Mountain Lion is what I imagined Lion to be like (very consistent with iOS instead of being half-baked and in the gap between the two). Unfortunately, this does not mean I like Mountain Lion at all. Having play around with it, I feel Apple have cluttered OS X with useless gimmicks, features that fall short to their predecessors and bloat.
First for example, lets have a look at the main features advertised by Apple.
- iCloud. This came with Lion, but more integration with the service is more than welcome. I feel iCloud has yet to reach its true potential and hope Apple take it in the right direction as development for it continues.
- Messages. I sort of expected iMessage capability to come to iChat, but instead it looks like Apple have created a new program with iChat functionality. I approve.
- Reminders. Not amazing for a main feature if I'm honest, didn't iCal once have a sidebar for this sort of thing?
- Notes. Is this really a feature to be boasted about? Instead of using Mail.app, you can now use a themed notes app? I can't understand why Apple are parading this as one of their top ten features.
- Notifications Center. Something like this in OS X is long overdue, just like it was in iOS. Unfortunately I don't think Apple have got the intergration of this one right at all. The banners are fine, but the sidebar really looks awful and likes to appear when I'm gesturing for Mission Control.
- Share Sheets. I'll be honest here, I have no use for this what so ever.
- Twitter. Saves you downloading an app to tweet. Totally astounding.
- Game Center. I expected this one to come with Lion. It's a good idea, even though I think Steam is more suited to PC gaming, this is just a case of 'why the hell not?' Not keen on the design, but it seems to work fine with compatible games.
- AirPlay Mirroring. A big deal was made over this and I can see why. I don't have much use for it, but I have tried it out, only to find it painfully slow. Maybe this will be fixed for the final release.
- Gatekeeper. It is good to see Apple beginning to take security seriously, especially since OS X has been more under the spotlight for malware makers thanks to increased marketshare. This however isn't really a feature to be boasted about in my opinion. To most people, it'll just sit there, unchanged, unused and rather useless.
Overall, Apple have ironed out the inconsistence between OS X and iOS that were created in Lion, whilst adding a bit of security and fixing some bugs. But for me to enjoy using it there still has to be some radical steps backwards towards Snow Leopard.
I can't stand Mission Control, it is devastatingly poor compared to Expose + Spaces. Playing hide n seek with my windows is not what I want to do everyday, something Expose and Aero Peek cure. Mission Control just seems to shrink and group the windows for you.
Multi-Monitor support is still lacking, especially for full-screen apps. How hard can it be for them just to have OS X recognize a 2nd monitor as another permanent 'space'? Obviously too hard.
The gestures, from description and demo seem like a great idea. However they are not for everyone. I like some of them (such as scrolling and page turning etc) but hate the ones that activate Launchpad and Mission Control. They are clunky at times and often don't pick up or get confused. They should not be focused as the main way to navigate around your OS until they are simple and reliable, which they are not.
Launchpad, what was the point in it? Just to make OS X seem more like iOS, for the sake of it, it seems. Oh well, it least it's stopped re-ordering my apps and has a search bar now.
Call me old fashioned, but I like to save my files manually. I understand I am the minority here and that many people love Versions. However for them, like myself, who detest it, Apple should at least provide a way to disable it forever.
Overall, despite being more like iOS, I find Mountain Lion a very confused OS, as though they took Snow Leopard and dragged it kicking and screaming through an iOS make over, making Mountain Lion the second attempt. The main features seem weak and the features that were introduced in Lion haven't improved much. It is still slower and requires more resources than Snow Leopard, which for what extra it does, seems rather inane and begs the question as to whether Apple's programming is as efficient as it could be. At least the WiFi issues in Lion have been fixed, but it still doesn't make me what to use it as my main OS.
For now, I will be sticking with Snow Leopard and Windows 7 as my main OSs. Hopefully 10.9 will be good. If not I might just be converted back to the Windows platform permanently.
I really do think it is a shame that Apple feels it has to gimmick out it's once simple, powerful and beautiful OS.
