. Maybe Windows 8 Cloud will be the future for you and others!