The last word on Mountain Lion

[rupam.db]

No privacy with ML

With facebook integration and apps like pocket, flutter and so on I feel like there's lesser and lesser privacy with each release of OSX. They are just luring people. I don't know about the rest but I certainly don't like to be tracked all the time. There's this software update check or say itunes store or storeagent which runs in background and always connects to some IP address the moment internet is connected and I really don't like that. . .

 

[nilk]

Just to throw in another data point:

I'm in agreement with those saying Mountain Lion (10.8) is much better than Lion (10.7). I haven't had any problems with Mountain Lion, but had tons of issues with Lion.

If you're on Snow Leopard and all your software runs great, it's not entirely bad to stay on it, but it's slowly losing support in the latest versions of applications, so you may be forced to either stay on old versions of applications or upgrade to a later OS X, depending on what software you use.

I am using ML on:

• Unsupported Mac Pro 2,1 - Hacked to run ML using Chameleon, and it runs great.
• 15" rMBP - Came w/ ML; no complaints
• Early-2008 15" MBP - ML runs slow, but this is a machine with only 4GB, and a 5400 RPM HDD that is nearly full. No other issues, though.
• Early-2011 13" MBP - My wife's machine runs ML and no complaints from her

With the two non-retina MBP, we both had problems with Lion locking up randomly. Haven't had that problem with ML.

 

[BlaqkAudio]

With facebook integration and apps like pocket, flutter and so on I feel like there's lesser and lesser privacy with each release of OSX. They are just luring people. I don't know about the rest but I certainly don't like to be tracked all the time.

Then don't use them.

There's this software update check or say itunes store or storeagent which runs in background and always connects to some IP address the moment internet is connected and I really don't like that. . .

It's part of MAS. ML checks for software updates in the background. It only connects to Apple.

 

[Luis2004]

Well I for one would like to say that Mountain Lion is the best OS I have ever seen and/or used!!

It is my first experience with any Mac software other than my iPad's iOS, and after having used windows for the last 15 years I must say that this is, hands down, the best OS I have ever seen and/or used!!

So all you people that say it sucks (yeah, Eithaneus, I'm talking to you, you Debbie Downer), well, you ain't got eyes in your heads nor brains in your skulls!

And that's all I gotta say!!

 

[SlCKB0Y]

So this idea that Mountain Lion is the problem is falling on deaf ears. You either have a faulty hardware driver, something left over from the upgrade (needs a clean install?) or something else is crapping out somewhere.

^^ This.

I'm going with PEBKAC though.

 

[montycat]

Zero problems with ML on my 2007 iMac!

 

[unobtainium]

I love Mountain Lion but I have had the odd problem with it. The only one that comes to mind right now is occasional Wi-fi weirdness. I'm hoping 10.8.3 will sort that out. But overall I'm a big fan of the iOS integration. I personally don't bother fighting change - I'd rather take advantage of the new features and at least try integrating them into my workflow. Since playing around with Reminders, Notification Centre, Messages, etc., I've come to find them invaluable. Couldn't go back to Lion personally.

Edited to add: Messages is wonky sometimes, showing messages out of order, etc., but it's obviously not a dealbreaker.

 

[Cave Man]

You must own a lemon of a computer or something. The HDMI blanking screen thing was the only issue I had...

You never get horizontal lines across your screen? They mostly pop up in Safari when the web page is black.

So far, I'm pretty pleased with the Mini as its replacement.

I like mine, too. It's just the bugaboos in ML that cause me consternation.

So this idea that Mountain Lion is the problem is falling on deaf ears. You either have a faulty hardware driver, something left over from the upgrade (needs a clean install?) or something else is crapping out somewhere.

The Mini I have at home (not the one in 9400 model in my lab with SL) shipped with 10.8.2 on it, so it was a clean install when I received it. The only thing I did was use Migration assistant to bring it over. With my wife's 2011 MBP, I did a clean install but the problem with freezes persists. I even changed her Time Machine drive (enclosure and drive) just in case that was the problem. My Mac Pro that does our DNA sequence analysis loses wifi every day and with two of my computers Mail persistently drops Exchange accounts (but not IMAP). The only way to see those emails is to quit Mail and relaunch it.

I'm going with PEBKAC though.

Sorry, but I know my way under the hood of Macs, Hacks and OS X. I used to write code in the old days using Apple's Pascal. Heck, I even replaced the PATA drive in an Apple TV1 with a SATA interface so I could connect an eSATA drive to it. Statistical analysis is part of my job and ML (and L) have had more issues for me than other installations of OS X.

 

[Eithanius]

Well I for one would like to say that Mountain Lion is the best OS I have ever seen and/or used!!

It is my first experience with any Mac software other than my iPad's iOS, and after having used windows for the last 15 years I must say that this is, hands down, the best OS I have ever seen and/or used!!

So all you people that say it sucks (yeah, Eithaneus, I'm talking to you, you Debbie Downer), well, you ain't got eyes in your heads nor brains in your skulls!

