I've been playing around with Lion for about a couple of weeks so far, and I have a few comments to say about it, some good, some bad - take them for whatever they're worth. You might have a different experience than I do and will have a different opinion as a result. I wouldn't mind hear what you think about it, if you will be using it in the future, or if some of the issues that I have now be changed with the final build.
Installation was pretty straightforward and didn't have any hiccups. My first impressions were that it was the clean, crisp platform similar to the iOS's. Simple, quick, and easy to use.
I have to admit, the Launchpad feature in my opinion is pretty worthless. Maybe it's just because of the Developer release that I'm on, but it seems rather cumbersome to manage the applications. In fact, it loaded up all of the Microsoft applications for Parallels, so there were literally hundreds of icons and it made it more bothersome to have to look through all of those than to simply click on the applications icon on the dock, which has always been a nice feature with the grid view in my opinion. Deleting and organizing the icons in Launchpad takes forever and there has to be an easier way of quickly organizing them. Otherwise, why would I care about Launchpad?
So far internet connectivity is somewhat annoying. It works, but there are a few quirks. For example, when I pull the computer out of sleep mode, the internet connects, but the wireless animation on the menu bar appears that it's still trying to connect. Just a bug that needs to be fixed, but it's a little annoying to me. Another big problem that I have is connecting to 802.1x profiled networks. My school uses it for authentication, but I haven't been able to get it to work, despite using the iPhone Configuration route. I think, once Lion comes out officially, my school will have to make some changes to allow for Lion to connect better. In this case, it doesn't "Just work."
I haven't tried Airdrop, but it seems like an interesting concept. I've always created private networks and transferred files that way. I wonder how Airdrop will work with a network like mine at school. Ideally you'd want Airdrop to work anywhere and on any network, and be quick. Otherwise, again, what's the point?
I like the full screen views, to a point. For a while I liked it and would swipe from one thing to the next, but I often find myself pulling a screen out from fullscreen because I like that feel of being in control, of minimizing and being able to see the desktop. Seems too much like the iPad and not enough like a personal computer. I don't know how much i'll actually use the fullscreen thing. Plus, it doesn't allow you to manually organize and arrange the windows in the order you want. it does it based on usage. That would get annoying to constantly try and figure out where a full screen application while swiping through.
So far I like the global autocorrect feature, but i can see that getting annoying as well like it does with the iPhone. There are websites out there that explicating mock some of the stupid autocorrections made. This could turn to be somewhat annoying....
I realize a lot of these features are capable of being turned off, but for the lay person that doesn't know how to do that, that's a shame. For example, the reverse scrolling? What the heck?? I don't care if we're trying to mimic the iPad experience. This is my laptop experience and retraining my mind to naturally want to do the opposite is just another annoying feature. It doesn't take long to grasp on to the switch, but for someone that doesn't use iPads or iPhones and gets on a Mac laptop will find it very annoying.
Waking up from sleep is supposed to be quicker. I haven't found that to be true...
I love the new spotlight features. VERY very useful, especially with the quick view. I'm pleased with that.
I am also very impressed with the new Preview. As someone that writes notes on Pdf's all the time, this version will be much, much better to work with. I am very impressed.
I love the new Mail, with the conversations and better layout. Only problem is that it appears to still want to use POP for Yahoo!...or at least it doesn't work with the yahoo account my dad uses at work. Apparently it works on his iPhone, but not the old Mail or even new Mail. Just an FYI
No Rosetta. That's a problem, especially if you use Quicken and not Quicken Essentials.
I don't like the idea of not having a physical disk for the installation. Doing a clean install will be super time consuming with having to install Leopard first and then Lion. I am not a big fan of that. Will Apple allow us to burn an image to a disk? How would that work for those that aren't tech savvy?
For SOME reason, maybe it'll just be in the Developers build, but swiping back and forth in Safari doesn't always work. Some websites (the majority) don't allow me and I have to use the old click the arrow technique. This was working so great in Leopard, why does it have to be so glitchy now?
