First impressions: Underwhelmed

[bungiefan89]

I upgraded my iMac from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion today. Installation was clean and perfectly successful and now... I'm kind of disappointed.

Dictation is a nice little feature that I may have fun with some time in the future. It's also nice to have a proper "maximize" button for the windows but a few things are starting to bug me in the first few hours of using ML:

1) I keep getting security notifications. "Google chrome wants permission to acces your contacts," "Alfred wants permission to access your contacts". Annoying little windows that I have to click OK on keep popping up. Hopefully these will wear off after a while, but for now they're quite displeasing to see... and my "contacts" application is empty!

2) Software Update is gone! I loved Software Update SO much! It was such a delightful, perfectly working little app. And it's been replaced with a part of the App Store which doesn't show the size of the individual downloads until I start to download them. This is quite the downgrade. RIP, Software Update!

3) Spaces is gone... I guess I'll get used to this. :/

Aside from that, I'm struggling to find any real differences to the OS overall. Some things have changed visually but... not much of an improvement, I'd say.

I DO like that you can now resize the windows from ANY side or corner like in Windows 7. And Notifications looks like it could come in use once I get notified of something, but for now, I just feel kind of meh about this new OS.

Thoughts?

 

[JesterJJZ]

I don't have it yet, but to me it seems like ML is what Lion was supposed to be in the first place. Lion seemed very rushed to me.

 

[jive turkey]

1) I keep getting security notifications. "Google chrome wants permission to acces your contacts," "Alfred wants permission to access your contacts". Annoying little windows that I have to click OK on keep popping up. Hopefully these will wear off after a while, but for now they're quite displeasing to see... and my "contacts" application is empty!


Thoughts?

There has got to be someway to turn this off (perhaps one of you guys who understand Terminal better than me can do it). I have spent half my time with ML denying apps access to my contacts list. And soon, as more apps are updated for ML, those popups will occur with every single program.

I agree with you, it is ridiculous. I can't even flip over to Dashboard without getting that stupid prompt. I'm sure there is a way to automatically deny all requests, but I haven't found it yet.

 

[adztaylor]

I don't have it yet, but to me it seems like ML is what Lion was supposed to be in the first place. Lion seemed very rushed to me.

I agree, I feel ML is a very polished more optimised Lion.

 

[MassiveAttack]

I'm also disappointed on software update. I don't like how it opens up the app store.

 

[Zelf24]

Integration to the OS through Software Update just seemed so tight before. Now with the App Store Software Update, I feel like I'm going through a browser to update official Apple software. It just feels so unprofessional and disconnected now, like I installed a third party software update program.

 

[-MRB]

+1 For Software Update!

 

[iLog.Genius]

What do you mean Spaces is gone? Agree with software update, it offers nothing other than a way for Apple to get their customers to look at the App Store. Software Update old method was perfect and straight forward.

 

[scaredpoet]

3) Spaces is gone... I guess I'll get used to this. :/

Spaces isn't really gone. It's functionality has just changed and is part of mission control now. If you launch Mission control, and move your mouse to the upper right you can add "desktops" that act like spaces. You can also switch between any new desktops you add.

 

[El Burro]

Two seconds after Jobs is dead, Apple starts turning back to number two.

 

[adztaylor]

Two seconds after Jobs is dead, Apple starts turning back to number two.

Oh give it a rest . Like nothing was EVER wrong under the Jobs era.

 

[iPhoneApple]

Mountain lion is really fast. I'm on 2GB of RAM and it's so smooth.

 

[sweetbrat]

Two seconds after Jobs is dead, Apple starts turning back to number two.

Please, do we have to start this again? It has nothing to do with Steve's death. Give it a rest.

 

[El Burro]

Oh give it a rest . Like nothing was EVER wrong under the Jobs era.

No, not really. At least nothing of significance.

 

[MisterMe]

Whether or not you like Software Update notwithstanding, the new setup is much more logical. Under Lion, you had to check to check both the Mac App Store and Software Update to ensure that your Apple software was up-to-date. Now you have one-stop shopping at the Mac App Store. You may still check Software Update if you want. However, SU takes you to the Mac App Store for downloads. This is a nearly perfect compromise between logic and familiarity. It is hard to see how this is a bad thing.

