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bigpoppamac31

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 16, 2007
2,454
439
Canada
I'm currently running 10.7 Lion and I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to upgrade to Mountain Lion?? The big thing I want is AirPlay but if there's a way around that (preferably wirelessly) then let me know. Right now I don't see any advantages to upgrading. OS X 10.7 is doing fine for me. I do miss things like Expose from Snow Leopard though. I don't like Mission Control. Anyway thanks for any feedback. Sorry if there's a thread on this. If there is please direct me. Thanks.
 

mwhities

macrumors 6502a
Jul 13, 2011
899
0
Mississippi
My Macbook Pro (Early 2011) is compatible with AirPlay. That still does not answer my question of whether it is sensible to upgrade to ML or not. Or should I wait until 10.9?? If I waited would I need to upgrade to ML to get 10.9??

I would say it is but, I only have a 2010 Macbook. When I went from Lion to ML, I noticed a big difference. Then I upgraded ram and updated the hard drive to a SSD drive.

Granted, that my not help with your dilemma but, I figure it'd only help your 2011 more.
 

Spink10

Suspended
Nov 3, 2011
4,261
1,020
Oklahoma
My Macbook Pro (Early 2011) is compatible with AirPlay. That still does not answer my question of whether it is sensible to upgrade to ML or not. Or should I wait until 10.9?? If I waited would I need to upgrade to ML to get 10.9??

I would upgrade.

You were able to go from SL TO ML so I image you will be able to go from Lion to 10.9
 

bigpoppamac31

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 16, 2007
2,454
439
Canada
I would say it is but, I only have a 2010 Macbook. When I went from Lion to ML, I noticed a big difference. Then I upgraded ram and updated the hard drive to a SSD drive.

Granted, that my not help with your dilemma but, I figure it'd only help your 2011 more.

Hmm okay. I'm just curious to know. it seems there's been a lot of mixed reviews on ML so I just wanted some feedback on whether is was worthwhile to upgrade. I'm not too keen on iOS type things being integrated into the Mac OS. I think they should be separate. They can still be seamless with each other and not be the same. Anyway just my two cents. Thanks for the reply.
 

Krazy Bill

macrumors 68030
Dec 21, 2011
2,985
3
I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to upgrade to Mountain Lion??

That still does not answer my question of whether it is sensible to upgrade to ML or not.

I just wanted some feedback on whether is was worthwhile to upgrade.

Sensible? Worthwhile? Holy crap dude, how can anyone answer this for you? Look at the features list and decide if those are things you want from your OS that you don't already have.
 

bigpoppamac31

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 16, 2007
2,454
439
Canada
Sensible? Worthwhile? Holy crap dude, how can anyone answer this for you? Look at the features list and decide if those are things you want from your OS that you don't already have.

Okay how about this. Is it "stable" enough?? I've heard some people say ML is Apple's equivalent of MS Windows. That it wasn't that stable and had lots of issues. I guess that's what's I'm trying to get at. I don't care about the features. Will it screw up my Mac or is it a solid and stable OS like Apple claims it is (as they always do)? My Mac came with Lion as opposed to Snow Leopard as I was hoping. I bought it off the Apple refurbished site.
 

nuckinfutz

macrumors 603
Jul 3, 2002
5,542
406
Middle Earth
Okay how about this. Is it "stable" enough?? I've heard some people say ML is Apple's equivalent of MS Windows. That it wasn't that stable and had lots of issues. I guess that's what's I'm trying to get at. I don't care about the features. Will it screw up my Mac or is it a solid and stable OS like Apple claims it is (as they always do)? My Mac came with Lion as opposed to Snow Leopard as I was hoping. I bought it off the Apple refurbished site.

Granted i've got a 2011 Macbook Air but the stability and performance of Mountain Lion has been great. Safari has definitely improved as well as my virtual memory performance.

Notification Center is nice and more and more apps are tying into it. I'm really used to the easy sharing feature now as well. The little things in ML have made a solid contribution to my workflow.
 

bigpoppamac31

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 16, 2007
2,454
439
Canada
Granted i've got a 2011 Macbook Air but the stability and performance of Mountain Lion has been great. Safari has definitely improved as well as my virtual memory performance.

Notification Center is nice and more and more apps are tying into it. I'm really used to the easy sharing feature now as well. The little things in ML have made a solid contribution to my workflow.

Well I have Safari 6. Not a fan at all of the new address bar/search combination. They should have left it separate. Also a feature I don't get in Lion is the new "tab browsing" in Safari. If I can turn that off then it's cool.

Notification Centre may be decent but it's not a big deal for me. Facebook and Twitter integration I have no interest in even though I use both. And I definitely have no interest in iCloud whatsoever. I don't want my files in a "cloud" somewhere where other people can see them. I don't care for "big brother" to watch over me thank you.

But again if I were to skip ML would I end up needing it anyway to get 10.9?
 

nuckinfutz

macrumors 603
Jul 3, 2002
5,542
406
Middle Earth
Well I have Safari 6. Not a fan at all of the new address bar/search combination. They should have left it separate. Also a feature I don't get in Lion is the new "tab browsing" in Safari. If I can turn that off then it's cool.

