Mountain Lion, or the marmite* edition as it will probably be known, is set to be released today. Not a massive update, but only £13.99-ish.

As part of its quarterly earnings press release, Apple has confirmed that OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, the latest version of its desktop operating system, will be released via the Mac App Store today. Priced at $19.99, Mountain Lion brings a number of elements from iOS to the Mac with new features including Notification Center, expanded iCloud support, Reminders, a revamped Messages app, and more….

….Apple has also detailed each of the 200+ new features you’ll find inside the OS starting today. When the moment does finally arrive, you’ll need to be running either Mac OS X Lion or the most recent version of Snow Leopard (10.6.8) to upgrade.

– The Verge

Don’t forget if you bought a Mac after 11th June, then you get a free update via the Up To Date program.

Supported systems:

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)

*If you like iOS you’ll love it. If not, well…

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 anyone 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 – good job it’s easy to disable.

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)…

Looks like me and the plastic iMac can spend my £13.99 on hookers & blow*, then.

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 Q3 financial report yesterday.

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 Alfred myself.

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 ?

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

Apple UK – Mountain Lion