 

[sweetbrat]

No, I'm just not a fool like yourself, fan-girl

Wait, someone is a fool or a fan-girl for saying that things weren't perfect under Steve Jobs? That makes no sense whatsoever. Usually the term or fanboy is used for someone that defends Apple to no end, which isn't what's happening here. Apple has had many blunders along the way, many of them under Steve Jobs. If you don't realize that then you're not able to think critically.

I'm a huge Apple fan, but Steve Jobs was far from perfect. The company isn't going to crap just because he died.

 

[mortfe]

Upgraded to Mountain Lion last night. What a piece of junk. It is horrible. Takes a year & a day to open any app, from Adobe CS6 to MS Office 2011. Safari even a bigger joke. Just hangs, at least 20-to 30 seconds to open any page. Does anyone know if you can revert back to Lion? Almost to the point of not waiting for new iMacs and getting one now with Lion installed.

 

[adztaylor]

Wait, someone is a fool or a fan-girl for saying that things weren't perfect under Steve Jobs? That makes no sense whatsoever. Usually the term or fanboy is used for someone that defends Apple to no end, which isn't what's happening here. Apple has had many blunders along the way, many of them under Steve Jobs. If you don't realize that then you're not able to think critically.

I'm a huge Apple fan, but Steve Jobs was far from perfect. The company isn't going to crap just because he died.

I seriously wouldn't waste your time. He'll dismiss your well worded response with some half brained insult.

 

[sweetbrat]

Upgraded to Mountain Lion last night. What a piece of junk. It is horrible. Takes a year & a day to open any app, from Adobe CS6 to MS Office 2011. Safari even a bigger joke. Just hangs, at least 20-to 30 seconds to open any page. Does anyone know if you can revert back to Lion? Almost to the point of not waiting for new iMacs and getting one now with Lion installed.

What are you running it on? Have you checked activity monitor? Is it indexing? Most people have found it to improve performance, so my guess is that there's something else going on causing your problems. Do you want help getting it to run correctly, or do you just want to complain about how bad it is and revert to Lion?

 

[El Burro]

Wait, someone is a fool or a fan-girl for saying that things weren't perfect under Steve Jobs? That makes no sense whatsoever. Usually the term or fanboy is used for someone that defends Apple to no end, which isn't what's happening here.

This is coming from someone who is obviously very biased and has in their signature, "15" MacBook Pro 2.2GHz i7 AG, 8GB RAM, Crucial M4 256MB SSD (Early 2011); 15" MacBook Pro (late 2008); Mac Pro 1,1 2.66GHz Dual-Core Xeon; iPhone 4S 32GB; 6th gen iPod Nano." A bit obsessive, no? Always the fangirls who think that Apple can do no wrong/evil. Ironically, you are the one who is unable to think critically.

I'm a huge Apple fan, but Steve Jobs was far from perfect. The company isn't going to crap just because he died.

I don't care about his personality, I care about his results. There was nothing significantly bad under his leadership. The fact that you can't even mention any of these supposed shortcomings and mistakes is noteworthy.

And yes, it is going to crap, slowly but surely. It's becoming more like Microsoft & constricting the user's freedom as we saw from Lion. One-size fits all. They even dropped the 17" MBP and alienating niche markets for maximizing profit in any possible. They're also running out of ideas too which is why Mountain Lion isn't really an upgrade as it is just system tweaks.

 

[sexiewasd]

What do you mean Spaces is gone? Agree with software update, it offers nothing other than a way for Apple to get their customers to look at the App Store. Software Update old method was perfect and straight forward.

Software Update being integrated into the app store makes sense. There is no need to have two separate places to update your software. The linux world realized this quite a while ago when Ubuntu removed Synaptic from the default installation. I can only hope that spotlight will be able to catch up to unity's search, because frankly it blows spotlight out of the water. It's the same with Nautilus and finder.

I haven't had any popups asking for permissions. The first thing that I did was turn off gatekeeper, maybe thats what did it?

Overall I feel that lion was what it was supposed to be, the start of a transition into iOS integration, a baby step. I feel that Mountain Lion is another baby step when Apple should have been doing a cannonball into the deep end.

I would have liked to see some more of the iOS apps integrated by now. Where's Siri, and my weather and stocks in notification center, or the new Maps app? Why isn't Facebook integrated? How about the camera app, because honestly Photobooth is as gimmicky as it is ugly, and heck maybe we could start getting some decent cameras built into these things? I'd love to see them get the iPhone's cameras. Yes, both of them. I'm actually really glad that the Newsstand app is absent, but I'd take and use iBooks.

