Now that OS X Lion has been installed on more than a million Macs worldwide (and counting!), Apple would prefer that users forget all about the now-orphaned Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. There are many reasons why users might want to stick with the tried and true snow cat -- and here are a few.
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard didn’t seem like much of a revolution when it was first released nearly two years ago, other than the far lower cost of entry (only $29 for users of the previous version). The feature set had been largely frozen in the wake of 10.5 Leopard as Apple worked under the hood to streamline the operating system and pave the way for a wide range of new features introduced with this year’s OS X Lion.
With Lion now roaring onto all new Macs sold -- as well as those who part with $29.99 and a nearly 4GB download from the Mac App Store -- does Snow Leopard still have any life left in its frosty fur? Let’s take a look at a few reasons why Snow Leopard might continue to be the preferred cat for many users.
Sure, OS X Lion introduced more than 250 new features, but for those who embrace Snow Leopard features like Rosetta or Front Row, there’s little love to be found in Lion Town. This has particularly affected users of older PowerPC-only applications such as Quicken, since developer Intuit has yet to bring that extensive feature set to its pared-down (and more Lion friendly) Quicken Essentials.
Although some intrepid users have found ways to get Front Row working on OS X Lion again, it’s clear that Apple wants us to go buy Apple TVs for using our Macs in the living room. If you have an older Mac mini, there’s little reason to upgrade to OS X Lion for such a need, when Snow Leopard offers a similar experience with Front Row. Why mess with what’s already working?
Since its debut on August 28, 2009, Snow Leopard has seen eight updates along with a handful of security patches. The original 10.6 release was a bit rocky for many users, but Apple and third-party developers worked quickly to address any initial problems -- by the 10.6.8 update released on June 23, it’s safe to say there are few bugs remaining in Snow Leopard’s coat of fur for Apple to pick off.
By comparison, OS X Lion is clearly a “point zero” release, complete with all of the quirks and growing pains that come with it. There’s no doubt Apple will address these issues in the months to come, but if you’re working on a “mission critical” system and Mac OS X 10.6.8 is serving you well, it’s better to stay put while the rest of us venture into the great unknown for the benefit of all mankind.
Although Apple claims OS X Lion will run just fine on any Mac with an Intel Core 2 Duo or better processor, systems that barely meet that minimum requirement may find the King of the Jungle more unruly than they’d like. For those users, there’s a persuading argument to stick with what you know -- that being Snow Leopard, of course -- and give a pass on Lion until the time comes for a hardware upgrade, which will have the happy side effect of also saving you $29.99 (and a massive download) on the software upgrade.
For users running older processors, the choice has already been made for you: No OS X Lion for you! But that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing -- after all, there’s nothing wrong with 10.6 and for the time being, developers are quite happy to keep Snow Leopard compatibility, which means you have at least a couple more years to enjoy that current hardware.
There are plenty of us who have no apprehension about diving right into the latest and greatest operating system -- damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead! Perhaps we’re the modern equivalent of those brave souls who went for a ride over Niagara Falls simply because they could, risking our digital lives and valuable data to the latest cat to escape from Apple’s cages.
For others, not so much -- some users simply fear the unknown, or more accurately, fear the change brought about with new features. And with good reason: OS X Lion is certainly one of the bigger changes, perhaps since the introduction of the original Mac OS X Public Beta nearly 11 years ago. Natural scrolling, Mission Control, Launchpad and a general iOS-ification of the Mac user interface might simply be too much for many to handle. Prevent your head from exploding and stick with Snow Leopard -- but don’t blame us daredevils when we call you a coward for doing so.
Finally, there’s a category of users for whom price is the only barrier to upgrading. We’re not talking about OS X Lion’s meager $29.99 cost of entry -- after years of $129 upgrades, Lion looks positively cheap by comparison.
Your upgrade costs may not end with that single trip to the Mac App Store -- if you’ve stuck with the same aging version of Adobe Photoshop, iLife/iWork or any number of other third-party shareware applications all these years, you may quickly find your wallet bursting at the seams after installing OS X Lion and discovering that it breaks your favorite app just enough to require a paid update.
