Lion or Snow Leopard - that is the question

We have an Imac that is just over a year old. We are trying to decide whether to switch to Lion from Snow Leopard.
We have an ipod, ipad and we just got two new iphone 4s. I think my main reason for switching will be to use the new features of the iphone 4s. I have not seen too much positively written about the lion os.
Does anyone know where i can go to see reviews on lion othere than these forums?

Here's a start for you:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2011/07/mac-os-x-10-7.ars
To get more, just type "os x lion reviews" in google and get all you want.
I didn't bother with reviews myself. I just made a clone of my Snow Leopard startup disk and went ahead and purchased and installed Lion just after it came out. To me, the best review is how the OS works for me, not what others say about it. By cloning my main drive and going ahead with the installation, I can safely try it out for myself. I've been using it for quite some time now and personally I do like most of the new features. There are some that I don't use but that's the case with all OSs I've had for the last 25 years on Macs.
So my advice is give it a try after you've backed up your stuff. $30 is not much to risk if you don't like it compared to what the earlier systems have cost. BTW, reading these forums is very useful but remember you are reading mostly posts from people who have had problems. The majority of users probably don't have these problems. And DO notice that the loudest protests are coming from those that have NOT taken the precaution to back up their SL stuff first. Not very wise.
Rick

Similar Messages

Migrate from Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard without transferring the OS?

I am leaving my job and need to transfer all of my files from my work computer back to my personal computer. My work computer is Mountain Lion and my personal computer is Snow Leopard. I need to know how to use Time Machine/Migration Assistant to move all of my files. (I was going to just update my personal MBP to Mountain Lion but the hardware is not supported for that OS.)
How can I get all of my files off of a computer with Mountain Lion, to put onto a computer with Snow Leopard?
MOVING FROM:
15" MBP 6,2 (Mid 2010)
Mountain Lion OS X 10.8.2
500GB SATA HD
8GB memory (max)
2.66 GHz Intel Core i7
MOVING TO:
17" MBP 2,1 (Late 2006)
Snow Leopard OS X 10.6.8
500GB SATA HD
3 GB memory (max)
2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
...What are my options???

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You can't use Migration Assistant to transfer the data from a computer with Mountain Lion to a Mac with Snow Leopard.
In this case, the only thing you can do is to transfer the data manually with an external disk. Just get an external disk, put the data you need onto the external disk and finally, transfer the files to your home computer.
Unfortunately, this is the only way to do it. If you want, you can use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a clone on an external disk if you don't want to copy your data manually to the external disk

"Tiger" vs "Leopard" that is the question...

Currently I'm using a OS X (10.3.9) "Panther" on my 733 Mhz Power PC G4 "QuickSilver" with 1.5 GB of SDRAM and of late I've been thinking of jumping to "Tiger" - better later than never! It's used for both home and my small business.
But with "Leopard" just around the block and coming on strong wouldn't it better to hold off and then for go for "Leopard"?

Not necessarily. If you're happy with Panther and you haven't made the switch to Tiger, unless there's some compelling features that you must have in Leopard, there'd be no good reason to switch.
Aside from that, Leopard will not ship until sometime next year, probably after the first quarter, so that's 9 months away. Until they do release it, we won't have a complete feature list, or even minimum hardware requirements.
Just because something is new, doesn't mean you need it.
Mulder
If my answer helped solve your problem, please consider awarding some points. Why Reward Points?
iMac G4 700Mhz Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Color Balance Lion vs Snow Leopard

I'm working with QuarkXpress, previously under SnowLeopard, now under Lion. Previously, when exporting a page into a PDF file, colors renamed true. Suddenly, under Lion, colors all emerge pale and uninspiring. I've tried all the display color options in Preferences, but nothing changes. My PDF images consistently emerge in a manner that I cannot send them to my commercial printer. How do I get my true colors back? The only change has been upgrade to Lion. Very frustrating.
Regards,
Terry Smythe
Winnipeg, Canada

No matter what you do, whether you switch OS's or not, always have a backup, preferably two.
Asking which is better, lion or snow leopard is a loaded question. Almost like religion.
Personally I think Lion is a dumbed down version of OSX attempting to merge the ipad with OSX. As you also discovered no Rosetta (ppc support). Obviously you can tell I'm pro-snow leopard.
Let the (religious) war begin...

