Apple is touting Mac OS X Lion as their best operating system yet, so who are we to argue with them? Adding more than 250 new features, the latest and greatest Mac OS X 10.7 is finally here with something for everyone -- but still missing a few features that may keep us longing for 10.8.
After months of anticipation, OS X Lion (aka 10.7), the eighth major update to the Mac OS X operating system, is finally in the hands of users. Well, not literally -- the only place you can get your copy is by parting with $29.99 in the Mac App Store, making this the first major desktop operating system not to offer a disk-based delivery format. (With apologies to our Linux friends, who are already used to this sort of thing.)
Now that users have had a chance to get their own paws all over OS X Lion (pun intended), you may be wondering exactly what else Apple could do for the next major version, short of converting the Mac to an all-touch operating system like iOS. While we have mixed thoughts on that move, we did come up with a few things that are still missing in action from Lion and ask, “Wherefore art thou, lost features?”
Remember the good old days prior to the release of iOS 4.2 last fall, when Apple touted the ability to AirPrint from an iOS device using any printer connected to a Mac running Mac OS X 10.6.5? Nearly eight months later, Apple has left us high and dry after yanking the feature at the eleventh hour. While third-party developers quickly swooped in to fill the void, we’re still left to wonder: What exactly is taking so long for Apple to build this feature into the OS itself?
Shortly after Mac AirPrint support was pulled, CEO Steve Jobs himself promised it would arrive in time, replying to an email inquiry: “Lots more coming soon. It’s what it takes to make a giant leap into driverless printing, which is huge.” Sadly, OS X Lion is still missing the ability to print from your iOS device to an attached printer -- so hang onto those third-party solutions for now.
Although this may be considered a hardware issue more than a software one, OS X Lion still has no official driver for the high-speed, third generation version of the Universal Serial Bus -- somewhat ironic, considering that the original iMac nearly single-handedly pushed forward adoption of the original USB 1.0 spec at a time when almost no one else was using it. Given that Apple has now thrown their support behind Intel’s Thunderbolt I/O in a big way, we don’t anticipate official USB 3.0 support ever coming from Cupertino.
Apple may tout more than 250 new features with OS X Lion, but what Cupertino giveth, they often take away as well. The ability to run PowerPC applications via Rosetta has gotten some press in recent weeks with the reality that software such as Quicken will fail to run under OS X Lion, but there is a bit more missing than just that.
While it never took off in the way Apple probably wanted, the Front Row application first released in 2005 essentially turned any Mac into an Apple TV capable of being controlled via IR remote. Since the company has started making the remote a paid accessory, it’s not a surprise to find that the software itself has now vanished from OS X Lion -- but really, Mac owners are better off just buying a $99 second-generation Apple TV (which includes the aforementioned remote) to get the full experience anyway.
Finally, the late, great iSync has finally been put out to pasture with OS X Lion. Once a mighty conduit for syncing calendar and contact information from your Mac to compatible cell phones, MobileMe (and soon, iCloud) has mostly negated the use for this often-troublesome application, especially when iOS devices can now sync said data via iTunes -- with plenty of third-party methods for doing the same with other smartphones.
Mac OS X has a pretty good reputation when it comes to plugging in hard drives or other volumes formatted with NTFS, the file system used by Windows. Indeed, such volumes will mount successfully and you’ll have no problem reading from them to your heart’s content. The trouble comes into paradise when you need to actually write to an NTSF volume (or format such a disk). Sadly, Apple has never enabled this ability and it won’t be appearing in OS X Lion, either -- but there are plenty of third-party drivers and methods for making it work, should you be so inclined.
Oh sure, you can now burn simple Blu-ray discs straight from Final Cut Pro X (as well as from Compressor 3.5 or 4), but Apple continues to shun the high definition optical disc format which Steve Jobs infamously referred to as a “bag of hurt.” OS X Lion isn’t about to change things, although third-party developers are finally stepping up with Blu-ray player software, so there’s still a dim glimmer of hope. But official Mac OS X drivers or software player support? Keep dreaming.
You may recall the minor uproar that erupted after the slim new MacBook Air models hit the street in late 2010, as buyers discovered that Apple had stopped shipping new computers with Adobe Flash installed. A political move by Cupertino or not, it was essentially a non-issue since users could simply download the latest version straight from Adobe’s website -- and Flash will continue to run just fine with OS X Lion as well.