That’s where it pays to do your homework, consulting wikis such as RoaringApps prior to upgrading, to see where your favorite app falls in the grand scheme of OS X Lion. Will your existing version work? Will you have to upgrade to a newer version? Or are you simply out of luck, stuck with a discontinued yet beloved app where Snow Leopard is the last hurrah? A little homework goes a long way here.
If you’re still using Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, sound off in the comments and let us know why you’re staying put and leaving the Lion to us.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
gobabushka
February 04, 2012 at 6:14pm
I'm sticking with Snow Leopard right now because I have a few apps that I don't want to part with, and they're PowerPC only. My Hackintosh is capable of running Lion, but my MacBook is not. Either way, I'm on SL for right now.
justir7
December 30, 2011 at 3:18pm
It's been almost half a year since Lion released, but I'm still on Snow Leopard. I have MS Office 2004 which would break if I upgraded. However, I do have iWork. I think I'm going to stay on Snow Leopard on this iMac because I really don't like the iOS-ifications of Lion. I think if you have a MacBook of any kind, the upgrade is worth it because it's really made for laptops. However, if you have an iMac and heavily use an actual mouse, Lion just isn't my cup 'o tea.
mpt1947
September 14, 2011 at 3:50am
I live in the Philippines - there are days when it takes 3+ hours to download a video podcast
A 6 GB update - I will wait until I buy a new computer
Plus Like most people who aren't making the change yet, I will wait until all the bugs are out.
viper1970
September 03, 2011 at 7:42pm
I ended up making a bootable thumb drive thanks to the many how-to's out there and I have to say once you get a clean install on your Mac, it's not bad. Add to that I bumped my ram from 2 gigs to 4 and man
does my Mac ever fly. The one thing that messed me up at first was flash wasn't initially supported much
to the chagrin of my kids, both of whom play flash based games. When I was able to get flash back on it
was sooo much better. For those of you on the fence, get an 8 gig thumb drive, back up all your stuff and
do a clean install, you'll end up loving Lion, and this is coming from a Windows fan.
mariner138
August 21, 2011 at 11:20am
I'm a recent new user (I won't say convert yet - I'm a long way from dropping Windows) with an original iPad handy toy and a new 2011 27" Intel iMac with SL (that's right - the Mac that seems to have an awful lot of problems reported after "upgrading" to Lion) as well as several networked Win 7 and Vista machines. When I got the iMac they touted the free download to Lion if done within 30 days of its release.
While I sort of like the iMac I still have an awful lot to learn about Macs; I don't think I'll get their free Lion, as I'll play it safe and wait until one or two later versions are out. I think it's always safer to wait and see if/what problems are reported and corrected prior to putting on a new OS or service pack.
kylechicago
August 20, 2011 at 12:21am
I downloaded Lion but have yet to install it. When word of the glitches and bugs started hitting the web,I said"you're staying right where you are,Snow Leopard". Like some of the other posts mentioned,when an upgrade seems to take away more than add to your overall experience,you soon realize it's not worth the hassle. And if MS Office doesn't work in Lion,it's no good to me almost right out the gate. I'm not unwilling to upgrade to 10.7 but like another post said,I'm waiting until,oh,10.7.2 or so comes along before I take the plunge.
jescott418
August 17, 2011 at 9:44am
Apple for obvious reason did not price Lion anymore the $29 for a reason. Its not that big of a deal. Its fine if your Apple only Software user and love the ideal of running the most recent version of everything. But for me its a unwelcome change for some things of Lion. I do not like the added features which seem to forget if its a iPad or a computer. I did not like the "Natural" scrolling which is anything but. I hated the fact I had to upgrade Parallels to 6 in order to run Windows. Sad, I still need Windows these days. If it was not such a task to go back to Snow Leopard I would do it today.
