My Beta Review of Lion

[chris2k5]

Snow Leopard in my opinion is as close to perfection as Apple will get. I am not dissing Lion or Apple but I think they shouldn't have fixed things that weren't broken.

I haven't heard a single complaint about Snow Leopard getting stale and old. Consequently, I think Snow Leopard could have been used for at least another 2-3 years.

 

[labaom]

Snow Leopard in my opinion is as close to perfection as Apple will get. I am not dissing Lion or Apple but I think they shouldn't have fixed things that weren't broken.

I haven't heard a single complaint about Snow Leopard getting stale and old. Consequently, I think Snow Leopard could have been used for at least another 2-3 years.

I completely agree. In theory, Snow Leopard can be supported for as long as Lion is because there are no internal differences. Just small UI (bad ones at that) and bad features. However, Apple will find a way to make us upgrade eventually within 3 years time. I think both Windows and Mac are bother running out of ideas. The computer is perfect enough. That is why the tablet market is growing because there is room to grow. That is why they are trying to incorporate mobile stuff into the desktop. Windows 8 looks stupid for a desktop and Mac Lion is stupid for most usability things compared to Snow Leopard. Sometimes you don't have to keep innovating to have good software. Has the automobile been fundamentally different lately? No...improve hardware, speed, graphics, applications, security and make the experience better that way. I am a 100% convinced that the desktop/laptop computing platform as it is now is done with innovation.

EDIT: What more can you add to a car? Better safety, new look, faster engine, and better mpg. That is how computer operating systems are now.

 

[JKK photography]

Snow Leopard in my opinion is as close to perfection as Apple will get. I am not dissing Lion or Apple but I think they shouldn't have fixed things that weren't broken.

I haven't heard a single complaint about Snow Leopard getting stale and old. Consequently, I think Snow Leopard could have been used for at least another 2-3 years.

I disagree. The new gestures in Lion are, for me, fantastic. Every 'major' feature they've announced is good, I think.

But, as with Snow Leopard, some of the most interesting changes are under the hood. I can't say more; most of this is under NDA from WWDC.

 

[labaom]

I disagree. The new gestures in Lion are, for me, fantastic. Every 'major' feature they've announced is good, I think.

But, as with Snow Leopard, some of the most interesting changes are under the hood. I can't say more; most of this is under NDA from WWDC.

To me when your swiping something up with four fingers, it makes sense that it hides away. Mission Control takes Expose and makes it small and applications grouped together. It is harder now.

Mail - I know very few people who use desktop mail clients since Outlook Express lol.

Launchpad - Takes longer to make gesture or click dock icon rather than launch application in spotlight or stack. Therefore, it is stupid.

Resume - Small but welcomed and can be disabled. Nice to have for those with a specific routine.

Versions - Welcomed as well

UI Changes - If I wanted a non colorful UI, I would go back to Windows 98. I don't understand why everyone likes the small buttons. Overlay scrollbars only look nice in Safari. Everyone else it looks bad, especially Chrome. Transitions make the computer feel slower and less responsive too.

New Backgrounds - The only best part of Lion. I like the Space one alot

 

[capoeira4u]

These features bug me about Lion:

Inverted scroll - This makes sense for an iDevice because you're interacting directly with the page or object you're manipulating, but for a trackpad it's different. Besides, I've been scrolling down for the past 20 years, but now I've got to change.

Resume - This feature is dangerous for Quicktime... I was watching some "vacation videos of my wife and kids" and I had 4 clips opened at once. I press cmd+Q to quit. Later when I opened Quicktime, all four clips popped right up on screen again! To clear the history, you have to close each window individually before quitting the app. But that's still not the end of it. When ever I do App Expose for Quicktime, the bottom of the screen shows a history of all the clips I've opened and I can't erase it. I tried going to Quicktime>File>Open Recent>Clear Menu, but that still didn't work.

Mission Control - Expose was perfect because it was good for both navigating your apps around the desktop and also for displaying full view of all your apps. Mission Control can only do the first thing.

Quick Look - The new grey window looks more like an app, rather than the previous HUD with black transparent background. However I do like that when you Quick Look an HTML file, loads the webpage.

Gestures - three finger swipes use to be back/forward for every app, now it moves between spaces and full-screen apps, Pinch to bring up Launchpad is difficult on my tiny 11" MBA trackpad, ladies with long finger nails can just forget it. Personally I think this gesture would make more sense to make apps full screen.

Safari - no gesture or shortcut for private browsing and tab navigation, no Google search image preview (there a plug-in but it's buggy), still not many plug-in and no themes

Dashboard - not many good widgets, many old ones are not compatible with Lion

Launchpad - 1) There's a limit to how many apps you can group together. 2) The 2-finger swipe to go to next page which is confusing compared to the 3-finger swipe for moving around Spaces and full-screen app. 3) Like how iTunes has an option to organize your music folder, Launchpad should also organize your Applications folder.