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Is DP4 stable enough for everyday usage?

k4show said:
I was thinking about trying it out before the July release. I don't have any important documents on my Mac since I just got it a week ago.
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It's still a work in progress. It's pretty fast, but it also has many very annoying and obvious bugs not to mention the stuff you can't just see.


People that say it's GM quality or close to GM have no clue. It's at least few months away from being GM (just as Apple said it will be on sale in July). I wouldn't be surprised if they drag things a bit. Better later if that's what it takes.
 
ive had a few app freezes and crashes, but a lot less than DP3, and everything feels a little quicker IMO. could be used as a main OS, but dont expect perfection.

cant wait for the GM build :)
 
Žalgiris;12720809 said:
It's still a work in progress. It's pretty fast, but it also has many very annoying and obvious bugs not to mention the stuff you can't just see.


People that say it's GM quality or close to GM have no clue. It's at least few months away from being GM (just as Apple said it will be on sale in July). I wouldn't be surprised if they drag things a bit. Better later if that's what it takes.
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Er that is next month, not months. I'm using it as my main OS and despite a couple of things, it's fine for my everyday usage. Whether or not it's fine for you is down to you, on the whole though I'm very impressed with this update, feels very light and snappy - once the bugs are fully ironed out, Apple can rest assured they will get their £20 from me :)
 
I installed DP4 and I can say it's very stable, I'm using it as my main with SL backed up in case something goes wrong but so far it's perfect!
 
admmasters said:
Er that is next month, not months. I'm using it as my main OS and despite a couple of things, it's fine for my everyday usage. Whether or not it's fine for you is down to you, on the whole though I'm very impressed with this update, feels very light and snappy - once the bugs are fully ironed out, Apple can rest assured they will get their £20 from me :)
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It's still ⅔ of june and whole july left, so as far as i'm concerned it's still months.

You can use it that's fine, but it's still far from GM.
 
I found it works well enough but still has some rough edges.

I don't see the point in using it at all nothing really improved over Snow Leopard that you cant do without.
 
I am finding a lot of apps (mostly utilities) don't work right or not at all yet. Same as when SL hit. It will take time if you are used to certain apps and don't want to give them up.
 
I've been using Lion as my main OS on my laptop since DP1 and apart from the odd annoyance i've not had any major problems. However after installing DP4 i've now upgraded my iMac to Lion as really for the work I do it really is a very stable and fast operation system!

I'd quite happily say, go for it and install Lion. However, just make sure you have a good backup system just in case you want to go back to Leopard if you have any problems!
 
No. Still far too buggy.

In order to get my sound to work, I had to plug in an external USB sound card; and this was after 4 fresh installations, including one where I installed Snow Leopard fresh first.

With an "upgrade" install before, my video stopped working after a few hours.

On this most recent fresh install, my keyboard "repeat" has stopped working, and some apps can't seem to properly save preferences.

So no, I wouldn't say it's a general release build. Best to leave it to the developers for now to do what they do best: make their applications work with the operating system properly, and report bugs. Wait until the release, or at least the GM if you're that antsy. Yes, some of the new features are really nice, but they're not worth things randomly breaking.

If you insist on installing it, I must insist that you do so with a Carbon Copy Cloner/SuperDuper! bootable clone on an external drive as a backup. To do otherwise is plain stupidity.
 
I seems to perform differently on different Mac's on my MacMini 2010 it's performing well on my 2009 iMac performance is rather shaky lots of little bugs everywhere.
 
vultureboy said:
I've been using Lion as my main OS on my laptop since DP1 and apart from the odd annoyance i've not had any major problems. However after installing DP4 i've now upgraded my iMac to Lion as really for the work I do it really is a very stable and fast operation system!

I'd quite happily say, go for it and install Lion. However, just make sure you have a good backup system just in case you want to go back to Leopard if you have any problems!
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Do you know that an update from the developer preview to the final version won't be possible? At least that is what the release notes of the developer preview 4 version mention...
 
petvas said:
Do you know that an update from the developer preview to the final version won't be possible? At least that is what the release notes of the developer preview 4 version mention...
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It's not gonna show up on Software Update, the same way that DP4 didn't show up as a software update for DP3. Developers will get the GM which is basically what will be put on the App Store.
 
Psilocybin said:
What a load of crap. Just because it's not the final release doesn't mean its not stable

Ignore this stupid comment

Yes I use it everyday with no problems
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True. I updated from SL and I'm using it as my primary OS and it's as stable as stable gets at least for the average user. The only annoying thing is that Spotlight is taking ages to re-index... But Safari has won me back. It's stable, faster and I don't get the beach ball every 2 seconds.
 