vcribb
August 14, 2011 at 11:56am
I switched to Lion the day it came out. Went back to SL a few days later. MS Office don't work, no problem I 'll just use Open office. The main problem I have is my computer freezes up, open windows won't close so I have to restart. Making a new OS that takes away features that many users have become a custom to was a vary bad move. New users who thought they might make the change to a Mac will run the Windows OS and praise it even more now then ever. School is ready to start and anybody looking to buy a new computer is not going to buy a Mac with Lion OS and tell their friends what a great machine they just got, instead they will tell them not to waist their money because it can't run the software their use to using now. I would be shocked to see Microsoft start running the old Apple ads in reverse saying how Apple can't run MS Office anymore. What Genius came up with this is baffling idea as an improvement?
maxglitz
August 10, 2011 at 4:31pm
Like others, I wait for quite a while to upgrade. I've always wished that there was an official "Blessing Department" that sent out announcements when a new update or upgrade is sufficiently bug-proof. I've felt like I've been an Mac Guinea Pig since the late 80s when I got my first Mac. Still I rave about Macs and would never go to the Dark Side. So far it looks like MS Office is the only pricey thing that will have to be upgraded and now I'm hearing QuickKeys too. Would hate to lose that one. I would think that Macs must have something to easily program repetitive tasks already. Just haven't checked. It's also time to check out the latest list of apps that just won't fly with Lion.
Wizardling
August 10, 2011 at 9:06am
No Rosetta alone was enough to turn me off, let alone all the annoying iOS UI stuff in Lion. I hate trackpads. I always have. So nooooo thanks. I'm sticking with SL as long as I possibly can.
andersong
August 09, 2011 at 9:33am
The biggest reason for me not to upgrade is Quickbooks. After many years of using Quicken and Quickbooks I do not have a warm fuzzy feeling for Intuit and their offerings. While I am in no rush to migrate to Lion I am looking into other money/bookkeeping programs. I am a nano business sole proprietor so I don't need super powerful software to count beans. Anybody here have experience with iBank?
Davidwp
August 09, 2011 at 8:55am
From what i have read so far, perhaps LION should have been named "FATCAT" for all the people who are going to get rich at our expense fixing what shouldn't have needed to be fixed.
Lately most "improvements" seem to be designed to centralize control and the collection of money so that "you will never be able to buy or sell or trade in the cloud without having the mark of the beast and the number of its name". (and don't forget your password:)
How's that for a tongue-in-cheek biblical analog to what is going on?
nlphd
August 09, 2011 at 7:08am
It's not just Quicken, which I no longer use. It's Textedit, Quickeys, ABBYY Finereader, and MS Office!
helgalw
August 09, 2011 at 5:33am
I upgraded to Lion right away, but my biggest stumbling block was Rosetta. I work for a school district and too many school apps are used with Rosetta, so I went back. To find my way back wasn't easy, but I finally figured out how to use time machine. I am thinking of installing Lion on a separate partition on my MacBook Pro to learn it. But for practical reasons I am for now staying with Snow Leopard.
brandocal
August 08, 2011 at 7:05pm
I changed to Lion as soon as it was released. I had to adjust to the new features and my old PowerPC software has become obsolete. I never used the older programs that much so I deleted them and gained some extra space. I found the "save as" feature for my files was replaced by the "Export" feature for files that need re-saving. The overall speed and nice user interface was worth it for me, I have a core duo 15" Macbook Pro. I enjoyed the immediate download through the App Store and affordable price to upgrade.
baltwo
August 08, 2011 at 6:22pm
Late to the party, but consider this. If the xbitslab's article, "Installed Base of Macintosh Personal Computers Surpass 54 Million Users" is anywhere close, then 1 million Lion installations is less than 2% of Apple's installed base. With 14 million Macs sold in CY 2010, that's less than 7% of machines that shipped with Snow Leopard. Given that poor market response, apparently most don't buy into having their machines mimic iPads. Just my 2¢.
JoRoDo
August 08, 2011 at 4:48pm
After going to Lion, I'm back to Snow Leopard (Thank you SuperDuper). Lion ruined TextEdit to my way of thinking. It made modifying existing documents then saving with a new name a nightmare. If there is a "save as" option I missed it.
ian4c
August 08, 2011 at 3:33pm
When I updated my OS a year ago I lost the ability to use my Samsung Multifunction Colour Laser. It took more than 6 months for Apple and or Samsung to update drivers.