Over all I think that the steps that they've taken with Mountain Lion are in the right direction for sure, but they should have waited to release along side of iOS6 and worked for tighter integration between devices, and for the love of all things good let my iPod Airplay mirror to my Macbook!

 

[Smoothie]

Upgraded to Mountain Lion last night. What a piece of junk. It is horrible. Takes a year & a day to open any app, from Adobe CS6 to MS Office 2011. Safari even a bigger joke. Just hangs, at least 20-to 30 seconds to open any page. Does anyone know if you can revert back to Lion? Almost to the point of not waiting for new iMacs and getting one now with Lion installed.

I upgraded from SL, and ML is working fine for me. However, after installing it, I decided to check the crash reports in the console and discovered something was generating a report every 10 seconds even though the system appeared to be operating OK. After some sleuthing, I determined it was a kext file left over from a program I uninstalled two years ago. When I removed the kext file, the crash reports stopped. My point is that there could be something on your system that's not compatible with ML, causing a slow down. In my case, I believe this particular kernel extension was 32-bit and will not run in ML. It's worth checking the console.

 

[baryon]

First impressions:

• Slowest boot ever (15 minutes)
• First thing that happens: you have to install Java, indexing hard drive, everything is bloody slow as hell
• Nice dock
• Finally the desktop icons don't "fade in" when you change desktops, but they're already there when you swipe
• Notification centre seems cool even if it's almost empty - can't figure out what will and won't work with it
• Java update said "5 seconds remaining" when I started writing this post, it still says that
• Can't do anything really until Java finishes installing
• Still can't tell me the progress of indexing even though I've booted 15 mins ago
• Why the hell is that big Reader button in Safari? I won't ever use it, can't remove it…
• Green + button in Safari still doesn't work! This has been like this since Leopard, at least! What the hell.

 

[nuckinfutz]

Upgraded to Mountain Lion last night. What a piece of junk. It is horrible. Takes a year & a day to open any app, from Adobe CS6 to MS Office 2011. Safari even a bigger joke. Just hangs, at least 20-to 30 seconds to open any page. Does anyone know if you can revert back to Lion? Almost to the point of not waiting for new iMacs and getting one now with Lion installed.

There is something wrong with your installation. Notice how few others are complaining about the same issue.

Not really sure where the nostalgia for SU is coming from. I'd rather have ONE place to update everything. It's likely that the MAS updates are delta updates so size issues in some cases may not be that big of a deal.

Love having Notification Center. I've already tried Airplay streaming to my HDTV (watched Louis CK last standup) and sync was great and audio never had any issues.

iCloud documents in the cloud works well and even PowerNap is cool because i'll wake up from sleep and the MAS has already checked for updates and my mail and other stuff is done.

I'm liking Mountain Lion so far and it should only get better. $20 should tell you that Apple wasn't expecting to give you a hard on with this OS update.

 

[j800r]

Upgraded to Mountain Lion last night. What a piece of junk. It is horrible. Takes a year & a day to open any app, from Adobe CS6 to MS Office 2011. Safari even a bigger joke. Just hangs, at least 20-to 30 seconds to open any page. Does anyone know if you can revert back to Lion? Almost to the point of not waiting for new iMacs and getting one now with Lion installed.

I'm afraid you're in the very low minority there. You wanna get your system checked because I and many others can guarantee you that it's not the OS. Performance compared to Lion is BETTER if anything.

Tbh, that's really all the OS has going for it at the moment for those who don't own an iOS device (like me). Notification Centre is fantastic in concept but completely useless as no third-party devs have started supporting it yet! This is absolutely disgusting considering they've had dev versions through most of the year and PLENTY of time to work with the AI. Google Chrome were able to do it. So why couldn't Trillian, Transmission and lord knows how many other apps!
This is the fault of the third-party devs however, not Apple.

What IS the fault of Apple is that the Twitter integration is incomplete. It only notifies you on a mention or direct message which means you are NOT notified of a new Tweet meaning you'd either have to periodically visit the website (eradicating the point of Twitter integration), use a Twitter client (again eradicating the point of Twitter integration) or just be an ignorant sod who doesn't care about what others have to say and just spam your own tweets. Still...that's only a minor gripe as I hardly ever checked tweets from people I followed anyways.