Psilocybin said:
What a load of crap. Just because it's not the final release doesn't mean its not stable

Ignore this stupid comment

Yes I use it everyday with no problems
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I repeat, if people were able to use Lion everyday with no problems, it would be out of the preview phase and available for purchase already. The DPs are strictly for developers to update existing software for the new APIs as well as file bug reports.

Not only does the seed note include a list of known issues, the developer forums are filled with people describing bugs and crashes. For example, TextEdit has a bug where it inadvertently renames certain system files to have a "txt" extension, and Launchpad has database corruption issues. This is not a stable system ready for daily use.

RJCP said:
True. I updated from SL and I'm using it as my primary OS and it's as stable as stable gets at least for the average user. The only annoying thing is that Spotlight is taking ages to re-index... But Safari has won me back. It's stable, faster and I don't get the beach ball every 2 seconds.
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Apple strongly warns developers from using Lion as their primary OS. You're taking a gamble if you keep vital files on it exclusively, not to mention you won't be able to upgrade from it to the final release. I know people are having fun downloading the OS using alternative means and installing it to check out the latest changes, but like I said, if it was ready for daily use by the public, Apple would be selling it already.
 
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RJCP said:
It's not gonna show up on Software Update, the same way that DP4 didn't show up as a software update for DP3. Developers will get the GM which is basically what will be put on the App Store.
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The GM might go through several revisions like Xcode 4 did before being made publicly available. GM seeds are Apple's version of release candidates.
 
slb said:
I repeat, if people were able to use Lion everyday with no problems, it would be out of the preview phase and available for purchase already. The DPs are strictly for developers to update existing software for the new APIs as well as file bug reports.

Not only does the seed note include a list of known issues, the developer forums are filled with people describing bugs and crashes. For example, TextEdit has a bug where it inadvertently renames certain system files to have a "txt" extension, and Launchpad has database corruption issues. This is not a stable system ready for daily use.



Apple strongly warns developers from using Lion as their primary OS. You're taking a gamble if you keep vital files on it exclusively, not to mention you won't be able to upgrade from it to the final release. I know people are having fun downloading the OS using alternative means and installing it to check out the latest changes, but like I said, if it was ready for daily use by the public, Apple would be selling it already.
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But people upgraded from the DP's of SL to the final version. Apple won't allow you to update from a DP to a GM through software update in order to clean up the DP code faults, but you can download the final version and upgrade your system with it. If it wouldn't be possible to upgrade from a DP to the release version, developers would be stuck on the DP's.
 
I've been using it for a few days now as my main OS, and only OS. It's very stable and works great. The only problem I have is Mail keeps force closing every 10 mins or so. I'm trying to think what it might be doing that could cause it, as it's a shame to have it. Oh well.
 
I started using it on Monday. I'm going back to the latest version of SL. It still isn't that stable for obvious reasons. My apps are hanging at times, crashing for no reason, and as little as it may seem I cannot stand the new finder.

There is really nothing new I care for in Lion. I guess I would try iCloud with iOS but that doesn't even come out until the fall.
 
linkandzelda said:
I've been using it for a few days now as my main OS, and only OS. It's very stable and works great. The only problem I have is Mail keeps force closing every 10 mins or so. I'm trying to think what it might be doing that could cause it, as it's a shame to have it. Oh well.
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Have you added the iCloud to your DP4 install? Some have noticed the iCloud IMAP account that the OS creates causes mail to crash. Once removed manually or unchecked so it does not sync, mail does not crash.
 
RJCP said:
If it wouldn't be possible to upgrade from a DP to the release version, developers would be stuck on the DP's.
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You won't be able to upgrade the DP to the final version. Developers are discouraged from running DPs on a main partition anyway. Most are booting off external drives or other partitions they expect to be wiped at release.

This is from the seed note:

Mac OS X Lion Developer Preview 4 is prerelease software. Do not use this prerelease software in a commercial operating environment or with important data. You should back up all of your data before installing this software and regularly back up data while using the software. You will not be able to upgrade from the Lion Developer Preview 4 to the final Lion release.
 
slb said:
You won't be able to upgrade the DP to the final version. Developers are discouraged from running DPs on a main partition anyway. Most are booting off external drives or other partitions they expect to be wiped at release.

This is from the seed note:

Mac OS X Lion Developer Preview 4 is prerelease software. Do not use this prerelease software in a commercial operating environment or with important data. You should back up all of your data before installing this software and regularly back up data while using the software. You will not be able to upgrade from the Lion Developer Preview 4 to the final Lion release.
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That's a good thing because DP4 is fought with problems and compatibility issues. I don't see how they are going to iron all this out in 30 days.
 
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