I have checked with Samsung. Guess What? At the moment they do not support Lion yet. Why have agro when you have a perfectly good OS.
Does not make sense to upgrade until you check that your software and hardware is fully supported.
Winski
August 06, 2011 at 8:33pm
Well, here's something else for everyone to consider.... In the latest screen shots of IOS 5 beta 5, it indicates in the 'check hardware' migration stream from MobileMe to iCloud, that 'MACS must be running LION'.....
WHAT???
So is Apple saying that I can't take my current Macs running Snow Leopard over to iCloud??
HiMike12
August 06, 2011 at 8:07pm
I think that Apple has now got an I dont like it so lets loose (DVD/CD) it attitude and are too pushy.
You have to have the latest tec to use some of their services (Mac App store) and if they come up with a new device such (Apple TV) they just remove some of their features in another product to make it unique (Front Row).other than that Apple is great and it is worth getting their products
i guess no one is perfect
HBeagley
August 06, 2011 at 5:46am
I would like to eventually move to Lion but not just yet, I rather wait a while for a few updates for Lion to roll out, and wait till I get obtain some physical installation media.
As I do have a DSL connection here in the UK, but it is SLOW less that 1MB download (on a good day) so it would take a whole day just to download the installer.
And as it's a whole new OS, I would like to be able to do a clean installation of it on my HD so I have no left overs from Snow Leopard, as I don't want to have to do loads of stages just to upgrade to Lion.
Backup, Wipe HD, Install Stock Snow Leopard Install, Update to 10.6.8, App Store, Download, Install, ect
And finally I am running on an older Late 2009 Mac Mini, 2GB of RAM and hardly any HD left, under Snow Leopard this Mac can be slow and beach-balls a lot all I need is to be installing Lion and make my machine totally unusable!
darnocs
August 05, 2011 at 9:19pm
After upgrading on day 1, I noticed a few bugs:
1. Sometimes app would get jumbled in Mission Control
2. Sometimes Mail would notify me of a new email and then not let me view it
3. I couldn't add any new printers (which was quite terrible)
So, I backed everything up to Time Machine, made a USB boot drive with Lion, used Disk Utility to wipe the drive clean several times, and then did a clean install, after which I restored apps + data with Time Machine. The aforementioned problems no longer exist.
ramarrie
August 05, 2011 at 11:20am
If you are staying back just to use that old version of Quicken with Rosseta, I can tell you that as a user for many years under Windows, I switched to the Mac a couple of years ago and I used Virtual Box with a disk of Windows XP, and I installed Quicken 09, today I'm using Quicken 11, I also upgraded the Virtual Box software to Parallels 6 (I bought a packaged deal from Mac Software Update for $50 that included Parallels, TechTools, etc among others), to upgrade Windows I got an OEM version of Windows 7, which by the way, installs very nice. To make a long story short I have the best of two operating systems in one excellent machine iMac 2.53 Core Duo 2 with 12 GB RAM, so I can give plenty of RAM to Windows. I'm going to take my time to check Lion in another machine, I'm not that much of gestures user, some time I barely touch the mouse, and the other improvements don't look all that important to me, IOS? yeah! good for the iPad, and iPhone, for the iMac, not so much.
Primis
August 04, 2011 at 2:53pm
I jumped on the intel bandwagon a little too early and bought the core duo (NOT 2) iMac. I am currently running snow leopard and am happy with it. However I have noticed how long it seems to take now and then to do things, I blame my 2 GB memory for that. Recently I installed a copy of Tiger on an external drive. It was so fast! so clean, no brushed aluminum or poorly implemented transparency! One thing I noticed was that front row works as an iTunes remote rather than a separate app. I won't upgrade to lion, but I would consider downgrading to Tiger if half my apps would still run.
** On a side note, to do a clean install on lion must be a major pain; Reformat HD, install leopard, configure, upgrade to Snow Leopard; configure app store, download 4 GB download, upgrade to lion. Apple seems to think everyone has unlimited HD space, When I was still using tiger and Leopard I would reformat my computer every few months, then copy iTunes music and important apps from my external HD. When I tried to attempt the same thing from snow leopard, the install time doubled (no way to just install SL without a copy of leopard) I shudder at the idea of downloading a 4 GB file over DSL every time I wanna reformat. Apple seems to think that everyone has gigabit download speed. I have friends in upstate NY that have 56k dialup because of their location. DSL lines don't even work up there. It would take him 24 hours to download the file. I don't even want to think what his phone bill would look like either...