Likewise, Apple is finally curbing the practice of including the Java Runtime Environment as part of Mac OS X beginning with Lion. Users who need this dated technology will simply have to download and install themselves, no sweat.
While the ability to do a system restore with OS X Lion has remained a mystery in the weeks prior to launch, there’s one thing we do know -- you’ll no longer be able to simply pop an installer disc into your Mac, boot from it and restore. That’s because OS X Lion is a download-only affair which make a restore partition that allows for recovery simply by booting your Mac while holding down the Comman + R keys on startup.
There’s been speculation that a disc containing Mac OS X Snow Leopard will be required to do a fresh install to a new hard drive, which still appears to be the case in such an extreme example. In any event, Mac OS X Snow Leopard is required to install OS X Lion anyway, so make sure to keep your original installation disc in a safe place, just in case.
In the lead up to the release of Mac OS X Leopard 10.5, rumors were flying fast and furious that Apple might finally do away with the HFS+ file system by introducing ZFS to the platform (or at least make it an additional option). That didn’t pan out, although the company briefly offered a read-only mode for the file system from the command line. ZFS was slated to make a triumphant return with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server after being advertised as a feature early on, only to escape our grasp yet again upon the final release.
Developed by Sun Microsystems, ZFS dates back to 2004 and offers such welcome file system features as data integrity, high-capacity disk support and even two features that will be familiar to users of OS X Lion’s autosave abilities: Snapshots and clones. It’s widely believed that Apple is now more likely to create their own file system from scratch to replace the aging HFS+ -- making ZFS a more distant reach than ever before.
While we doubt many of you impatient types will lament its loss, perhaps the biggest missing feature of OS X Lion is the first one we’re used to seeing at retail: The actual packaged box! Apple has taken a bold step forward by making the inexpensive update a Mac App Store exclusive affair, and it seems unlikely that Cupertino will ever look back again -- so get used to it, folks.
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leehinderstein
July 22, 2011 at 7:40am
I wish people would stop saying you need Snow Leopard to do an install or clean install of Lion. This is just not the case, you need Snow Leopard with the App Store to buy and download it, but that is where it ends.
Once you download Lion, you can create a DVD, that you can then boot from and use it to wipe your hard drive and restore the OS. People on the windows side have been doing this for years, this is not rocket science here people! This is basic computer 101.
matthew12
July 21, 2011 at 8:59pm
Front row can actually be put back into Lion. Go to bit.ly/ou6ZG2 and select the package at the bottom. Install it, restart, and Front Row is back! Worked excellent for me!
ebrainer1
July 21, 2011 at 6:20pm
I for one will sorely miss the box deal of OS + iWork + iLife. Here's hoping a box set of the latter two is in the works.
brunnecc
July 21, 2011 at 5:53pm
Three of these are simply NOT going to happen:
USB 3.0
Rosetta
Blu-Ray SupportThunderbolt KILLS usb, Rosetta is OLD and needs to be put down, and blu-ray is a "bag of hurt".
-Chris
Friends of Mac
shanecbryson
July 22, 2011 at 6:48am
USB 3.0 WILL happen simply because Thunderbolt is not Apple tech but Intel tech and will not become an industry standard. USB 3.0 will and pretty much has over the past year become industry standard. When there are billions of USB 3.0 devices, apple will concede. It will be much like USB 2.0 and Firewire right now. Firewire is SOOOOO much faster but not as widely used so Macs come with fewer FireWire ports and more USB ports.
Rosetta, I will agree with you on.
BluRay, I don't think will happen, but definitely needs to happen.
lapointe683@gma...
July 21, 2011 at 4:09pm
When installing Lion to a new SSD, I had to burn it to a disc, and use the Snow Leopard install disc to format the drive.
JPry
July 21, 2011 at 8:13pm
I use Eclipse, which requires the Java Runtime Environment. The first time I launched Eclipse, OS X gave me a prompt stating that the application requires the Java Runtime Environment, and asked if I'd like to download or cancel. I clicked the download button, and less than 30 seconds later Eclipse was up and running exactly as before.
So... You shouldn't need to manually go find it if you launch an app that requires it.
Steve W. Jackson
July 21, 2011 at 1:28pm
Frankly, I think tossing in that phrase was a bit snide. Java technology has advanced light years since I began developing with it in late 2000, and it's more widely used than you might think. It appears that Apple has (finally) gotten on board with Sun taking over responsibility for Java in Mac OS X, meaning it'll stop being ages behind the mainstream releases for Windows and Linux. But it's definitely NOT a dated technology.
