[Closed] PSA: Apple Nerds - OS X Mountain Lion Is Released Today

Do you work for Apple, Jamie?

It can't be worse than Lion... unless they have extended the features i don't like.

weapon

I particularly loved how Lion took basic functionality away and all the fanboys said that was completely okay because it had crap like the launchpad in it which I find painful.

Do you work for Apple, Jamie?

Yup.*

I particularly loved how Lion took basic functionality away and all the fanboys said that was completely okay because it had crap like the launchpad in it which I find painful.

I don't think [i]anyone[/i] liked launchpad....even the most fannish of fanboys wondered what the point was.

*This could be a lie, but see your point. Have edited the OP, so it doesn't come across too much like a sales pitch.

I don't think anyone liked launchpad.

No, and it was never satisfactorily explained how it was better than either having the app in the dock, or typing cmd-space and then the app name to bring it up in spotlight.

The most pointless and resource-hogging feature remains dashboard - [url= http://www.macworld.com/article/1046236/disabledashboard.html ]good job it's easy to disable[/url].

So, is it actually confirmed 10.8 is out today? Not showing up in App Store yet. Also, likely price £20.

Andy

So, is it actually confirmed 10.8 is out today? Not showing up in App Store yet.

It'll be American launch so if it is today it'll be late afternoon.

Supported systems:
iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)...

Agree with the Lion < Snow Leopard sentiment from both OS and NatHist perspective.

*velcro and a cheap frame pump

So, is it actually confirmed 10.8 is out today?

Yup. Date was given in the [url= http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/07/apple-ceo-tim-cook-rumors-are-a-great-thing-about-this-country/ ]Q3 financial report yesterday.[/url]

The most pointless and resource-hogging feature remains dashboard

Agreed. The fact that no-one, even Apple, develops widgets anymore meant it has died on it's arse, and they should just strip it out of the OS. It has never bothered me enough to remove it, but I have never used it.

It has never bothered me enough to remove it, but I have never used it.

For the sake of five minutes typing gibberish into Terminal, I found it gave my last Mac a useful speed boost.

Andy

For the sake of five minutes typing gibberish into Terminal, I found it gave my last Mac a useful speed boost.

Well, as one of the comments mentions on the link you gave, Dashboard is only invoked when you run it for the first time, so remove all shortcuts to it and then it will never run. Zero pissing about in terminal 8)

Re launchpad - everyone should be using Quicksilver anyway. Awesome app.

Dashboard is only invoked when you run it for the first time

You see, that was my tactical error 😛

Andy

Can I upgrade direct from snow leopard to mountain lion? Ha! I actually use dashboard.

Seeing as Lion bu88ered up my MBP's wifi at random moments I think I'll be waiting a while longer. Don't honestly see what Lion brought to the table in terms of everyday functionality either. ML's IOsness might be pretty useful though ...

ML feels faster than Lion, nowhere near as fast as Snow Leopard though 🙁
+1 atlaz

The share features are nice (twitter etc)but still not liking the fact that when in finder, all the icons are a very dull grey colour-lack of colour isn't 'cool' it's monochrome and if i wanted monochrome, i'd buy a monochrome monitor...(rant nearly over) but i won't get a monochrome monitor, because they,and grey icons are NOT 'cool'(ok, i'm done)

I bought it for OSX, not for a copy of iOS. I really dislike how it continually veers towards duplicating iOS

And another thing-i don't like the 'leather look' of iCal. i'm not going to install lion tweaks either-i shouldn't have to (grumble, grumble)

If I read it right, I can't even "upgrade" mine at all ?

Black 13inch Macbook - the stylish design with the sharp front edge where you rest your wrists and the gap in the casing that snags your arm hairs.

Not even all that old imho.

@andytherocketeer

What year is your macbook ? it says early 2008 onwards

Having only used the current OSX, what's meant to be the problem with Launchpad please?

