Apple Releases Mac OS X Lion, Updates Air

steffann was one of several readers to note that Apple has released OS X Lion for $30 available only through the Mac App Store. It's a 4 gig download so you better not be in a hurry. Lots of new stuff both cosmetic and functional. But if you're the sort of person who is going to install it today, then you already know what they are! They also updated the Air lineup, dropping the old white MacBooks entirely.

Comments

Why?

[Lunix Nutcase]

It's a 4 gig download so you better not be in a hurry.

Yeah it takes a whopping 30 minutes. That's like...forever and stuff.

Maybe include some details?

[twocows]

"But if you're the sort of person who is going to install it today, then you already know what they are!"
I'm not the sort of person who is going to install it today and I would like some actual details in the summary instead of links to a marketing page and a blog post about something unrelated. I do try to keep up to date even with things I have no intention of purchasing; I work in an industry where it is advantageous to do such.

For those who aren't able to psychicly deduce the details about something that just came out, here's the list of new features.

Re:Maybe include some details?

[JustinOpinion]

That's a useful list. There certainly are a lot of improvements in that list. Two that sound bad, however:

Auto Save: Lock documents You can lock a document at any time to prevent inadvertent changes. Two weeks after the last edit, Lion automatically locks the document for you. When you try to make a change, Lion alerts you and asks if you want to unlock or duplicate the file.

Having a lock feature is nice. But auto-locking the document seems like a nuisance. There are lots of documents that I edit on-and-off on a monthly or yearly schedule. I don't want to have an extra click just because I haven't touched that file in awhile. In fact, since OS X is pushing more and more for auto-backups and auto-versioning, auto-locking seems unnecessary. If you can always revert changes, then there's no need to give the user an extra 'are you sure you want to change this document' roadblock. To me, it's inconsistent for them to be pushing auto-saving/backup/versioning but also have auto-locking.

Full-Screen Apps: Go full screen Apps built to take advantage of the entire screen have a new full-screen button in the window title bar. Click it to expand the app window to fill the screen. Exit full-screen viewTo bring an app back to the desktop, move the pointer to the top of the screen to reveal the menu bar and click the “exit full-screen” button on the far right.

Apple's push towards full-screen apps seems like a small step backwards. They are basically expanding on the successful UI principles from iPhone and iPad and seeing if they work on laptops and desktops. This might be useful for some users, so as an option I think it's fine. I do, in fact, go to full-screen mode in Firefox sometimes, and I can see the benefit for other applications to really 'take over', even replacing the taskbar/etc. But the thing is that it breaks consistency. On iPhone/iPad, all applications behave a certain way, so it all makes sense and you can get used to it. But Apple machines now have too many kinds of applications (widgets, normal applications, maximized applications, these new full-screen applications, plus older 'full-screen apps' like front-row). It's becoming inconsistent, with a mixture of behaviors and UI conventions. This is the opposite of what Apple's nominal interface guidelines recommend. A full-screen UI also seems very inefficient on larger-display computers (desktops). It seems that Apple is optimizing the GUI for small form-factor devices at the expense of full-size computers. Optimizing for consumption over production of content. I worry that this is part of a larger trend to over-simplify desktop computing, making it less open, flexible and powerful.

Other Features: Overlay scroll bars The new overlay scroll bars appear when you need them and fade away when you don’t, resulting in a more streamlined experience.

I don't think that's a step in the right direction. Those little 'fade-away lines' make sense on a mobile phone, where space is at a premium. But on a desktop or laptop, I'd rather see the scroll-bars. It gives you something to mouse towards and grab. More importantly, it gives you constant feedback about where you are within a document, as well as information about the size of the document. This is useful information that you intuitively get when reading a book (you can see the thickness of the book and how far into it you are). Removing these subtle clues from applications reduces context and leads to user errors (e.g. thinking you've reached the end of the document when you hit some whitespace). The above complaints may seem nitpicky. Clearly there is a long list of very cool improvements. (Auto-saving and auto-versioning should be standard in any modern OS!) But as with any software/OS 'updrade' there always seem to be some things that get... worse.

Re:about time for the mini to get a REAL VIDEO CAR

[AccUser]

too. many. numbers.

Actually, unlimited systems "you own or control"

[SuperKendall]

From the Ars review, the license reads:

(i) to download, install, use and run for personal, non-commercial use, one (1) copy of the Apple Software directly on each Apple-branded computer running Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server ("Mac Computer") that you own or control;

The installer doesn't check, any system that you "own or control" you have a license for. A company system might be a grey are (you control it but they own it, and also control to some degree) but the installer doesn't check and no-one really cares.

Re:Shame about those on Leopard

[Calos]

That seems rather arbitrary. Why would they do this?

Re:And the price of the monitor is...

[NJRoadfan]

Chances are those $329 monitors aren't 2560x1440 IPS panels.

How the installer works without a disk

[GlobalEcho]

As pointed out in the Ars Technica review, the installer creates a small (1GB) new partition on your hard drive without destroying any existing data. It then uses this partition to bootstrap the remainder of the install process.
(That's just the sort of approach I took with a Linux system years and years ago, though my reward was a whole weekend spent trying to fix a broken system and finally just erasing the HD).

Ars Review

[BrentH]

For a thorough and interesting review see ARS: http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2011/07/mac-os-x-10-7.ars Even I as a non Mac user find the detail Ars always goes into with a new Mac release entertaining.

Re:First Download?

[Dynedain]

Mac .APP files are actually folders. The OS just visually packages them up to make it pretty.

Right-click on the Install App and choose Show Contents.

Inside the SharedSupport folder, there is a disc image called InstallESD.dmg

You can burn bootable discs or make USB sticks from that disc image. Enjoy!

Re:Powering your iMac during the download

[node 3]

Not all Macs are purchased at an Apple Store; some are purchased at Best Buy or at independent Apple authorized retailers.

100% irrelevant. Apple Stores will help you in their stores no matter where you bought your Mac. Also, third party stores will be able to give you access to a locally cached copy of Lion once you've purchased it.

You keep acting like this is a common situation. It's contrived, solely to find some reason to bitch about something that won't be a problem for most people.

And for those whom it is a problem, that's the way their life is. They can't watch Netflix, they can't buy TV shows from iTunes or watch Hulu, or buy games on Steam. Even YouTube is a pain. And OS updates that can exceed 1GB? Same issue. It's not like they are exactly the sort of people who are champing a the bit for the latest and greatest anyway. They can make for for a few weeks until physical media is available, assuming they can't avail themselves of the many other options until then.

Apple has multiple solutions for the small minority who will have problems. You are exaggerating the issue.