Please help test a gif program in Lion and Snow Leopard

Can anyone please help me by testing a Gif creation app on a Lion and Snow Leopard machine?
The app is called "GIFfun" and is free. It can be downloaded here: http://www.stone.com/GIFfun/
I have used this app for years on a Leopard machine, but needed to upgrade this week to Lion.
Since upgrading to Lion all white areas in Gifs i create are turned to grey and its causing me problems in my workflow.
I've purchased other Gif creation software to see if the problem was only with that app, but the grey areas are on all Gifs from all Gif creators, which makes me sure the problem lies with Lion.
It would be a real help for me to know that other Lion users had the same problem, and to know that Snow Leopard users didn't have the problem. (as i would downgrade my OS to Snow Leopard)
I've attached 3 images to test the app, these images need to be put into a folder and the folder dragged and dropped into the app.
I need to know if the white areas turn grey on your OS?
I will be really grateful if anyone can help me with this.
Thanks
Dave

Yes I see your problem.
Nothing you or I can do about third party software not preforming well in Lion.
Contact their support:http://www.stone.com/Form.html
or
Stone Contact Info
Tele: 505 345 4800
Fax: 505 345 3424
www.stone.com
[email protected]
Stone Design Corp
PO Box 6799
Albuquerque, NM 87197-6799

Is the Mountain Lion so much better than the Snow Leopard that make it worth buying?

Is the Mountain Lion so much better than the Snow Leopard that I'm currently using and worth the money to buy it? Is it more or less confusing to operate?

OS X 10.7-18.0+ will NOT run any current PPC based programs your running.
http://roaringapps.com/apps:table
If you have a MacPro like your signature says (the tower, not the laptop) then it's not going to have much of a performance loss as say the MacBook Pro's will.
Older, less powerful Mac's have performance losses with the newer OS X Lions, it might be best to stick with 10.6.8 on a older machine until it drops, then spend the money on all new software on a newer machine instead.
One guy was here today and had a 2007 Intel Core 2 Duo and it was struggling to run OS X Mountain Lion, Chrome and Photoshop.
It just didn't have the hardware horsepower for all that bloatware.
My advice if it's not a top end iMac or MacPro, then 2010 is the cut-off point, those 2010 machines and earlier are likely better off on 10.6.8 max.
It all depends upon one's perception of performance really.

How do I switch from Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard? New used computer that I don't have anything on yet but has Mountain Lion installed.

I just puchased a used 2008 MacPro 2.8 ghz 8 core and it has Mountain Lion installed on it. I want to go back to Snow Leopard because it is a better stable OS for using Final Cut Pro 7. I just bought the Snow Leopard Discs to install. I need to erase the hard drive and install Snow Leopard. Any help on how
to do this? Thank you.

Downgrade Lion/Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer
      loads select your language and click on the Continue
      button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the
      Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the
      mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status
      of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then
      the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART
      info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on
      the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions
      from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS
      Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the
      partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on
      the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups made while on Snow Leopard, then you may do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion/Mountain Lion files.

CAn I run Lion and snow leopard on the same computer with different sign-ins?

CAn I run Lion and snow leopard on the same computer with different sign-ins?

Alternatively, partition your internal HD and dual-boot it. Do note that you have to reboot to switch back and forth. You can't do it by logging out and back in.

Is it possible to install Lion on the second hard disk on my Mini (2010) Snow Leopard Server, and switch between Lion and Snow Leopard? I like those voices Lion has in speech.

Is it possible to install Lion on the second hard disk on my Mini (2010) Snow Leopard Server, and switch between Lion and Snow Leopard? I like those voices Lion has in speech.

