Meh.
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Ok, I’ll elaborate a bit. In my last post I admitted that I’d probably be “in line” to get Lion the first day out. I was. At least part of it was that it was only $30 and that the installation for an Operation System was online! How cool! I will admit, that part was the easiest. I’ve upgraded an OS a time or two and this really did go smoothly. The only thing I didn’t care for was Lion getting rid of the install program after the install, but that was the olde tyme me talking. Why keep around 4GB worth of OS when you can download it from the App Store if you need it again?
The first thing that I “meh”-ed about was the whole “natural” scrolling. I understand that Apple is all a-flutter about their best-selling iPhone/iPad, but there’s nothing “natural” about scrolling on a laptop as if it were an iPad. If I had a touch-screen for my Macbook Pro, maybe, but I spend most of my time with a mouse or Wacom tablet, and “natural” scrolling just isn’t. Fortunately, you can turn it off. Which I did. But after about 2 weeks. I really wanted to give it a go, but just couldn’t get used to it. And my wife, who even has an iPad, was totally lost if she ever needed to use my Mac. So, off it went.
I also give the Launchpad a “meh”. I have an iPhone and am used to the iOS way of displaying apps, so again, I get it. But it isn’t any better than the Applications folder. If anything, it’s a bit harder to organize. I guess I might get used to it, but I’d probably have to use it and I just haven’t, really.
Another function I haven’t really used is Mission Control. Perhaps I’m not enough of a “power user” to need multiple desktops going at once, but again, I haven’t found the need. I’ll keep trying though.
On thing I sort of found out about on accident is VPN access. I had been using a Cisco program to access VPN for a couple of my freelance clients. I thought I had prepared enough for the upgrade that I was fairly confident that all my programs would still work in Lion. And they did. All but one. The one I sort of REALLY needed to work. And the Cisco client just flat out didn’t work any more. I had read that VPN was supposed to be improved under Lion, and I had had my share of issues with it in the past (connectivity, slowness, etc.) and was looking forward to something being done about it. So, when the Cisco client stopped working and figured out how to set up the VPN connection through the Network Preferences, I finally found something worth the $30 upgrade. It’s a small thing, but I like the fact the icon is in the menu bar. The connection is MUCH more stable than the Cisco client ever was. And while the transfer speeds didn’t change (and nor did I expect them to) but the file population came across MUCH faster. Which is helpful when you’re just looking for a file.
So, on the whole, Lion is ok. Was it worth $30? Well, if I’m more productive working remotely, absolutely. For all the other features? It might be worth it for some people, just not hugely for me.
