Snow Leopard vs Mountain Lion

[verbcrunch]

I've enjoyed reading this thread. I went dual boot so I could try Mountain Lion. The ONE thing I like about mountain lion is the notifications when an email arrives. But last night I got Growl mail to work on Snow Leopard, so am now officially reverting back. I'll keep the ML boot disk for when I need to run software incompatible with SL.

Specific things I hate about ML that are not issues with Snow Leopard:

• Mail crashes when I hit "reply all".

• In search: can't specify "File Name" only. Filters are not available. Much more difficult to locate files in ML than SL when searching.

• No native option for "displays" in menu bar. When selecting "mirror displays" ML defaults to 800x600 and requires selecting resolution every time. SL remembers last used setting.

• iTunes issues: metadata often not saved, so changes made to library disappear.

• QuicKeys is very buggy in ML.

• Safari's combined search/URL makes it difficult to type in IP addresses or specific URLs - browser thinks you're searching.

• Log in items don't stay logged in.

• Inexplicable hardware issues: on non system drives - long delays while disk spins up (both internal and firewire). USB and Bluetooth peripherals work intermittently.

Basically I can work faster and more reliably in SL than ML. I know QuicKeys and the log in items are issues with software that are not yet versioned for ML ("Gatekeeper" friendly in particular). My ML drive is an SSD on a PCI card in a MacPro, that could have something to do with some the hardware problems I'm having.

For what I do (audio production) Snow Leopard is far superior to Mountain Lion.

 

[Mac32]

Safari is a bit buggy, and will randomly quit when you open a new webpage by using secondary click.

 

[MJL]

No matter what I tried when I want to connect my Mac mini 2010 server to the internet in ML I have to use a wireless connection - wired just does not work. And even then I have lost the network connection on occasions. No problems what so ever with either Lion or Snow Leopard.

 

[Badagri]

Safari is a bit buggy, and will randomly quit when you open a new webpage by using secondary click.

I've never had that. Even still, it's pretty rare for Safari to crash/quit on me. It's been so long since I can remember.

 

[cmChimera]

I've enjoyed reading this thread. I went dual boot so I could try Mountain Lion. The ONE thing I like about mountain lion is the notifications when an email arrives. But last night I got Growl mail to work on Snow Leopard, so am now officially reverting back. I'll keep the ML boot disk for when I need to run software incompatible with SL.

Specific things I hate about ML that are not issues with Snow Leopard:

• Mail crashes when I hit "reply all".

• In search: can't specify "File Name" only. Filters are not available. Much more difficult to locate files in ML than SL when searching.

• No native option for "displays" in menu bar. When selecting "mirror displays" ML defaults to 800x600 and requires selecting resolution every time. SL remembers last used setting.

• iTunes issues: metadata often not saved, so changes made to library disappear.

• QuicKeys is very buggy in ML.

• Safari's combined search/URL makes it difficult to type in IP addresses or specific URLs - browser thinks you're searching.

• Log in items don't stay logged in.

• Inexplicable hardware issues: on non system drives - long delays while disk spins up (both internal and firewire). USB and Bluetooth peripherals work intermittently.

Basically I can work faster and more reliably in SL than ML. I know QuicKeys and the log in items are issues with software that are not yet versioned for ML ("Gatekeeper" friendly in particular). My ML drive is an SSD on a PCI card in a MacPro, that could have something to do with some the hardware problems I'm having.

For what I do (audio production) Snow Leopard is far superior to Mountain Lion.

I have absolutely none of those issues.

 

[sidewinder]

I have absolutely none of those issues.

Neither do I....

S-

 

[Joseph Farrugia]

There is nothing wrong with Mountain Lion other than changes that people just don't want to deal with.

That sweeping statement is disrespectful to experienced & power users whose workflows are hindered by useless bugs in Lion/ML. A quick google search will be an eye-opener for you.

 

[Zwhaler]

I stuck with SL until recently. I switched to ML and it is nice. Lion wasn't very good IMO and I'm glad I waited to ML it feels like an upgrade that wasn't a downgrade.

 

[jasimon9]

Lion, ML: always regretting not staying with SL

My tagline is inspired by Lion: "I will gladly trade you 250 new features, for 1 'It just works!'