When baltwosaid NO emphatically, that was described as CORRECT ANSWER. Ditto in the caeses of the radically different answers from Camelotand Matt Clifton
Could it be that CORRECT ANSWER needs better defining by Apple?
That apart, yes, switching might involve rebooting. About the voices, well, I was the other day adding voice to a commentary in a video I was working on. There's only American English accent in SL — Lion I believe has British ones as well.
Why not, I wondered, try to install Lion purely for academic interest, maybe with an SD card (Sandisk Ultra II, 16GB) as Tom Nelson says is possible at http://macs.about.com/od/macoperatingsystems/ss/Perform-A-Clean-Install-Of-Os-X- Lion-On-Your-Mac.htm

Running Lion and Snow Leopard on the same MacBook Pro

So here's the thing .....apparently Lion won't run Photoshop and Illustrator CS2 (which I'm quite happy with and not about to shell out silly amounts of money to Adobe for even CS3) and apparently there may be (and I stress may be) problems with Word 2008 (likewise money to Microsoft for Word 2011).
I think, and probably won't know till I've installed it, that I'd like to try Lion on my Macbook Pro but keep Snow Leopard as a separate OS to run Photoshop, Illustrator and if necessary Word until I can afford to pay Adobe (& possibly Microsoft though I can't really see what improvements they can make to Word 2008) the large amounts of money they seem to think they deserve for an upgrade.
Does anybody out there know if it is possible to run both Lion and Snow Leopard on the same machine and if it is how do I do it?
Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Likely a corrupted cache file
Read the
Deeper cache cleaning/resetting
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3046

I am a macbook pro user form last 2 yrs, recently i upgraded to Mountain Lion from Snow leopard. Since then operational speed is a major concern. Now It has crashed so very badly that I am scared of my data.Please help me.

I am a macbook pro user form last 2 yrs, recently i upgraded to Mountain Lion from Snow leopard. Since then operational speed is a major concern. Now It has crashed so very badly that I am scared of my data.Please help me.

Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

My iMac says I have 10.6.8 operating system now. Problem is I do not know if that is 'Lion' or 'Snow Leopard' ... and I wish to upgrade to 'Mountain Lion'

My iMac says I have 10.6.8 operating system now. Problem is I do not know if that is 'Lion' or 'Snow Leopard' ... and I wish to upgrade to 'Mountain Lion'

That is Snow Leopard.
Upgrading to Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion
Upgrading to Snow Leopard
You can purchase Snow Leopard by contacting Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service - this includes international calling numbers. The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will receive physical media - DVD - by mail.
Third-party sources for Snow Leopard are:
Snow Leopard from Amazon.com
Snow Leopard from eBay
After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store.
Before upgrading check that you computer meets the minimum requirements:
Snow Leopard General requirements
1. Mac computer with an Intel processor
2. 1GB of memory
3. 5GB of available disk space
4. DVD drive for installation
5. Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may
apply.
6. Some features require Apple’s MobileMe service; fees and terms apply.
Upgrading to Lion
First, you need to upgrade to Snow Leopard 10.6.8 as stated above.
You can purchase Lion by contacting Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service - this includes international calling numbers. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax. It's a download. You will get an email containing a redemption code that you then use at the Mac App Store to download Lion. Save a copy of that installer to your Downloads folder because the installer deletes itself at the end of the installation.
Before upgrading check that you computer meets the minimum requirements:
Lion System Requirements
1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or
Xeon processor
2. 2GB of memory
3. OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
4. 7GB of available space
5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
Upgrading to Mountain Lion
Be sure your computer meets the minimum requirements:
Apple - OS X Mountain Lion - Read the technical specifications.
Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
7. Xserve (Early 2009)
Are my applications compatible?
See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps - App compatibility and feature support for OS X & iOS.
Am I eligible for the free upgrade?
See Apple - Free OS X Mountain Lion upgrade Program.
For a complete How-To introduction from Apple see Apple - Upgrade your Mac to OS X Mountain Lion.

Upgraded my macbook pro to mountain lion from snow leopard does this mean i can upgrade my imac as well for the same price? And will it mess it up?

upgraded my macbook pro to mountain lion from snow leopard does this mean i can upgrade my imac as well for the same price? And will it mess it up?