BigJoeH
August 03, 2011 at 3:16pm
I can't give up World of Warcraft. I have a 2 year old iMac and don't want it to slow down so I will wait till I need a new computer.
fabulo
August 02, 2011 at 6:32pm
Here is a simple solution that I have used to keep my old OS with my needed programs and learn the new OS at the same time. Simply install a new second (or third) internal drive or partition your hard drive with Disk Utility (this can be done in Leopard or Snow Leopard without erasing any of your files if you have sufficient open disk space). Install Snow Leopard on the new disk/partition and then upgrade to Lion on that disk. You can then choose which OS you wish to boot into by holding down the option key when starting up and choosing the appropriate disk with the OS system you need, or by going to System Preferences>Startup Disk and doing the same. I have used this several times with great success, starting with upgrading from System 9 to OS X. This way you can continue to work with a familiar system and programs while learning the new OS at a comfortable pace and wait for upgrades of programs whose current versions are not yet compatible with your new OS. You can also continue using your old programs as long as they are compatible with the Mac Hardware you use.
shthiker
August 02, 2011 at 2:31pm
Two reasons:
First and foremost, the cost of upgrading other software I use is prohibitive. I have maintained older versions of Adobe CSx and cannot afford the exorbitant costs of upgrading that product. And that's only the most expensive one. With other "problem" apps, the costs for upgrading to Lion will soar past $1k.
Secondly, no way would I ever upgrade an OS before a .1 (or later) release.
I'll stick with Snow Leopard for the foreseeable future.
pjonesCET
August 08, 2011 at 9:20pm
I too have a DSL connection at 1mb actually with over head its more like 975KB.
At that rate would take a minimum of 28-29 hr with solid unbreakable connection to download.
The nearest Apple store in Va is 4 hours a way from my home town. And the nearest one in NC is about two hours away.Based on all the reports of all the glitches. I think I would have to have an Apple Tech to install it.
storyofcory
August 02, 2011 at 2:05pm
Hearing about inoperable third-party apps is the ONLY reason I am not upgrading to Lion... yet. I probably will sometime in the not-too-distant future, but I'm for sure not upgrading until I read/hear that the third party apps have worked out their issues with Apple/Lion, and are functional in the Lion OS.
clasqm
August 02, 2011 at 6:51am
Upgraded to lion and apart from a few 32-bit plugins politely refusing to work I'm not seeing any problems. Fullscreen works fine. OK, Mail occasionally refuses to accept any clicks and must be de-fullscreened, but that is the sort of hiccup you can expect. Mission Control has converted me, and I NEVER used Expose in 5 years of Mac use. Launchpad finally frees us from the "Open the Application folder and click on the app" nonsense.
If you are still running PowerPC apps, perhaps the time has come to look for alternatives. It's not as if you weren't warned this would happen. There are good alternatives for FrontRow out there, some of them free.
Waiting for the bugs to be ironed out is always a good point. But sooner or later your favorite apps will announce that the next update will be Lion-only. Expect one or at most two more bug fixes for SL.
Geoduck
August 02, 2011 at 6:06am
I'm holding off. Probably will wait until I get a new system in a year or so.
The main reason is that there is a significant issue with NAS drives. I use a 2 TB NAS for TimeMachine and I've seen too many threads about how these break until the drive company comes out with new software. Sorry but if the upgrade goes sideways I need my NAS to do a restore.
So right now there are some behind the scenes advantages to Lion (Sandboxing Apps and Safari Tabs for example), a weird new eye-candy interface, and one humungous up front problem.
Right_writes below described Lion as Apple's Vista. Harsh, but I think it may not be that far off the mark.
I'll wait
ohiodemon
August 02, 2011 at 5:11am
The main reason is that I don't want to spend peripheral money on the new keyboard and trackpad, and I never buy version 1 of new software anyway. I like to see what's being fixed, so I have a better idea of what's wrong in the initial release.