And that's all I gotta say!!

For god sakes Windows users... Please use Snow Leopard first before you even start commenting... This is not about Windows vs Mac OS X... This is about 10.6 vs 10.8...

That's what I've been saying, Windows users know **** about the old and stable Snow Leopard... All they know is only iOS and its crap...

 

[here2011]

Having had a New Mac Mini with ML on I do hanker for Snow Leopard back.

I really did like that OS, ML really isn't good that compared to it. I find it jerky & stuttery & I have 8Gb in mine.

I wish I could find a way of installing SN on mine.

 

[Eithanius]

Having had a New Mac Mini with ML on I do hanker for Snow Leopard back.

I really did like that OS, ML really isn't good that compared to it. I find it jerky & stuttery & I have 8Gb in mine.

I wish I could find a way of installing SN on mine.

ML is jerky on integrated graphics... So much sometimes I felt my workflow being interrupted... SL has much less jerkiness that this...

You might want to try turning off New Animation Window effects and see if it alleviates the problem... All these stupid iOS fanciness is unnecessary...

 

[Mr-Kerrse]

My only issue was it seemed a little slow but since bumping up my memory to 16gb i have no more problems ( 16gb may be overkill but figured as it was only £60 why not go to the max )

 

[here2011]

ML is jerky on integrated graphics... So much sometimes I felt my workflow being interrupted... SL has much less jerkiness that this...

You might want to try turning off New Animation Window effects and see if it alleviates the problem... All these stupid iOS fanciness is unnecessary...

Where do I find it to turn it off?

Ta

 

[Eithanius]

Where do I find it to turn it off?

Ta

http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/25/disable-the-new-window-animation-in-mac-os-x-lion/

 

[MacMan988]

Shutting down is slower.
Safari crashes when opening new tabs.

Apart from those, I'm happy about the rest.

 

[Luis2004]

For god sakes Windows users... Please use Snow Leopard first before you even start commenting... This is not about Windows vs Mac OS X... This is about 10.6 vs 10.8...

That's what I've been saying, Windows users know **** about the old and stable Snow Leopard... All they know is only iOS and its crap...

Obviously I was impersonating a moron being excited over ML. But in all seriousness, yes, I'm a windows user coming to OS X for the first time and I'm very impressed.

Unfortunately, you saying that iOS is "crap" lowers your credibility a tad. I'm a major Android user, and although iOS lacks that customizability that Android has (even after being jailbroken), it is most definitely NOT crap. It's awesome.

 

[TPadden]

Never a last word ....... Went back to SL on my Mac Pro ......Again; probably for the 20th time . Each time I give ML a couple weeks use then ask myself why?

 

[hdzmiriam]

Mac OS X 10.6.8 slow internet

My Mac OS X 10.6.8, Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3.. whatever that means... has really slow internet and it gets stuck uploading sites every 10 minutes. I've done software updates, i've reset my router, and all my other PCS and my sister's laptop get awesome internet signal, but not my laptop. PLease help

Ps. I bought this refurbished Mac at Bestbuy in the summer of 2011. I have so many photos and school work saved and I don't want to loose all my data. So, should I clean this mac or what... I'm just not tech savvy

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

You never get horizontal lines across your screen? They mostly pop up in Safari when the web page is black.

Nope, the picture is absolutely perfect here (I just double checked with Safari on a black themed web site since I never use Safari normally).

Horizontal lines sounds like something I used to have on my projector downstairs (ground loop in the cable or something; it went away when they ran a new cable across my backyard to the box). I remember I bought a Pioneer Elite TV back in the late '90s that had black horizontal lines on DVD sources for some reason (more than a few people had that problem with that set, but it wasn't all of them). I never did find out the cause and they finally gave me a refund and I ended up buying a 57" Panasonic HDTV CRT projector for the same price six months later (it still works and has been running since ~1998).

I like mine, too. It's just the bugaboos in ML that cause me consternation.

That sounds like a hardware or connection problem (lines). Given your freezes, I'd suspect hardware all the more. If it were Mountain Lion's fault, everyone would have these problems. I haven't had a single crash yet on mine and it's been running almost 24/7 since November. It's normally up 24/7 too other than the occasional software update reboot or whatever. In fact, it's been up now for 7 days , 23 hours of this writing and that's only because I moved it over to a different desk last week. Otherwise, it would be more like 6 weeks without a reboot. As far as I'm concerned, this is the most rock solid Mac I've ever owned. I realize it's only been a very short period, I realize, but I've never had a Mac that didn't have some kind of crash early on. My PPC PowerMac was rock solid stable until Apple's software (usually iTunes) screwed it up with an update and then I'd get a stable version and it would run 24/7 for months at a time again. I think Apple breaks their own rules and causes more crashes than anyone, really (rare to see a 3rd party program bring the system down).

