Your Review of Mountain Lion

[natd1993]

Seeing as the Golden Master is now out, I thought a thread that colllected all of the reviews would be helpful to those who are thinking of upgrading.

I personally love Mountain Lion, it seems a lot snappier than its predecessor. It makes a great accompaniment to the iPad and iPhone (Messages and Notification Center), and feels like a solid upgrade, well worth paying for. I'm running mine on a mid 2009 MPB and have experienced no issues. I'd advise an upgrade to anyone who thinks that their Mac is slow under Lion, as 10.8 builds solidly on the foundations of the last OS.

 

[RoelJuun]

For me it's just an ok upgrade, the thing Lion should've been as so many say. The iCloud integration is nice, Reminders and other apps are nice. New dictionaries, sharing from any app (mail, iMessage etc), Messages (although I think I'd still prefer Adium because just as in iChat you can't use hotmail accounts). The integration of Facebook & Twitter are probably nice for most but not for me.

And there are some very nice features such as Powernap, Airplay mirroring, but these need new hardware. It is really ****** for me. In Lion the Airdrop feature didn't work on my 'old' Macbook. Now I can't even upgrade to ML on the Macbook. My iMac (2009) is unable to do Powernap and Airplay mirroring.

But my main objection is actually that they advertise with 'new features' that were actually just restorations from Lion. 'Save as', Address Book layout, Customizable sidebars, Fullscreen on any monitor for example.

Therefore I scored a 6, if the step would have been from Snow Leopard, I'd probably scored it an 8 but Lion was in between…

 

[497902]

I like Mountain Lion. The reasons are on Apple's website.

 

[iOrbit]

For me it's just an ok upgrade, the thing Lion should've been as so many say. The iCloud integration is nice, Reminders and other apps are nice. New dictionaries, sharing from any app (mail, iMessage etc), Messages (although I think I'd still prefer Adium because just as in iChat you can't use hotmail accounts). The integration of Facebook & Twitter are probably nice for most but not for me.

And there are some very nice features such as Powernap, Airplay mirroring, but these need new hardware. It is really ****** for me. In Lion the Airdrop feature didn't work on my 'old' Macbook. Now I can't even upgrade to ML on the Macbook. My iMac (2009) is unable to do Powernap and Airplay mirroring.

But my main objection is actually that they advertise with 'new features' that were actually just restorations from Lion. 'Save as', Address Book layout, Customizable sidebars, Fullscreen on any monitor for example.

Therefore I scored a 6, if the step would have been from Snow Leopard, I'd probably scored it an 8 but Lion was in between…

don't you think apple's 'new' os systems are basically now the equivalent to what ios 6 etc is to its predecessor?

i feel apple is treating the OS as a constant improvement project rather than New os. i don't have a problem with this, i just think thisi s their new approach to the OS. their pricing of it is another example.

 

[RoelJuun]

don't you think apple's 'new' os systems are basically now the equivalent to what ios 6 etc is to its predecessor?

i feel apple is treating the OS as a constant improvement project rather than New os. i don't have a problem with this, i just think thisi s their new approach to the OS. their pricing of it is another example.

Though your point is valid and I agree with you on that one, my main objection is still valid too. For me a lot of the upgrade is just the fix of things that went wrong in Lion. Well at least they are listening.

I found it rather painful that during one of the Developer video's about iCloud if I remember correctly, the presenter mentioned that they re-enabled 'Save as' . The whole crowd was cheering, just for 'Save as'.

Many hardcore Mac people dislike the iOS-ification, I actually like it. The whole integration with iCloud, MAS, Gatekeeper etc. Still it does not why they had to ruin the ridiculous Address Book, iCal, Reminders and Notes interface.

 

[azpc]

"I found it rather painful that during one of the Developer video's about iCloud if I remember correctly, the presenter mentioned that they re-enabled 'Save as' . The whole crowd was cheering, just for 'Save as'."

I wish Apple would listen a bit more and fully restore SAVE AS

Quotes from around the web:

"I can not fathom why 'save as' was removed from Apple apps. I most certainly was not for the convenience of the user."

"There is no reason why Apple could not provide an option in preferences to keep Save as...

"Just discovered this "feature" myself and I'll also be filling in a feedback form to point out what an appalling idea this was. When I read that "Save As..." has been totally removed, can't even be activated as an option, I shook my head."

"Save As… is very useful for those of us who have multiple forms which we customize as needed, or take an existing document and revise it for another client/purpose/date and do not want to write over the existing saved file."

"I think Apple was wrong on this one. Save As NEEDS to come back . . . all the way back."