Not sure why they've cut off the plastic Macbooks (like my Mrs is still using) - they have 64-bit Core2Duo processors and take 4GB of RAM so perfectly capable of running it. Can't be date-based as older iMacs and MBPs than that are still on the list.

@theredchili

I thought it was a Macbook3,1 but purchase date would suggest a Macbook4,1 (early 2008 plastic body). Either way a quick google on the wikipedia page confirms that neither can be updated anyway.

iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
Xserve (Early 2009)

mines a 2010 plastic body one ,i read it as late 2008 ali or 2009 or newer -so mins should be ok

surly their can't be that much difference ? between them

Having only used the current OSX, what's meant to be the problem with Launchpad please?

Don't think there's really a problem with it, it's just a bit pointless.

mountain lion for my air, snow leopard for my pro.

can't mince about at conferences without an air.

Mountain lion is a bit facile though.

@peterpoddy. it's just appearance and basically, what is the need? it's just to draw in iOS users as a common UI look. If it was touchscreen it would make sense in that respect. I never use it to locate and launch applications anyway. choices,choices

Theredchilli your graphics card (and mine) is no longer supported 🙁

I'm assuming the general consensus is still upgrade though, yes? My upgrade is free but I'm still a relatively new user to OSX (it took me a while to realise the red button doesn't close an application). I have absolutely no idea what Launchpad is for.

Also, while we're here...What's the normal way to access all your apps? Do people tend to just drop everything onto the launch bar or just put the more common ones on there and then put the others somewhere else?

I still struggle to find everything I use. This could just be my poor organisation but the delivery of apps is inconsistent since the app store puts some in one place, downloading directly from a vendor seems to put them somewhere else. What's the normal place to put everything?

What's the normal place to put everything?

In the Applications folder

put the more common ones on there and then put the others somewhere else

That's what I do; common ones in the dock and use Spotlight to find anything else quickly.

Andy

@peterpoddy. it's just appearance and basically, what is the need? it's just to draw in iOS users as a common UI look. If it was touchscreen it would make sense in that respect. I never use it to locate and launch applications anyway

I use it. One swipe on the trackpad, click on the icon. 2 motions. What could be easier?

apparently the problem with the older macs with a core2duo is the GPU, the firmware apparently isn't 64bit, ML is fully 64bit and needs the GPU to be as well.

That is my understanding of teh problem, so might not be quite right.

I use it. One swipe on the trackpad, click on the icon. 2 motions. What could be easier?

Click an icon in the dock = 1 motion.

Click an icon in the dock = 1 motion.

True, but I don't have room for everything in the dock, games for instance 🙂

How many frequent use apps can one guy need? 8)

Anyway....if it works for you then great. Just for a lot of people it offered nothing in the way of improving productivity, and just seemed like a fancy bit of UI design for the sake of it.

What could be easier?

Quicksilver.

http://qsapp.com/

Odd. Pretty sure I run full 64bit-only Linux on my Macbook, dual boot with the 32/64bit OSX.

There seems to be quite a bit of negativity towards using the terminal. Surely one of the main selling point of a Mac is that at its core OS-X is just a flavour of Unix/Linux ? Does nobody use the terminal ? Or something like MacPorts/Fink to compile and install generic Linux software ?

Quicksilver.

Use [url= http://www.alfredapp.com/ ]Alfred[/url] myself.

[i]There seems to be quite a bit of negativity towards using the terminal. Surely one of the main selling point of a Mac is that at its core OS-X is just a flavour of Unix/Linux ? Does nobody use the terminal ? Or something like MacPorts/Fink to compile and install generic Linux software ? [/i]

My experience leads me to believe that while there are a core group of users on macs who are technical, the vast majority have chosen a mac because it's less computery than a pc.

Also, likely price £20

It's confirmed as £13.99

[url= http://www.apple.com/uk/osx/ ]Apple UK - Mountain Lion[/url]

It's confirmed as £13.99

Cheers for that; any word on actual launch [b]time[/b]?

Andy

has anybody said fanbois yet?

[img] [/img]

Cheers for that; any word on actual launch time?