A lot of the issues posted here with Lion/ML don't affect me. But I have my own list of pet peeves that started with Lion, so I am going to post my list:

1. Mail header pane columnar display I cannot use the 3-vertical panes because the middle pane has become useless. My workflow requires the columnar display for the headers.

I would think that it would be relatively easy to allow an option to use the three-panel view but to have the middle panel in the columnar display.

Back on SL I used to use a Mail addon call Letterbox. However, that no longer works in Lion and ML. So I am forced back into the Classic view, which is vastly inferior, except that it provides the "must have" columnar display of the headers.

2. ML hang after Lion Every time when booting into Lion on an external drive, then reboot back into Mountain Lion, the Mountain Lion hangs before the Dock and Menu Items at the top right are displayed. There is a spinning beach ball, which remains until I power cycle the machine.

The second boot up usually works, although one time I tried an SMC/NVRAM reset. That seems to not be necessary however; just the boot/power-cycle/reboot.

3. ML Dashboard calendar widget bug In ML the Dashboard calendar widget has lost the ability to change the day to other days. You can still navigate to different months, but clicking on any day has no effect.

This is a useful function for me, to quickly be able to see what I have scheduled on any day. Now I have to open iCal, which is annoying.

Addendum: I loaded Lion, and SL, and the noted this feature was absent there too. Some I am wondering if it has been lost since Leopard. Or am I just remembering a feature that never existed?

4. Sounds controlled by rules randomly delayed I finally found a relatively complex workaround that works well for me. The problem is coreaudiod, which after a sleep will only trigger its sound some random time after it should. The workaround is having a script run after each wake from sleep to force-quit coreaudiod.

5. Long delay when using file open/save dialog This occurs because the system is waiting for my external drive to spin up its disk. This was not a problem on SL because back then the logic was "see if I need to look on an external disk, then if so spin it up." Now the logic is "better spin up the disk, and only then look to see if that disk is needed."

6. Use of root account. Found some obscure issues when a very rare need for root access occurs. With SL "it just worked." But in ML, a fast-user-switch into a different user account, then enabling root, when trying to get back to log out and go back to the usual account, you get odd results where you cannot logout of the other account. Instead, your main account gets logged out! It is very weird but I have reproduced it repeatedly, even while on the phone with Apple Care.

I have a dozen or so other items, but they are too obscure and probably more app-related that OS X related.

 

[corvus32]

I've been a steady Mac user since the OS 9 days, but this past week marks the first time I've come back to using OS X daily for almost a year. It's also the first time I installed and used ML although I briefly dabbled with 10.7 last summer. So, I feel I'm coming into the post Snow Leopard era with a clear and open mind.

Granted it's only been a week and I'm not using my 2010 MBP for heavy tasks, but things seem fine. Battery life is good, nothing has crashed (so far), and I'm generally pleased with tah Snappiness™.

I guess what I like most is not any of the new features per say, but the simple fact my 2.5 year old MBP with lowly C2D processor now has a new lease on life. Though I should note I upgraded the MBP's hard drive to an SSD, the memory to 8GB, and went with a clean install of ML.

If 10.8.3 promises to bring further improvements, that will be just icing on the cake for me.

 

[manamana]

Mountain Lion 10.8.3 does not recognize LaCie eSATA PCI-Express Card (4 ports)

I upgraded to Mountain Lion and realized that my LaCie eSATA PCI-Express Card (4 ports) product #713113 is no longer recognized. I haven't been able to find any updated drivers yet.

any suggestions??

macpro 4,1 2 x 2.66 quad core, 12 gb ram, ati radon 4870.

 

[bigsnowdog]

Every time I think I want to upgrade to ML, I watch the video of it on the Apple site:

http://www.apple.com/osx/

and decide I am VERY happy with SL.

I just watched that video and see nothing I would value, except possibly the speech feature. Then from what I read you really want Dragon Dictate, that is assuming it will work for you.

Mac user since 1985. Currently on Mac Pro with SL.

 

[daneoni]

Lol at all the Snow Leopard faithful, lets see how long you manage to hold out. You're already missing out on iCloud, and very soon software will stop being written/updated for 10.6.8.

I wonder what will happen to your dedication then.

 

[MrEcted]

Lol at all the Snow Leopard faithful, lets see how long you manage to hold out. You're already missing out on iCloud, and very soon software will stop being written/updated for 10.6.8.