"THIS is why I have not, and will not, upgrade to Mountain Lion yet. I use modified versions of old lesson plans constantly. I agree. It took a simple one-step process and made it a convoluted two step process. RETURN Save As… To its rightful place…"

"Really, Apple, what’s with “Command-Option-Shift-S” This is a “solution” that reeks of Microsoft-level committee-think. Don’t fix what isn’t broken."

"(Command-Option-Shift-S), How Microsoftian, How about reverting it to it’s perfectly functional original state?"

"Command option shift S to save? WTF? Has Microsoft gained control of OS X??"

"The people that invented versions and that took away save as should be prosecuted for damages to the well being of humanity!"

"It eludes us why Cupertino has been so reluctant to just put it back in where it has always been, as requested by everyone. Not a single comment in both aforementioned articles says anything positive about this change. Honestly, Apple."

"The one recent change that I dislike is the "save a version", "duplicate," and "export" options for documents. I think this adds a lot of unnecessary complexity. It should simply be "save" "save as" and "restore from save." "Save" would save a version. "Save as" would default to the old behavior of saving it to a new document, rather than duplicating and prompting you to commit the changes you've made to the new document. "Restore from save" would give you the option to roll back to any previous save of the document via the Versions window. This would retain most of the new functionality that had been introduced in Lion and would be more intuitive."

 

[MacPC]

ML GM eats up too much CPU

I am not very impressed by the ML GM. I just upgraded from ML DP 4 to the GM, now it eats up most of my cpu, under the Activity Monitor, the kernel task uses up any where from 160% to 190%, sometimes 200% with 180% for most of the time. I wonder if it happens to other Macs. I have a Late 2008 Macbook Air. 2G RAM and 1.6G C2D

 

[njean777]

"I found it rather painful that during one of the Developer video's about iCloud if I remember correctly, the presenter mentioned that they re-enabled 'Save as' . The whole crowd was cheering, just for 'Save as'."

I wish Apple would listen a bit more and fully restore SAVE AS

Quotes from around the web:

"I can not fathom why 'save as' was removed from Apple apps. I most certainly was not for the convenience of the user."

"There is no reason why Apple could not provide an option in preferences to keep Save as...

"Just discovered this "feature" myself and I'll also be filling in a feedback form to point out what an appalling idea this was. When I read that "Save As..." has been totally removed, can't even be activated as an option, I shook my head."

"Save As… is very useful for those of us who have multiple forms which we customize as needed, or take an existing document and revise it for another client/purpose/date and do not want to write over the existing saved file."

"I think Apple was wrong on this one. Save As NEEDS to come back . . . all the way back."

"THIS is why I have not, and will not, upgrade to Mountain Lion yet. I use modified versions of old lesson plans constantly. I agree. It took a simple one-step process and made it a convoluted two step process. RETURN Save As… To its rightful place…"

"Really, Apple, what’s with “Command-Option-Shift-S” This is a “solution” that reeks of Microsoft-level committee-think. Don’t fix what isn’t broken."

"(Command-Option-Shift-S), How Microsoftian, How about reverting it to it’s perfectly functional original state?"

"Command option shift S to save? WTF? Has Microsoft gained control of OS X??"

"The people that invented versions and that took away save as should be prosecuted for damages to the well being of humanity!"

"It eludes us why Cupertino has been so reluctant to just put it back in where it has always been, as requested by everyone. Not a single comment in both aforementioned articles says anything positive about this change. Honestly, Apple."

"The one recent change that I dislike is the "save a version", "duplicate," and "export" options for documents. I think this adds a lot of unnecessary complexity. It should simply be "save" "save as" and "restore from save." "Save" would save a version. "Save as" would default to the old behavior of saving it to a new document, rather than duplicating and prompting you to commit the changes you've made to the new document. "Restore from save" would give you the option to roll back to any previous save of the document via the Versions window. This would retain most of the new functionality that had been introduced in Lion and would be more intuitive."

Can I ask why the big deal over "save as"? Doesn't save work the same way? I am being serious also, what is the big deal with them removing it?

 

[JohnDoe98]

I am not very impressed by the ML GM. I just upgraded from ML DP 4 to the GM, now it eats up most of my cpu, under the Activity Monitor, the kernel task uses up any where from 160% to 190%, sometimes 200% with 180% for most of the time. I wonder if it happens to other Macs. I have a Late 2008 Macbook Air. 2G RAM and 1.6G C2D

I'm wondering why that might be. My kernel task under typical conditions hovers at around 1-1.9%.

 

[nuckinfutz]

I didn't vote because i'm not running Mountain Lion.