If I was to pull a figure out of my arse, I would say 6pm.

Oh, and Phil wins the secret game of bullshit bingo. Your kick to the nuts is in the post 8)

Most likely will be be 6pm as it will be launched around Cupertino time..

My experience leads me to believe that while there are a core group of users on macs who are technical, the vast majority have chosen a mac because it's less computery than a pc.

That's pretty much my experience of it. What I am seeing are increasing numbers of technical users moving to mac, while the terminal on linux is excellent, the UI can be a bit flaky, and the real killer app for modern office work (MS Office) isn't available.

indeed. I've (as a technical user) selected it as a platform and I'm quite enjoying it. It's not as good as was made out by the masses but it certainly has quite a few nice features. That said, they mostly revolve around the very wonderful multi-finger gestures. If it was just a MAC rather than a MAC book I'd struggle to be pleased with it.

The box is nice though and it is very, very quick.

That's pretty much my experience of it. What I am seeing are increasing numbers of technical users moving to mac

I photographed a software development conference recently and I would say 90% of the attendees had Macs - mostly Macbook Airs.

That said, they mostly revolve around the very wonderful multi-finger gestures. If it was just a MAC rather than a MAC book I'd struggle to be pleased with it.

Can't you do most of them using the latest Apple mouse? Or at least with an add-on trackpad.

indeed. I've (as a technical user) selected it as a platform and I'm quite enjoying it.

What did you get? I'd quite like an Air, but I'm not sure how good it would be for Java development - fire up Eclipse, MySQL (or Oracle or whatever), and you start to run out of system resources pretty fast...

What did you get? I'd quite like an Air, but I'm not sure how good it would be for Java development - fire up Eclipse, MySQL (or Oracle or whatever), and you start to run out of system resources pretty fast...

I have an older MBPro (Core2Duo) with lesser specs and it's still nice and nippy with Netbeans/MySQL and Tomcat running away.

I've just got an i5 with 8GB RAM - it happily runs a Win 7 VM and an XP vm simultaneously as well as running Outlook, Mail, Safari, OmniGraffle, ARD & Acrobat... Best system I've ever used!

My experience leads me to believe that while there are a core group of users on macs who are technical, the vast majority have chosen a mac because it's less computery than a pc.

Can't be arsed with PC faff any more

Not detected any faff with a PC for years TBH, the main thing I miss is a decent command line / terminal.

Well it's in the App Store now - but I get an error when I try to buy it.

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/os-x-mountain-lion/id537386512?mt=12

NDAs must have expired:

[url= http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/07/os-x-10-8/ ]Very in depth Ars review.
[/url]
[url= http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/25/3185644/mac-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion-review ]Slightly more succinct Verge review.
[/url]

Well it's in the App Store now - but I get an error when I try to buy it.

Yep, me too. I assume demand has brought the servers to their knees.

Andy

I got a 13" macbook pro. Screen is big enough for me, couldn't really justify the extra £1200 for anther two inches and retina. Agonised for ages though. Normal, high quality laptops are so much cheaper.

I guess you can get the add ons for a mac, it makes sense, they really are quite smart.

Some people do talk rubbish though. They no more 'just work' than a normal PC and they're no less technical than any modern PC and software.

The most pointless and resource-hogging feature remains dashboard

I like dashboard. The converter alone (currency, lengths, weights, etc) is worth keeping it for.

I do however dislike the direction the new OS versions are heading in.

Pointless touch/idevice features like launchpad - go the whole hog or **** off. More apps using disgusting themes instead of matching the system - e.g the calender, notes app, reminders app. Widgets not in the right place on the app store window, a massive slider button on the time machine preferences window, etc. Also the new save system is confusing and despite the updates in ML, still half-arsed.

I discovered that on Lion you can't resize the columns on one of the Finder modes. What a load of cack!

The trouble is that nothing is better than it at the moment. Linux is just arse ache as a desktop, and W7 lacks the cheap/free media apps which non-experts can use e.g. iDVD, iMovie, etc. W8 looks like a cluster **** for the time being too.