The Mini I have at home (not the one in 9400 model in my lab with SL) shipped with 10.8.2 on it, so it was a clean install when I received it. The only thing I did was use Migration assistant to bring it over. With my wife's

I used Migration Assistant too and I used it with my PowerMac running Leopard, at that. No issues.

ML is jerky on integrated graphics... So much sometimes I felt my workflow being interrupted... SL has much less jerkiness that this...

What integrated GPU are you referring to? It's smooth as ice here with the Intel 4000 at both 1920x1400 and 1650x1050 and that's driving two monitors at the same time.

 

[Eithanius]

What integrated GPU are you referring to? It's smooth as ice here with the Intel 4000 at both 1920x1400 and 1650x1050 and that's driving two monitors at the same time.

Oh I forgot... Millions of people are now using Macs that are not capable of Snow Leopard... sorry...!

I'm still on my old piece of junk that has Intel Graphics HD without any model numbers...

But then again, my workplace's MBPr is still choppy on integrated...

 

[JoeRito]

We all loved SL... give ML a chance... it has really grown on me, love it now!

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Oh I forgot... Millions of people are now using Macs that are not capable of Snow Leopard... sorry...!

That gives me an idea, come to think of it. I can't help but remember how I got Leopard working so much better with my (then bought used to play with) PowerMac Digital Audio BEFORE I upgraded its CPU and graphics card. The firs trick was to fool the CPU check (easily done). The real usable problem was the crappy ATI graphics card it came with wasn't supported in Leopard any longer and so it was running as a pure VESA driver and slow as heck. The key was to copy the Tiger kext(s) over for newly unsupported hardware and then magically Leopard ran 500% faster (still not as fast as Tiger did, but quite usable).

My thinking is that perhaps some of these newer Macs might be able to use a similar trick in reverse if one wanted to try and run Snow Leopard on them. It seems like the basic problem would be that Snow Leopard doesn't have a kext for the newer GPUs used (e.g. Intel 4000 for one) and also the USB 3.0 drivers don't exist in Snow Leopard. There might be some other things as well, but those seem like the big obstacles. If I had a spare external hard drive, I'd be tempted to give it a shot for the heck of it. I don't really want Snow Leopard on my Mini (I actually like Mountain Lion better overall), but I'm just curious if it could work. I'm sure the Hackintosh folk would have a better idea of what it would take, though (I don't know what checks SL has in it for model/speed/whatever these days).

 

[Eithanius]

That gives me an idea, come to think of it. I can't help but remember how I got Leopard working so much better with my (then bought used to play with) PowerMac Digital Audio BEFORE I upgraded its CPU and graphics card. The firs trick was to fool the CPU check (easily done). The real usable problem was the crappy ATI graphics card it came with wasn't supported in Leopard any longer and so it was running as a pure VESA driver and slow as heck. The key was to copy the Tiger kext(s) over for newly unsupported hardware and then magically Leopard ran 500% faster (still not as fast as Tiger did, but quite usable).

My thinking is that perhaps some of these newer Macs might be able to use a similar trick in reverse if one wanted to try and run Snow Leopard on them. It seems like the basic problem would be that Snow Leopard doesn't have a kext for the newer GPUs used (e.g. Intel 4000 for one) and also the USB 3.0 drivers don't exist in Snow Leopard. There might be some other things as well, but those seem like the big obstacles. If I had a spare external hard drive, I'd be tempted to give it a shot for the heck of it. I don't really want Snow Leopard on my Mini (I actually like Mountain Lion better overall), but I'm just curious if it could work. I'm sure the Hackintosh folk would have a better idea of what it would take, though (I don't know what checks SL has in it for model/speed/whatever these days).

Time to summon Netkas for GPU hacks...

 

[throAU]

It seems like there are always a ton of people whining about OS X updates. I, on the other hand, have never had a major problem with an update. Mountain Lion is a great improvement over Lion, and is more usable (for me) than Snow Leopard.

This.

Going back to SL, i miss:

- 3 finger swipe between full screen apps
- full screen, itself
- window resize from any corner. i can not believe how long it took apple to implement this! going back to SL drives me insane due to this, combined with lack of full-screen / retarded behaviour of the green "maximize" button in OS X
- local time machine backups


Sure, SL uses less memory, but i have 16gb (and if your machine supports it, so should you - it is dirt cheap now). ML is fine on 8GB or more. It will run fine on 4, too, but 8 is significantly faster.

----------

With facebook integration and apps like pocket, flutter and so on I feel like there's lesser and lesser privacy with each release of OSX. They are just luring people. I don't know about the rest but I certainly don't like to be tracked all the time. There's this software update check or say itunes store or storeagent which runs in background and always connects to some IP address the moment internet is connected and I really don't like that. . .

Don't put in your facebook details? Firewall the itunes/app store?

Most people would want to be notified of OS/app updates, and there's no way this can be done without checking the internet when it is connected...

 

[1member1]

Best Operating systems I've ever used.
I'm on mac since Leopard and windows since forever.