I run an older Mac mini, which I upgraded from 1.66GHz Core Duo to 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo (the best $50 you can spend on your Mini in my opinion!). It runs Adobe Creative Suite 5, Logic, and a few other things you "just can't do the same way on a PC," (even though you CAN do them, to be fair) and under 10.6.8 everything flies, I have had no issues, heating problems with the faster CPU, nothing.
I'll upgrade to Lion later, if at all. Nothing for or against Apple, just "if it ain't broke ... DON'T BREAK IT."
JPicc2
August 02, 2011 at 1:00am
I have made the "lion" roar in my 2011 Macbook Pro, and thankfully I am not running anything major that needs to be upgraded (paid) or will not run, per se. I am liking the new upgrade to Lion, and have installed in on my 2008 Blackbook, and it seems to work a lot better on the newer, faster machine. The older Macbook doesn't really like Lion and a lot of the new features don't even work on the older model. I like Lion so much on the newer machine, that I actually persuaded my sister to install it on her Macbook Air. It takes a lot of getting used to, but I definitely prefer Spaces from SL than Mission Control. I think Apple hyped it up too much, and it was not what I thought it would have been. My expectations were of a whole new interface, but I guess that is why Apple is worth 79B and I am a lonely college student.
iMac.27
August 01, 2011 at 11:46pm
I switched Day one of the release. I absolutely love Lion.
Mine went on perfectly, not one issue so far that I can find. Everything works just as well as SL.
I did have to go into settings and change a few things here and there, but that was easy to have it set to my liking in just a few minutes.
I will add that I had no Rosetta or powerPC stuff on my system.
I thinks its the best OS I have ever used.
Unless you need Rosetta, Quicken or have powerPC needs, there is simply no reason at all to not get Lion, imo.
right_writes
August 01, 2011 at 11:54pm
Call me old fashioned, but I abandoned Microsoft when I had to replace my PC, and all that was available was Vista, Linux or XP.
I needed a new desktop after a head crash on my Raptor HDD home built PC, and rather than face rebuilding with an eight year old OS, I went and bought an iMac with Leopard, upgraded to SL after a year or so, and immediately upgraded to Lion.
For the life of me, after a week, I cannot see any benefit, and I have spent the last three days "downgrading"...
And all is well.
Although in the future, I may take a different view, currently I view Lion as Apple's Vista...
As for the idea of making a desktop OS more like the IOS... I would rather it was the other way around IOS should become more like Snow Leopard, as it stands I am constantly annoyed by its foibles on my iPad2 and iPhone 3GS, so much so, that I will not replace either with another Apple device.
BTW: My son, is using my old PC with 2003 Server to run his small business, and it runs just fine... Maybe I was a bit hasty?
AppleFanboy
August 01, 2011 at 7:12pm
I'm stuck with SL because I need more RAM. And who puts 1.25 gigs of RAM in a computer anyway?
AppleFanboy
August 02, 2011 at 10:26pm
Yep, my good old '07 iMac is gonna get nixed here real soon, upgrade-wise...
rogology
August 01, 2011 at 6:51pm
My reason for sticking with SL is that the App Store still won't accept my credit card.
Like many others, I'm getting the 'Payment processing is temporarily unavailable' issue.
Maybe it's for the better.The DVD was so much simpler.
iFan
August 01, 2011 at 6:34pm
I don't want to move to Lion on our Family iMac, I use Quicken 2007 and have been waiting for them to come out with an updated version for years. That's my number one reason for not installing Lion on that machine. Since the OS is so cheap and I can load it on multiple Macs, I may go ahead and install it on my MacBook Pro. I don't have critical data on the MBp so I could mess around with it and try to determine if I want to put it on the iMac in the future IF Quicken ever gets their act together.
jjq224
August 03, 2011 at 11:40am
Yeah, I'm thinking of doing the same thing. I have too much on the family iMac to risk, but practically nothing on my MacBook Pro.
munas
August 01, 2011 at 5:51pm
I switched to Lion on my Macbook Pro and left my Mac Pro on Snow Leopard. So, currently I use both systems and like both equally.