You can upgrade the iMac for no extra charge - sign into the App Store there, download and install 10.8.
I recommend that you make a backup (Time Machine is probably the easiest method) before you install, and make sure that you are not using any applications that are incomptible with 10.8 (eg Office 2004) - other than that, it should go smoothly.
Matt

I have 10.5.8 and want to upgrade, Do I have to download Snow Leopard before download the Mountain Lion?

I have 10.5.8 and want to upgrade, Do I have to download Snow Leopard before download the Mountain Lion?

Upgrade Paths to Snow Leopard, Lion, and/or Mountain Lion
You can upgrade to Mountain Lion from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. Mountain Lion can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $19.99. To access the App Store you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later installed.
Upgrading to Snow Leopard
You must purchase Snow Leopard through the Apple Store: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.). The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will be sent physical media by mail after placing your order.
After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store. Access to the App Store enables you to download Mountain Lion if your computer meets the requirements.
     Snow Leopard General Requirements
       1. Mac computer with an Intel processor
       2. 1GB of memory
       3. 5GB of available disk space
       4. DVD drive for installation
       5. Some features require a compatible Internet service provider;
           fees may apply.
       6. Some features require Apple’s MobileMe service; fees and
           terms apply.
Upgrading to Lion
If your computer does not meet the requirements to install Mountain Lion, it may still meet the requirements to install Lion.
You can purchase Lion by contacting Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service - this includes international calling numbers. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax. It's a download. You will get an email containing a redemption code that you then use at the Mac App Store to download Lion. Save a copy of that installer to your Downloads folder because the installer deletes itself at the end of the installation.
     Lion System Requirements
       1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7,
           or Xeon processor
       2. 2GB of memory
       3. OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
       4. 7GB of available space
       5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
Upgrading to Mountain Lion
To upgrade to Mountain Lion you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase and download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. The file is quite large, over 4 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
     OS X Mountain Lion - System Requirements
       Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
         1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later
         2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 5,1 or later
         3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later
         5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
     Are my applications compatible?
         See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps.
     For a complete How-To introduction from Apple see Upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion.

Lion vs Snow Leopard   ..... a wish list of things that should come back

I switched to Mac about a year and half ago. After years and years with Windows this was (almost) like entering nirvana. Things "just worked", I did not have to worry about details. And what I liked the best was discovering all these tiny features here and there that were so cool. I though "wow, this is developed by geniuses". I was so excited to have Lion as soon as possible, because I couldn't wait to have even more of these smart improvements.
What a surprise... I am now in the exactly opposit situation. I keep discovering which of those nice features are actually gone.
Hence, I am suggesting to other mac users: let's make a list of things we liked on Snow Leopard that are missing in Lion and we would like to have back.
Here is my first small contribution:
1) pinch-to-zoom in Finder and open/save dialogs
2) drag and drop of windows between arbitrary desktop previews in Mission control
3) possibility to re-arrange desktops by drag and drop
4) view all windows of all apps in Mission control (windows are on piles and even scroll gesture does not push them enough far appart)
5) expose that would reveal windows on desktop previews
6) repeat key if kept pressed instead of a bubble with letters I never saw before
7) more control over what and when is saved (not only the autosave function)
8) gray iCal and Address book
9) option+shift+volume button - fine control of volume
What about you? What else have you discovered?

As a Mac power user - LION IS A DISAPPOINTMENT
Apple needs to seriously consider briniging back
• SPACES: the capability to move up as well as down to access applications
     AND have applications stay in a desgnated space makes it much easier
     to run multiple applicatioins - especially in a multi-monitor environment
• SAVE AS: Saving various versions of a file is difficult with Lion.
    If I want a 3 versions of a document - with different pictures, it takes too many "clicks" to accomplish
     this task. LET ME CHOOSE HOW I STORE FILES
• COPY COMMAND: Snow Leaopard allowed me to copy files to a storage device AND if the file
     was already written to the device - the option to NOT REPLACE the file existed. This made it
     easy to backup work on a portable drive.
     LION ONLY has two options - copy all or make an addition copy of the file, causing storage bloat
APPLE NEEDS TO SERIOUSLY CONSIDER PUTTING THESE FEATURES BACK INTO THEIR OS FOR THE BUSINESS AND POWER USER

Lion or Snow Leopard - that is the question

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