I'm pretty excited though for full iCloud. Not having Documents in the Cloud support for iWork and Bento to me is just nonsense. I'm looking forward to seeing more of my OS X/iOS apps finally leverage iCloud

iOSification

I'm a fan. Why wouldn't I want reminders or notes on my phone to sync to my Mac? Why wouldn't I want Game Center support on my Mac?

PowerNap sounds like a small feature that could be indispensable on my MBA. The less updates i've got to do the better.

Luckily I have a 2011 MBA and an Apple TV 3. I'll be cutting another cord and Airplay streaming a lot of content. Excited.

I'm happy that there are a lot of little things being fixed. Huge new features are great but they often come with growing pains and at this point I want things to work they way they should with polish.

 

[InuNacho]

2 because they brought back Expose.

 

[Zwhaler]

I have a Late 2008 Macbook Air. 2G RAM and 1.6G C2D

Sounds like that's the problem. That is one of the slowest machines that you can even run ML on. Surely SL would run nicer on that machine.

 

[ScottishCaptain]

I was ready to jump ship from 10.6 and install 10.8 GM.

Then I realized ColorSync support is totally broken in the Finder and Dock. I just love how they continue to fix some things, but break others. I'm kind of wondering if we'll ever see a desktop OS from Apple where everything simply works, kinda like 10.6.8. They keep introducing half baked features and crap nobody seems to want, while refusing to fix everything else.

Oh well. I guess I'll just run 10.6 until the end of time.

-SC

 

[31rhcp]

Can I ask why the big deal over "save as"? Doesn't save work the same way? I am being serious also, what is the big deal with them removing it?

The two big ones for me are that you can rename (either to change the name or to create a new version) or move the file without even opening a Finder winder.

 

[Krazy Bill]

Can I ask why the big deal over "save as"? Doesn't save work the same way? I am being serious also, what is the big deal with them removing it?

One annoying byproduct of all this is opening an older document that's been "locked". Talk about ruining one's train of thought when you try to edit said doc and some silly-assed dialog pops up asking if you want to duplicate or unlock it first.

 

[Senseotech]

One annoying byproduct of all this is opening an older document that's been "locked". Talk about ruining one's train of thought when you try to edit said doc and some silly-assed dialog pops up asking if you want to duplicate or unlock it first.

if your attention span can't cope with one additional click, you have bigger issues.

 

[psykick5]

It's faster and such but there are little things that annoy me. Why won't it let me show the time left on my battery anymore? That's a dumb removal choice. Gatekeeper is just stupid. There are a couple other things, too, but it's safe to say this is one of Apple's better OS X updates.

 

[nuckinfutz]

Gatekeeper is just stupid.

Really?

I kind of like knowing that there is an extra layer of protection when it comes to someone I do not know wanting to put software on my $1300 computer.

 

[duyvan82]

I'd give it a 6, although most performance issues introduced in Lion have been ironed out, scrolling is still somewhat jerky on my 2009 iMac 27". Scrolling is smooth most of the time except for Facebook and THE MAC APP STORE where it is borderline of being unusable

I'm not sure if Apple have updated the graphic driver for my video card, ATI HD4670..

 

[eagandale4114]

I'd give it a 6, although most performance issues introduced in Lion have been ironed out, scrolling is still somewhat jerky on my 2009 iMac 27". Scrolling is smooth most of the time except for Facebook and THE MAC APP STORE where it is borderline of being unusable

I'm not sure if Apple have updated the graphic driver for my video card, ATI HD4670..

Its Facebook. Their website just sucks.

 

[psykick5]

Really?

I kind of like knowing that there is an extra layer of protection when it comes to someone I do not know wanting to put software on my $1300 computer.

Mine was double that, but I'm still disabling it.

 

[JohnDoe98]

Its Facebook. Their website just sucks.

Maybe but there is still no excuse for the MAS and iTunes.

 

[duyvan82]

Maybe but there is still no excuse for the MAS and iTunes.

lol so the MAS and iTunes scrolling is slow for pretty much everyone and not just me???? Clearly they must have outsourced their QA/Testing team to China. I for one will be spamming Apple with feedbacks on this scrolling issue, this is ****!!!!

 

[3bs]

It's faster and such but there are little things that annoy me. Why won't it let me show the time left on my battery anymore? That's a dumb removal choice.

I hadn't even noticed that because I use the percentage but I know a lot of people who prefer the time so this is gonna be a bummer for them.

 

[psykick5]

I hadn't even noticed that because I use the percentage but I know a lot of people who prefer the time so this is gonna be a bummer for them.

It's just pointless. Why take it out?