In my case an upgrade to Lion was smooth and all the data was migrated without any problems. Yes, Lion has long way to perfection, however its start is good and I believe, when major bugs are fixed, my Mac Pro will run on Lion too.
pkguy323
August 01, 2011 at 5:43pm
Ok, I REALLY wanted to like Lion and moreso, was hoping it would be more useful. However, it's not working well. Here's why:
1. Wifi Dropping CONSTANTLY. Snow Leopard (SL) never had this issue. I read there are numerous fixes to be had that "might" work.
2. Not remembering preferences. I've set my Finder to default open with the Application view. Each time I restart, it defaults to the home folder.
3. Safari doesn't remember the preference on opening to my set home page. It always opens up the last window open.
4. Cmd+Tab will let me select another open app, but won't actually go to it.
5. Annoying "reopen current windows" dialogue when shutting down Lion. No apparent way to default it to "NO"
6. Changes from Spaces to Mission Control are IMO too big and require a wide learning curve to get it 80% back to what Spaces does really well.
7. No Front Row...really?
8. Safari is the only browser with swipe to move pages back and forth.
9. Adobe Flash doesn't work in any of the browsers. Epic fail here on behalf of Apple and Adobe.
10. While it was expected, the dropping of Rosetta support is a bad move. Alot of folks depend on it for important apps to run.
11. Mission Control won't show me minimized apps.
So, it's back to the SL for me.
munas
August 01, 2011 at 5:57pm
Majority of your complains are just your "do not know how to configure it".
luvclu
August 01, 2011 at 5:29pm
I am using Leopard currently and do not want to go to Lion just yet. Is it beneficial to upgrade to Snow Leopard so I can use the App store or is it just best to stay where I am? Is it worth it or will just cause too many headaches with my now smooth-running MacBook.
macbookpro220
August 02, 2011 at 5:55pm
Do you have the App Store in Leopard? (I am on SL) Because my understanding is the only way to upgrade is through the App store as a 4gb download
HiMike12
August 06, 2011 at 7:53pm
Yip, App store is for SL only but later on this year apple will be selling a USB flash drive i think to $65 at apple stores.
cpwhaley
August 01, 2011 at 4:55pm
I took the plunge and upgraded to Lion on Day 1, and have been regretting it ever since.
It took a week of trial and error and Apple Discussions back and forth to recover my email, after the "migration" failed miserably. You'll find lots of irate Lion people in the threads about that!
I also had some decent PowerPC apps that I lost and will miss. Who even knew they were PowerPC apps until suddenly with Lion, they don't work? Their icons were just covered with the circle with a diagonal line through it.
iCal has lost features like that great navigation calendar (bottom left corner). I used to use that all the time. It also has a shitty looking (literally) overall appearance now, that I'm sure someone will fix. That applies to Address Book too.
Due to various problems, I decided to re-install Lion. Big mistake! You lose all the dock items you installed, all your application settings, all your system settings, and all your iCal contents (& probably other stuff too). I had to use Time Machine to restore my setup after my first Lion install, but before my re-install, to fix that.
If I had more time I'd go on. Let me just say... wait for a while, and hopefully a lot of these issues will be resolved in a MAJOR Lion upgrade... soon I hope!
...Charles
macbookpro220
August 01, 2011 at 4:36pm
I'm still using Snow Leopard for mostly fear of change. At this point I have my system customized down to every last nook and cranny and it is all running perfectly just the way I like it and i'm not really in the mood to risk screwing up my main computer with a new OS. Ill wait for a couple of updates to come out for Lion and for it to become more stable.
Some of the new features would drive me crazy to get used to such and full screen apps, mission control, and the new dashboard. Especially the change in gestures. i am used to four fingers down for Exposé, three finger left and right, etc. Apple changing the basic gestures wasn't very kind to us who do things by habit without even thinking.
I love my Snow Leopard and leaving it feels like leaving an old friend but I will do it sooner or later. Sometime when I'm feeling ambitious which isn't now.I know you guys have some great articles to help people upgrade. Thanks. I love your site, keep up the great work.