One last thing that I found different and nice was the System Information dialog box. I think it looks more clean and nicer to use. Stupid thing to find nice, but I find it nice all the same.
And....that about does it.
Installation was pretty straightforward and didn't have any hiccups. My first impressions were that it was the clean, crisp platform similar to the iOS's. Simple, quick, and easy to use.
I have to admit, the Launchpad feature in my opinion is pretty worthless. Maybe it's just because of the Developer release that I'm on, but it seems rather cumbersome to manage the applications. In fact, it loaded up all of the Microsoft applications for Parallels, so there were literally hundreds of icons and it made it more bothersome to have to look through all of those than to simply click on the applications icon on the dock, which has always been a nice feature with the grid view in my opinion. Deleting and organizing the icons in Launchpad takes forever and there has to be an easier way of quickly organizing them. Otherwise, why would I care about Launchpad?
So far internet connectivity is somewhat annoying. It works, but there are a few quirks. For example, when I pull the computer out of sleep mode, the internet connects, but the wireless animation on the menu bar appears that it's still trying to connect. Just a bug that needs to be fixed, but it's a little annoying to me. Another big problem that I have is connecting to 802.1x profiled networks. My school uses it for authentication, but I haven't been able to get it to work, despite using the iPhone Configuration route. I think, once Lion comes out officially, my school will have to make some changes to allow for Lion to connect better. In this case, it doesn't "Just work."
I haven't tried Airdrop, but it seems like an interesting concept. I've always created private networks and transferred files that way. I wonder how Airdrop will work with a network like mine at school. Ideally you'd want Airdrop to work anywhere and on any network, and be quick. Otherwise, again, what's the point?
I like the full screen views, to a point. For a while I liked it and would swipe from one thing to the next, but I often find myself pulling a screen out from fullscreen because I like that feel of being in control, of minimizing and being able to see the desktop. Seems too much like the iPad and not enough like a personal computer. I don't know how much i'll actually use the fullscreen thing. Plus, it doesn't allow you to manually organize and arrange the windows in the order you want. it does it based on usage. That would get annoying to constantly try and figure out where a full screen application while swiping through.
So far I like the global autocorrect feature, but i can see that getting annoying as well like it does with the iPhone. There are websites out there that explicating mock some of the stupid autocorrections made. This could turn to be somewhat annoying....
I realize a lot of these features are capable of being turned off, but for the lay person that doesn't know how to do that, that's a shame. For example, the reverse scrolling? What the heck?? I don't care if we're trying to mimic the iPad experience. This is my laptop experience and retraining my mind to naturally want to do the opposite is just another annoying feature. It doesn't take long to grasp on to the switch, but for someone that doesn't use iPads or iPhones and gets on a Mac laptop will find it very annoying.
Waking up from sleep is supposed to be quicker. I haven't found that to be true...
I love the new spotlight features. VERY very useful, especially with the quick view. I'm pleased with that.
I am also very impressed with the new Preview. As someone that writes notes on Pdf's all the time, this version will be much, much better to work with. I am very impressed.
I love the new Mail, with the conversations and better layout. Only problem is that it appears to still want to use POP for Yahoo!...or at least it doesn't work with the yahoo account my dad uses at work. Apparently it works on his iPhone, but not the old Mail or even new Mail. Just an FYI
No Rosetta. That's a problem, especially if you use Quicken and not Quicken Essentials.
I don't like the idea of not having a physical disk for the installation. Doing a clean install will be super time consuming with having to install Leopard first and then Lion. I am not a big fan of that. Will Apple allow us to burn an image to a disk? How would that work for those that aren't tech savvy?
For SOME reason, maybe it'll just be in the Developers build, but swiping back and forth in Safari doesn't always work. Some websites (the majority) don't allow me and I have to use the old click the arrow technique. This was working so great in Leopard, why does it have to be so glitchy now?
One last thing that I found different and nice was the System Information dialog box. I think it looks more clean and nicer to use. Stupid thing to find nice, but I find it nice all the same.
And....that about does it.
