Lion thoughts

Mikuro

Mikuro

Crotchety UI Nitpicker
I've been looking at the info Apple's posted on Lion. A few thoughts I have:

I'm not looking forwards to a world of full-screen apps. I know Apple isn't forcing it on anyone, but they have a way of marginalizing and neglecting the "old way" of doing things so much as to effectively force the new way on people. Apple already seems to be pushing full-screen mode -- no less than 10 of the "250 new features" are about full-screen mode (Wow, full screen QuickTime! How is that a new feature?)

Apple clearly wants to make the Mac more like the iPhone, and while that might be good in some ways (probably better for inexperienced users), I really want my phone to be more like my computer, not the other way around.

The new Safari sounds good. Taking the iPhone's zooming and bringing it to the desktop might seem strange, since we're not dealing with 4-inch screens, but I actually see it as a very welcome addition. I frequently use command-+ to zoom in, and this will just make it easier. I'm sure my father, with less-than-perfect eyesight, will appreciate it as well.

Scroll direction preference
When you scroll or swipe in Lion, content now moves in the same direction as your finger. However, if you want to restore the previous operating system scroll behavior, simply deselect the “direction of finger movement” option in preferences for your mouse or trackpad.
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O_O Hitting the down arrow and seeing everything move up confused me greatly when I first started using computers. But now it seems weird thinking of it going the other way. Huh.

A few key features I'm glad to see:

- Whole-disk encryption with FileVault 2
- Merge folders option in the Finder -- it's about time, and will appease those used to the Windows way.
- Autosave. It's about 25 years overdue.
- Screen "sharing" with a user account that's not logged in. Like an SSH session with the full OS X GUI. YES!
- Sandboxing for applications and web sites. Time will tell how effectively it's implemented, but again, it's been a long time coming.

And last but not least......Full screen chess? Really? That made the list of new features? I guess they reeeeeally wanted to make it 250.
 
I guess they want to make it more like iPhone, so the programmers do not have to make two different versions of the programs.
 
I miss all the color icons in the sidebar! I also don't like how all my drives are at the bottom of the sidebar.

The scrolling did take some getting used to, but after I think about it, it does make much more sense. I feel like I'm missing out on half of the features in Lion because my trackpad doesn't support multi-touch stuff like three finger swiping or two finger zooming.

I haven't really tested out the new file sharing with Windows, but I'm hoping it's much better since Apple basically wrote their own code for it now.

I also like the idea of autosave, although it's basically became a habit to save every 5 minutes or so on any project. I just hope it doesn't become like iMovie where you can't actually save the project yourself. I really like the idea that I know that I saved the file myself.

The applications also seem much snappier even on my 2.1 Ghz MacBook, I also like how the windows kinda pop out of the middle of the screen.

I'll post more thoughts when I remember of them.
 
Well here's some more rants.

I also don't like how the took away the Control-Two Finger zoom. It also seems that my fans spin up all the time with Lion for some odd reason, even when just going through the finder. Odd, but maybe the finder just uses more CPU?

One thing I do like is the auto correct like the one in iOS, so now I don't have to right click every misspelled word.

Reading list seems like a cool idea, rather than a bunch of bookmarks, which I would rather save for links I always use.

Lauchpad is an interesting feature that is fun to scroll through. I just thinks it's funny how they had it back in the ole classic days when it was named Launcher, then they got rid of it in OS X and not it's back!

The not having Java and Flash not already installed is kind of annoying, especially for Java. Flash doesn't matter so much, but I have a lot of apps that still use Java. But, I guess Apple is trying to move away and it's nots too big of a deal to just download it through Software Update.

The network viewer or whatever it's called seems to pick up Windows computers much better than Snow Leopard.

Mission control seems the same as Expose, so I still probably won't use it very much.

Face recognition is Photo Booth works very well. It also seems that they made the backdrop effects better.

The disappearing scroll bars make sense as I never use them at all.
 
Given our family's tight resources this year (long story), I have had no difficulty resisting purchasing an iPad or an iPhone. However, it would come as no surprise me in the least if Apple felt the need (not necessarily wisely) to navigate MacOSX towards the rapidly developing hand held device technology.