Notification Centre may be decent but it's not a big deal for me. Facebook and Twitter integration I have no interest in even though I use both. And I definitely have no interest in iCloud whatsoever. I don't want my files in a "cloud" somewhere where other people can see them. I don't care for "big brother" to watch over me thank you.

But again if I were to skip ML would I end up needing it anyway to get 10.9?

Probably not. You'd probably be able to jump from 10.7 to 10.9 much like 10.6 users get to jump to 10.8 for the same price.
 

JBat

macrumors regular
Apr 6, 2007
158
17
Washington
Well I have Safari 6. Not a fan at all of the new address bar/search combination. They should have left it separate. Also a feature I don't get in Lion is the new "tab browsing" in Safari. If I can turn that off then it's cool.

Notification Centre may be decent but it's not a big deal for me. Facebook and Twitter integration I have no interest in even though I use both. And I definitely have no interest in iCloud whatsoever. I don't want my files in a "cloud" somewhere where other people can see them. I don't care for "big brother" to watch over me thank you.

But again if I were to skip ML would I end up needing it anyway to get 10.9?
The address/search combo would not have been my first choice either, but it works fine. Command L and you're ready to search. And you don't have to use tabbed browsing if you don't want to, just open one window. I believe you can also set Safari preferences to have links open in new windows as opposed to another tab.

My 2012 MBA came with ML and I've had no major issues with it. Mostly just adapting to the new features. I think this version of Safari is very good.
 

bigpoppamac31

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 16, 2007
2,454
439
Canada
The address/search combo would not have been my first choice either, but it works fine. Command L and you're ready to search. And you don't have to use tabbed browsing if you don't want to, just open one window. I believe you can also set Safari preferences to have links open in new windows as opposed to another tab.

My 2012 MBA came with ML and I've had no major issues with it. Mostly just adapting to the new features. I think this version of Safari is very good.

Correction. I meant "tab view". lol I don't want to have to "swipe" between to see each tab. I loved having the tabs like they had always been and are now on my Mac with Safari 6. I can see all the tabs lined across the top. I don't need to "swipe" to see each one.
 

Jenni8

macrumors member
Apr 27, 2011
87
0
CA
I think it was worth it. Although after doing an upgrade from SL to Lion to ML it seemed to not be 'right.' I just had my hard drive replaced from the hard drive recall and it allowed me to start fresh from ML, as I was already looking into a clean install. I can't believe the difference. Not only I don't have certain bugs anymore, that I may or may not have created along the way, but it allowed me to be clean again from scratch. I was having issues with my iMac eating up my internet bandwidth bad, when I first upgraded to ML. Now that problem is Gone and I have no idea why as I didn't change any internet settings from my router. But it was the main thing that started happening as soon as I upgraded and now the problem doesn't exist. For the price I love it. Just back it up first in case you want to go back.

I think it's worth it, but you'll never know unless you give it a try. Like maybe checking out the system at a store first.
 

Michaelgtrusa

macrumors 604
Oct 13, 2008
7,900
1,821
I think it was worth it. Although after doing an upgrade from SL to Lion to ML it seemed to not be 'right.' I just had my hard drive replaced from the hard drive recall and it allowed me to start fresh from ML, as I was already looking into a clean install. I can't believe the difference. Not only I don't have certain bugs anymore, that I may or may not have created along the way, but it allowed me to be clean again from scratch. I was having issues with my iMac eating up my internet bandwidth bad, when I first upgraded to ML. Now that problem is Gone and I have no idea why as I didn't change any internet settings from my router. But it was the main thing that started happening as soon as I upgraded and now the problem doesn't exist. For the price I love it. Just back it up first in case you want to go back.

I think it's worth it, but you'll never know unless you give it a try. Like maybe checking out the system at a store first.

Glad to hear that clean install has worked out for you. The one thing i noticed was better memory use from the start.
 

bigpoppamac31

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 16, 2007
2,454
439
Canada
I think it was worth it. Although after doing an upgrade from SL to Lion to ML it seemed to not be 'right.' I just had my hard drive replaced from the hard drive recall and it allowed me to start fresh from ML, as I was already looking into a clean install. I can't believe the difference. Not only I don't have certain bugs anymore, that I may or may not have created along the way, but it allowed me to be clean again from scratch. I was having issues with my iMac eating up my internet bandwidth bad, when I first upgraded to ML. Now that problem is Gone and I have no idea why as I didn't change any internet settings from my router. But it was the main thing that started happening as soon as I upgraded and now the problem doesn't exist. For the price I love it. Just back it up first in case you want to go back.

I think it's worth it, but you'll never know unless you give it a try. Like maybe checking out the system at a store first.