I've just upgraded and it seems to be running really well. A few nice graphic tweaks and a broken version of paralells but nothing too bad!

Installed and running well. Notifications looks good, but irritatingly no FB notifications at launch.

Andy

Can't you do most of them using the latest Apple mouse? Or at least with an add-on trackpad.

The trackpad isn't really an add on, IMO. Its an option. I got the mouse switched to one at purchase, and it works so well that when I use a mouse elsewhere it seems slow and crap. Yes, you need to learn the gestures, but that didn't take me very long. I know someone who has both and it's pointless.

I use the apple mouse and it supports almost all the gestures I ever use. Really makes using the OS much nicer.

Well decided just to go ahead and get it. I was frustrated at the lack of integration between my Mac Book for Number and Pages with my iPhone and iPad so this will help address that for a start.

Do reminders and calendar talk to each other? or do i have to enter stuff twice? or did i miss a tick box somewhere?

Are people wiping the system before installing, I'm looking to upgrade from snow leopard?

Are people wiping the system before installing

Can't see any reason why you'd want to do this - I just did it from the app store, took about 30 min to do the upgrade after it had downloaded. Still hasn't fixed my wifi issues though. But I think to go from Snow Leopard you'd have to go to Lion first, I don't think you can miss out a version. No doubt an Apple expert will be along shortly to confirm or deny this.

Took about 40 minutes to install tonight, way faster than a PC. cough. Not really tried it yet.

Do reminders and calendar talk to each other? or do i have to enter stuff twice? or did i miss a tick box somewhere?

I understand they are separate entities. Why would you need to enter things x2, as they do different things.

I'm still bloody waiting for my up to date code. Apparently Apple have messed it up a bit. Wrong codes that say they have been already redeemed, codes for OS X ML Server instead of ML and looooong waits.

But I think to go from Snow Leopard you'd have to go to Lion first,

You can skip lion as apple say so!

Anyone having any issues? My upgrade has broken firefox quite badly, rearranged my docking bar, re-enabled a load of crap I'd disabled and seems to have hidden a couple of things.

I can't download it, paid for it two days ago, there's some glitch with BT Routers not taking files bigger than 2 gig, waiting for a firmware upgrade..

Don't bother with Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard, it's slow and crap, and don't forget lots of stuff no longer works with it, wait a bit until you read the reports, those of us stupidly locked into Mountain Lion, need to change in the hope of improvement, personally I wish I'd stuck with Snow Leopard.

That Dashboard disabling is like a whole new world 😀

Just thought I'd better report back in with my tale..

Eventually after much jiggery pokery involving tethering my iphone downloading a big chunk (and blowing my data allowance for this month) I eventually got it all downloaded, both my home and work routers are BT with apparently some firmware issue that wont allow files bigger than 2 gig to download, at least that's what their help desk tells me, (i'm still waiting for them to call back with a solution, like that's ever going to happen).

So what's it like so far?

My MB Pro is about 18 months old and suffered the last upgrade from Snow Leopard as I said previously, but it has definitely perked up a bit with this, I don't think it's quite as quick, I kept a start up disk with snow leopard and some old software that wouldn't make the jump to Lion, so I'll try compare later.

I had to switched because they dumped mobile me and iCloud is much improved and the mail programme which became super clunky has also been retweeked (you get little flashes on the desktop now of important mail conversations you're having).

I'm old guard Macman so never use launchpad or mission control, I view them as a sop to the ipod generation of dimwits, but they look kind of pretty if you're feeling glum in this sad arse summer we're having.

I haven't lost too much software other than parallels this go round and it all got placed in a nice folder saying something along the lines we've screwed you again you can't use this stuff go buy some more, but whatever.. It's quicker and I'm happier about that, if anyone else has found anything else useful I'd love to read about it, you'd think they might have provided a walk through, they used to in the days you loaded from CD's, this app store delivery sucks imv.

So that's about it from my perspective..