I hope Apple recognises that it's operating system has been historically admired for a lack of bling and useless apps and add-ons. Maybe I am pre-judging developments that consumers may appreciate, but I really don't want to see traditional Apple users corralled into using an operating system that is meant for hand held devices rather than a conventional screen.
 
Rhisiart said:
Maybe I am pre-judging developments that consumers may appreciate, but I really don't want to see traditional Apple users corralled into using an operating system that is meant for hand held devices rather than a conventional screen.
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I have to agree with you on that. When I was watching the keynote, I kept on feeling as though they were changing it into a mobile operating system. Dumbing down some of the features so that it's easier to use on a small touch screen or something like that. Don't get me wrong, they are adding a bunch of cool features, but I feel like they want to get rid of the desktop computer.

I'm not trying to be the old guy who resists any change or computers in general, but I will always love my laptop and desktop over my iPhone. I sure hope they never combine the two.

As for cloud storage and such, it's cool, but I don't want it to be my media hub. I would rather have more control over what's going on. I'm fine with sharing all my stuff over the internet from my home and being able to see right away, ever file that I will be able to access from another computer or my phone.
 
I think the moment of truth for me will be installing it on my parent's iMac and seeing how my mother, who only uses computers when she has to, responds to it.

Back in the old days, I considered ease of use a high priority, and I judged it mainly on how easily people who never used computers before could pick it up. These days there aren't many people who've never used computers, though, so the standard has to be different, but I still think we should look more to novices to see what's really better. Advanced users like us will find a way to work efficiently in almost any environment, given time.
 
Advanced users like us will find a way to work efficiently in almost any environment, given time.
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THIS.

My stupid quote of the day goes something like, "a BAD carpenter complains constantly that his hammer isn't just right for the type of nails before him... a GOOD carpenter picks up the nearest rock and gets to work."

Sometimes I feel like telling evangelical Windows users that are anti-Apple that I could be more productive on my calculator watch than they could with Japan's Earth Simulator supercomputer.

It's not the tools, it's what you do with them. Take away my Macs, and I'll gladly dust off the old P3 in the closet, throw some lightweight Linux distro on it, and get back to work creating awesome utilities and web-based programs. Too many people today confuse the power of their computers with their skillset -- to which I reply, "Even with an octo-core, 64GB RAM, dual-monitor supercomputer, you still suck at Photoshop." A faster computer isn't going to automatically give you knowledge and skills you hadn't previously, and if you can't create a masterpiece on a PowerPC 604e, you certainly won't be able to with an octo-core Mac Pro.

With that being said, I share some of the same sentiments that others do here: I look forward to Lion with carefully reserved apprehension and my mind wide open. As long as I still have my command-line... as long as I still have my low-level IDE... as long as I can still configure Apache, php and mySQL as I see fit... well, then, I have no problem with the trend toward full-screen apps and touch-based interfaces.
 
One thing I do wonder about is the server software. I feel as though they are trying to toss out anything to do with a server. They discontinued the Xserve, and put a modified MacMini in it's place. I understand that they want to get the high end stuff into the everyday consumers hand. That's also what I've heard about Final Cut Pro X, they are making it more for everybody, which in turn takes away some cool features. I want the separate installation of Mac OS X Server back rather than having to install some upgrade that probably doesn't have as much as what Snow Leopard had.
 
While the packaging and installation of Mac OS X Server Lion is quite a bit different from the Snow Leopard version, it still comes with more features, not less. I don't think they're moving away from the Server OS, they just noticed that they can do two things:

A) If Lion (Consumer) is the base OS for both OSs, it's far simpler to create OS updates. (One instead of two updates.)

B) If Server's only 49$ on the App Store, more users will get into using it. I don't think the Server version of Mac OS X was ever the BIG part of Apple's software sales revenue. By "giving it away", more SOHOs will get onto the bandwagon.
 
Though on the other hand, I always liked Mac OS X server better because it was very user friendly. If I remember correctly, Apple doesn't even use their own server software to run their website. I think it sort of goes against practicing what you preach, unless I'm wrong about it. Making me ask the question, why should I use OS X Server if Apple doesn't even use it.
 
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Scale, maybe? Apple hadn't always had their own massive data centers around the world, yet their websites needed to be available to millions of hits an hour, let's say, when everyone expected news about a new iMac or something. I'm sure at a certain point it simply made sense to use akamai etc.
 
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