Not great, but one Lion solution

Question

Still being new to Mac (about 2 years overall, little more than 1 as my primary business computer), I still tend to approach a lot of things from a PC perspective. Especially anything new – the old PC rule “Never install v1.0 of anything” continues to serve me well. And that is exponentially higher when it comes to a new OS.
I had looked forward to Lion for several reasons – the biggest being the rumor it would include a full-up Windows emulator and I could junk Parallels and Win7, that virtual computer being the source of nearly all the problems I've ever had with my iMac (27" i5 w/8GB RAM – soon to be 16 – and 1TB HD).
Alas, Lion failed on that score. But I still planned to install it – as soon as it became 10.7.2, as it now is. But before installing anything, I always check the user forums. And despite Apple claiming a 4.5 out of 5 star customer satisfaction rating, almost every message I read was in the 1 or 2 star range. What really caught my attention was when users began to call it MacVista – Vista having been the proverbial straw that sent me to Apple in the first place.
Even some AppleCare and Genius Bar techs agree – this OS is a PITA – and I don't mean Greek flatbread. Apparently, it won't work with anything except the latest 60-bit versions of any software. Got something 32-bit – or more than a year old? Tough. I even had one Apple rep tell me that flat out, saying, "Well, you were going to have to update your software sooner or later anyway, so why not now?"
Mostly because I prefer picking my own timetable for things that are going to cost me thousands of dollars and take days or weeks to install and learn (even programs you've used for years are going to have major changes running 64-bit on Lion, even if you were running them 64-bit on Snow Leopard).
I wanted to get the Win7 vc off my iMac, moving Windows programs I must have, but have no Mac version, to a new Win7 desktop I have installed next to my iMac (something I swore I would never, ever do again). Now I can't even trust my "old" Mac software will work.
So I have come up with a typical PC-user solution – not one I like, but one I hope will work: Cut my 1TB drive in half, with one partition retaining Snow Leopard and my current configuration as is; in the other, Lion and whatever programs specific to it I want to try, one at a time, on my own timetable – beginning, alas, with Parallels 7, which I bought before discovering it really only works with Lion.
This would, of course, be a dual-boot configuration, which means I can't cut and paste between the Lion and Snow Leopard partitions. Enter Drop Box, which will keep all files from both OS drives current online – and on the rest of my network – in real time.
Not the most elegant solution in the world, but I think – hope – pray – it will work. I'll let you know – and I hope anyone with a better solution will share, as well.

Answer 1

Not sure who you have been talking with the past couple of years, but the "Lion will have a Windows emulator" rumor was one of the most common I encountered after making the move from PC to Mac. And, no, it had nothing to do with Boot Camp.
I brought my dual boot idea here to both offer it up as a possibility to others and to seek advice/response from those  who may already have tried it. As someone who has been working with computers since 1967 (when the computer was the building), wrote a bi-weekly hardware/software review column for regional and national magazines for 25 years and built three PCs from scratch - and still do a lot of writing about military computers - I consider myself to be relatively well-versed overall, but still new and relatively ignorant about Macs.
Yes, those who post to forums and blogs tend to be those with problems, which skews the impression to the negative. And the vast majority of problems they raise are what we used to call "operator error" at UPI (back when there really was a UPI). But the problems are real for them and they usually come to places such as this for help.
Every user, every configuration, is different. It turns out a lot of my problems were due to a slowly dying iMac hard drive, which was replaced a few days ago. But I have to question your apparent attitude (and by "your", I refer not just to Lupunus) that all - or at least the vast majority - of problems people have with Lion are operator errors.
Why? Because every AppleCare tech with whom I have spoken - and every Genius Bar tech, for that matter - agrees there are serious compatibility problems and those switching to Lion should only do so if they, 1) have another computer on which to do important work and 2) are ready, willing and able to spend a lot of money on new versions of software they already have - and lose forever some programs, even those specific to previous versions of the Mac OS.
As noted, I'm still new to Mac and still shaking off a quarter century-plus of PC. But, contrary to what I had expected, I am now a solid Mac supporter, from the overall quality and reliability of the hardware - and software - to, especially, the incredible level of support Apple provides (without charging you a king's ransom for the privilege). That does not mean Apple is perfect nor Lion is without problems, which Apple seems to be working hard to fix, whether internally or in concert with third party providers, as appropriate.
But I will be exceedingly disappointed if user forums such as this one reject or belittle any problem raised - even if asking about a rumor or some misinformation picked up elsewhere - by any other Mac user at any level of experience. It's not a question of people being thin-skinned - or stupid - but of those with more knowledge and experience sharing it with grace and an always helping hand.
End of rant.
First report on attempt to do a dual boot install of Lion on an i5 iMac already running Snow Leopard: Even with a senior AppleCare tech on the phone (his choice, as it was his first attempt at this, as well), there have been unexpected glitches, which we worked around.
Now on to Phase 2 - Lion workshop and One-to-One sessions at the Apple Store this week to learn as much as I can and ask a lot of "stupid" questions, experimenting with all that at home (while using the Snow Leopard partition for work), installing necessary software, one at a time (including Parallels 7), etc. If anyone is interested, I will report back (much shorter) from time to time on the results.
Cheers,
   J.R.