I wonder what will happen to your dedication then.

It depends. I'm becoming more and more attracted to Windows. 7 is great, 8 takes some getting used to, but I'm really starting to dig it. If Windows continues to improve and Mac OS continues to stagnate, become more dumbed down and IOS-like, then I'll make the complete switch back to Windows.

The MBP I have now just might be the first and last Mac I'll ever own, it depends on the direction Apple takes. So far, I'm not liking it.

 

[sidewinder]

It depends. I'm becoming more and more attracted to Windows. 7 is great, 8 takes some getting used to, but I'm really starting to dig it. If Windows continues to improve and Mac OS continues to stagnate, become more dumbed down and IOS-like, then I'll make the complete switch back to Windows.

The MBP I have now just might be the first and last Mac I'll ever own, it depends on the direction Apple takes. So far, I'm not liking it.

The OS has not been "dumbed down". I can do everything in OS X 10.8.2 that I was able to do in 10.6.8 plus more.

Please buy a PC and switch to Windows so we don't have to see ridiculous comments like this....

S-

 

[Krazy Bill]

I can do everything in OS X 10.8.2 that I was able to do in 10.6.8 plus more.

Oh my. You've opened up a big bag of hurt with this one. In all fairness, you should be given time to amend your post before people start pointing out the productivity differences.

 

[Sky Blue]

I can do everything in OS X 10.8.2 that I was able to do in 10.6.8 plus more.

Agreed.

 

[bigsnowdog]

The OS has not been "dumbed down". I can do everything in OS X 10.8.2 that I was able to do in 10.6.8 plus more.

Please buy a PC and switch to Windows so we don't have to see ridiculous comments like this....

S-

Dumbed down in this context means the look of the user interface. Windows has been doing that also. The evolution toward the lots of big icons look.

It is an attempt to lure in more customers with no computer experience. Understandable, but regrettable in terms of some of the effects.

 

[MrEcted]

The OS has not been "dumbed down". I can do everything in OS X 10.8.2 that I was able to do in 10.6.8 plus more.

Please buy a PC and switch to Windows so we don't have to see ridiculous comments like this....

S-

Well, aren't you the optimistic one, assuming that I'll stop posting ridiculous comments here just because I switched back to Windows!

 

[Eithanius]

Oh my. You've opened up a big bag of hurt with this one. In all fairness, you should be given time to amend your post before people start pointing out the productivity differences.

He has already opened up a big bag of hurt by using a PROFESSIONAL workstation running a "DUMBED-DOWN" OS...

 

[TYMUL]

Safari is a bit buggy, and will randomly quit when you open a new webpage by using secondary click.

I get this daily, its so frustrating!

 

[Sky Blue]

Dumbed down in this context means the look of the user interface. Windows has been doing that also. The evolution toward the lots of big icons look.

It is an attempt to lure in more customers with no computer experience. Understandable, but regrettable in terms of some of the effects.

Such as? I thought people complained that the traffic lights were too small and the scroll bars were too small?

To me, Lion/Mountain Lion is a lot more refined than SL.

 

[Joseph Farrugia]

Lol at all the Snow Leopard faithful, lets see how long you manage to hold out. You're already missing out on iCloud, and very soon software will stop being written/updated for 10.6.8.

I wonder what will happen to your dedication then.

I'm calling FUD on this one, there is no reason whatsoever for software written for OS X 10.8 not to be 100% compatible on OS X 10.6.8. None whatsoever.

As for iCloud, the alternatives are so much better that it has been a moot point for quite a bit of time now.

 

[bigsnowdog]

I'm calling FUD on this one, there is no reason whatsoever for software written for OS X 10.8 not to be 100% compatible on OS X 10.6.8. None whatsoever.

As for iCloud, the alternatives are so much better that it has been a moot point for quite a bit of time now.

From all I understand the current versions of Adobe applications photoshop, illustrator, indesign that run on Mountain Lion will not run on Snow Leopard.

 

[Eithanius]

From all I understand the current versions of Adobe applications photoshop, illustrator, indesign that run on Mountain Lion will not run on Snow Leopard.

Has Adobe released CS7 that requires Lion at the bare minimum...?

I'm using Photoshop CS6 on Snow Leopard without problem...