So, Wednesday, I downloaded OS X Lion off the Mac App Store and started preparing the process of installing Lion on my Mac Pro.
Starting with the Upgrade/Install, I chose to boot from my “SuperDuper!” backup external drive (Firewire 800) and then run the install from that drive. The backup took well over 6 hours (I don’t actually know for sure since it ran overnight and I forgot to check the “elapsed time” in SuperDuper! There were over 2.4 million files to be backed up.
I formatted my “Main” drive on the Mac Pro and started the install of Lion on that drive. About 20 minutes later, Lion was installed on the Mac Pro. I then spent well over 6 hours copying my iTunes folder off the backup to Lion. The folder had over 650GB’s of data. After the copy, I ran iTunes and it looked just like it did before the upgrade/install. I was very pleased to see that.
I then spent a bunch of time downloading all the applications I have purchased/downloaded off the Mac App Store. I had to do this with the backup drive “unmounted”. The Mac App Store application sees the applications on the backup drive and tell me that they were installed even though they were not installed on the Lion Application folder. So I unmouned the backup drive and relaunched the Mac App Store.
Now I have just been copying programs off my backup drive to the Lion Applcation folder to install them on Lion. I have to re-enter the registration info for each of the apps (non Mac App Store apps).
So I have been running Lion now for a couple of days and I have some thoughts on how it works over Snow Leopard.
I have some thoughts that I’ll be sharing over time starting with the new “Natural” scrolling.
A lot of folks on the web are saying that they are retraining themselves to use the new Natural scrolling. That’s great guys. However, what are you going to do when you come across a machine where the user didn’t want to retrain themselves. Or, heaven forbid, you have to use a Windows machine? All that retraining will mess you up and confuse you both on the non-natural systems and when you return to your Natural scroll system.
I understand what Apple was thinking when they decided to put Natural scrolling into Lion. However, they didn’t think it through well enough. Natural scrolling works great if you are touching the screen and in effect touching the document that you are scrolling. Move your finger down and the page scrolls up. That makes perfect sence when your finger is touching the screen.
However, when you are using a mouse or touchpad, your finger isn’t touching the document that you are scrolling. It touching a surface that is ~90° off axis. It’s very confusing. I suppose I could make myself think that my finger is touching the document even though it’s not.
Computer users have been trained for many years that rotating the scroll wheel a certain way causes a document to scroll a certain way. Changing that now that Lion is out is just a really bad idea.
As other reviewers have said, thank goodness that there is a way to turn off the Natural scrolling feature.
As you can see, it’s really simple to change the scroll direction. I’m assuming that there is a similar setting for touchpad users. I don’t currently have one hooked up to my Lion system, so I can tell for sure, but it makes sence.
My next beef is with Versions! Really! I love the idea, but the implementation is not for the computer novice…
Instead of just seeing the regular folder icon in Quick Look, the folder icon will be semi-transparent, with previews of the folder’s contents visible in the Quick Look window, as seen in the image at right. What’s more, the preview images will rotate automatically, moving through each item in the folder (click the image to see a movie of the animation).
, or $49.99 retail for the 5 license family pack, 
. So the cost of the upgrade is not really an issue for most people.
Dave M.