I've played with it a number of times at the Apple Store. I always wait for a couple of updates first to come out before I jump to the next OS. How would I go about doing a "clean install"?? I have my mac backed up on an external HD. I clone my drive so if my internal dies I can boot up to my external and continue where I left off.
 

bristleworm

macrumors 6502
Jul 22, 2008
295
25
Germany
On my 2009 MacBook Lion was quite slow. Upgrading to ML really increased performance on my machine. I'd never go back to Lion.
I did have a few crashes, but only in the beginning. 10.8.2 runs extremely stable for me.
 

bigpoppamac31

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 16, 2007
2,454
439
Canada
On my 2009 MacBook Lion was quite slow. Upgrading to ML really increased performance on my machine. I'd never go back to Lion.
I did have a few crashes, but only in the beginning. 10.8.2 runs extremely stable for me.

Okay cool. Thanks. It just seems ML has very mixed reviews on the Mac App Store. Some think it's great while others have had tons of problems. This is kinda why I initiated this thread. I've never seen a Mac OS version have so many mixed reviews. It's like SL was the last rock solid Mac OS and Apple has been getting lazy ever since. I kinda feel like they have and all they care about is the iPhone/iPad and iOS. Yes it seemed most of there money is coming from iPhone and iPad but don't abandon what brought you to the dance. It seems like Apple is getting sloppy a bit.
 

SanJacinto

macrumors regular
Nov 3, 2011
236
61
Milky Way Galaxy
For what I read, you would be fine to stay with OS X Lion. My Early 2011 was shipped with SL. Even in 2012 it is a state of the art OS Microsoft could dream of.

Lion is ok, worked with it for one month. It was stable but due to Expose and, believe it or not, Front Row I downgraded back to 10.6.

In my opinion you should stay with Lion and get all ML Features for free when 10.9 arrives plus the new features for some dollars.
 

oneMadRssn

macrumors 603
Sep 8, 2011
6,088
14,195
Okay cool. Thanks. It just seems ML has very mixed reviews on the Mac App Store. Some think it's great while others have had tons of problems. This is kinda why I initiated this thread. I've never seen a Mac OS version have so many mixed reviews. It's like SL was the last rock solid Mac OS and Apple has been getting lazy ever since. I kinda feel like they have and all they care about is the iPhone/iPad and iOS. Yes it seemed most of there money is coming from iPhone and iPad but don't abandon what brought you to the dance. It seems like Apple is getting sloppy a bit.

I agree that SL was their best, most rock solid OS.

If you're on Lion, I say with 100% confidence that you should upgrade to ML. ML is what Lion should have been. Compared to Lion, nothing is worse and a few things are better.

If you're on SL, I would stay with that until you are forced to upgrade because of some software or hardware you need requires you to do so. With the exception of Airplay and iMessage, I don't think ML offers very much to compel upgrading from SL.
 

bigpoppamac31

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 16, 2007
2,454
439
Canada
I agree that SL was their best, most rock solid OS.

If you're on Lion, I say with 100% confidence that you should upgrade to ML. ML is what Lion should have been. Compared to Lion, nothing is worse and a few things are better.

If you're on SL, I would stay with that until you are forced to upgrade because of some software or hardware you need requires you to do so. With the exception of Airplay and iMessage, I don't think ML offers very much to compel upgrading from SL.

I'm on Lion right now. I don't have a copy of Snow Leopard but would it be difficult to "downgrade"?
 

bigpoppamac31

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 16, 2007
2,454
439
Canada
If your computer model originally shipped with Lion, you cannot downgrade.

Hmm okay then. Why is that? So if I at some point were to buy a new Mac which would come with ML would I not be able to take the hard drive from my old Mac (running Lion) and put it in my new Mac??
 

oneMadRssn

macrumors 603
Sep 8, 2011
6,088
14,195
Hmm okay then. Why is that? So if I at some point were to buy a new Mac which would come with ML would I not be able to take the hard drive from my old Mac (running Lion) and put it in my new Mac??

That's right.

Assuming your old hard drive physically fit into the new mac, there are other issues.

SL has drivers for hardware it was shipped on. When a new version comes out, Apple stops updating old OSes to support newer hardware. Plainly, the 2009 OS doesn't know how to talk to 2011 and 2012 hardware.

----------

If you want to know for sure, look up your mac on everymac.com and see what it says under "pre-installed OS". For example, the "early 2011" Macbook Pro models shipped with 10.6.6, so they cannot run anything earlier than 10.6.6.
 

bigpoppamac31

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 16, 2007
2,454
439
Canada
That's right.

Assuming your old hard drive physically fit into the new mac, there are other issues.

SL has drivers for hardware it was shipped on. When a new version comes out, Apple stops updating old OSes to support newer hardware. Plainly, the 2009 OS doesn't know how to talk to 2011 and 2012 hardware.

----------

If you want to know for sure, look up your mac on everymac.com and see what it says under "pre-installed OS". For example, the "early 2011" Macbook Pro models shipped with 10.6.6, so they cannot run anything earlier than 10.6.6.

Well i guess that could be a whole other discussion. Kinda ridiculous though. So I'd have to slug it out with the Mac I have until Apple comes out with a Mac and an OS I want. Seems kinda dumb. Cause if I were to get a new Mac that came with ML I can plug in my external HD running Lion and it would run just fine. But if I take that HD and put it into my new Mac it would not work?? Seems silly to me.
 
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