by Keith Richardson
As I wrote this in mid-July (clad as if for mid-September!), Apple still hadn’t released its newest Mac operating system, Lion. Macophiles were starting to feel like those folks who prepared for the end of the world a couple of months back, as one by one, predictions of the release date dried up and predictors’ credibility blew away.
But arrive it did—on the very last day that I could submit the column. I can’t give you my impressions of Lion yet, but will share some observations made by an expert who had access to the advance release. As Arte Johnson on Laugh-in used to say, “Vaayrie intereshting!”
The reviewer, Paul Thurrott, writes a blog called ‘supersite for WINDOWS.’ Why is he reviewing an Apple release? Let him explain. “I’m not a Mac guy, though unlike some of my cohorts in the Windows community, my interest in the other side of the fence isn’t a recent, trendy affectation: I’ve had one or more Macs here for testing and comparison purposes since the first release of Mac OS X in 2001. I’ve owned dozens of Macs, and Apple devices, used (and written about) every single version of Mac OS X and iOS that’s ever appeared. And while I appreciate the disdain which some readers here may have for Apple’s products, I’ll remind everyone that you can’t fully understand what Microsoft is and is not doing in its own OS products unless you understand the competition as well…. With Lion, Apple has again raised the bar, making it more important than ever that Microsoft do the same with Windows 8, due next year.”
Lightly sprinkled with snide reflections on Apple and Macs, Thurrott’s review reveals cautious respect for the Cupertino giant’s ingenuity and innovations. He especially extolls the iPad and its operating system (iOS) from which Apple’s engineers have borrowed liberally in their development of Lion. “It’s impossible to look at the iPad in particular and not immediately wish that your PC (or Mac) exhibited some of its better bits of functionality: Faster performance, including boot time. Instant on with resume. Multi-touch gestures. Simple, full-screen user experiences. An integrated App Store, tied to an online account with liberal app install rights. Auto save, both in the OS (open windows and so on) and in each app (auto data save). And app auto-resume, so that when you close and reopen an app, it goes right back to where you were the last time.”
He goes on to detail how these “great, high-level ideas” have now been integrated into Lion, “resulting in what is both the best version of Mac OS X yet and, for perhaps the first time ever, the first Mac OS X upgrade that is arguably more than just evolutionary.”
In praising Lion’s “app resume” (start from wherever you left off after quitting an app), “auto save, and versions” (ability to choose from several versions of a project that Lion auto saves), Thurrott is effusive: “Apple has taken functionality that existed previously elsewhere, made it easier to use and…created something both new and different…in this case, just plain better. These features, in tandem with resume and other apps improvements, give Lion a measurable edge over Windows right now in terms of underlying apps functionality.”
Thurrott takes a few shots at Lion as well. In discussing changes to apps that Mac come preloaded with, he carps, “On the flip side, Apple continues to bork up some UIs with unnecessary and, I think, detrimental ornamentations that resemble real world objects. So the Address Book app continues to look sort of like a paper-based address book, even though few of Lion’s users have ever even seen such a thing [I guess he’s not so conversant with of OUR generations]. And now iCal [Apple’s calendar program] is marred by a similar effect, creating yet another app in OS X that looks and feels nothing like other apps or user interfaces.” He also severely derides, on looks alone, Apple’s Launchpad feature which makes your Mac’s desktop resemble an iPad screen.
In his “Final Thoughts,” however, Thurrott recommends that Mac users upgrade from Snow Leopard (though he makes no mention of what we may have to give up in making the switch—a topic highly debated by long-time Mac users and something that up-graders of all OS have to grapple with). He praises Apple for trying to harmonize the user experience on Macs and iPads. His final paragraph is worthy of repeating:
“Lion, overall, is in great shape. Where I’ve generally derided Apple for over-pimping its largely evolutionary OS X updates over the years, Lion shows that there’s some life left yet in the Mac OS X side of the house. This isn’t just a collection of minor updates and refinishes. It’s a step away from the norm, finally, after a decade of steady and largely boring minor revisions. I’m excited to see where they take OS X next. “
We’ll keep you posted on OUR experience with Lion—the inevitable glitches found with any new OS, and, we hope, the satisfaction of having lived long enough to see another chapter unfold in the magic of computing!