Thoughts on Lion
What I like:
Three finger swipe for changing spaces – Effing finally, I’ve wanted this feature ever since getting my MBP. Sure beats using control+arrow-key.
Different wallpapers for spaces – Helps differentiate spaces in Mission Control… and looks nice :)
Launchpad – I used to launch 20 out of my 110 apps from a stack, but LP is so much quicker, as you can arrange icons where you want them and get more on screen at once. It showcases the icons pretty nicely, too.
Fullscreen apps – great from when you’re working on something a browser and you don’t want to be distracted.
Springy scrollbars – Like iOS, they only appear when you scroll and ‘spring’ when you reach the end of a page, very nice.
New system profiler – It’s simple and elegant, great for people who would easily be overwelmed by the old system profiler (now know as “System Report”).
Restore partition – The UI is very similar to the installer. From it you can re-install OS X, launch disk utility, terminal etc. It’s nice to know that you can fuck something up, and always have terminal on hand without having to worry about having a linux flash drive nearby.
Aqua is dead, long live Aqua! – Or maybe this is just a re-imagining, who knows? Anyway, it looks awesome! Aqua was starting to look very tired.
Finder update – Just looks a lot neater, if not slightly dull due to the absence of colour. Still, a nice update.
What I don’t like:
Back/forward in Safari – In Lion, B/F is a two finger right or left, but you see the previous page being revealed as you swipe. It’s just an unnecessary distraction. Also, while the page is loading you get a compression artefact laden preview image, it’s just horrible. You can still use three finger swipe for simple B/F, but you can’t turn off two finger B/F. This wouldn’t be a big deal if safari didn’t occasionally mistake a two finger scroll for B/F.
Space management in Mission Control – MC seems to be a marmite kind of deal, but I’m on the fence. I don’t really use spaces a great deal, but now you can no longer drag a window straight from one space to another, you have to select the space with the window you want to move, then drag it to one of the spaces at the top :( Before you could simply drag and drop.
Will my mac become an iPad?
No, it absolutely wont. You don’t *have* to use fullscreen apps or Launch Pad, ignore them if you want. iOS scroll bars are hear to say, but I doubt that’s a big deal for many. So far we haven’t seen the extent to which Autocorrect will be enforced, which I can imagine will be the only iOS related annoyance.
Is the Developer Preview usable?
Pretty much. The main issue I encountered was “messed up” menu bar apps. Droplr and SmcFanControl were crashing quite frequently (with no “shit’s broken” dialogue box); also iStatMenus 3 couldn’t enable any monitors for me (and other people), but it does work for some. Everything seemed pretty stable and fast, though that could be due to the fresh install. Safari is also pretty glitchy, so you’ll want a backup browser at hand. It’s worth mentioning that if your Snow Leopard partition is mounted, you can run most of the apps off it just fine, though some with “bat-shit sensitive” anti-piracy measures will refuse to launch (CS5, basically). All things considered I definitely wouldn’t install it over SL, just make a small partition (10GB will do), and install it to that.
Is it worth paying $100 to fee to join the Mac Developer program?
Definitely not. It amazes me that people are willing to do this. If you can obtain the disk image, you’re in. There is zero/none/el-zilcho DRM on the installer. Hell, the official download package from Apple is just an installer with a DMG inside *rolls eyes*. I personally just used it for a day, then got bored with re-configuring all my apps (configurations do not carry over if you’re running apps from another OS X install). Some people are hoping that the ‘official Mac developers’ will get a free copy of the Lion Gold Master (which happened last year with SL), but there’s no guarantee on that. Also Lion could end up being cheaper than the initial $100, unlikely but it could happen :P
