Every two years, Apple releases a new version of its Macintosh operating system, OS X. For the past six years each version, at the time of its release, has reset the bar as the best consumer-level operating system ever created. OS X 10.7 Lion ($29.99), released today via Apple's online-only App Store, continues the tradition. OS X 10.7 Lion includes convenience and safety features never seen before on a desktop operating system, such as documents that are saved automatically as you work—so you never have to save a file and can recover previous versions effortlessly—plus applications that automatically start up in the same state they were in when you closed them, and an option that, by default, restarts your system with all application windows showing exactly the same documents and cursor locations that they had when you last shut the system down. Lion also includes hundreds of major improvements and minor tweaks that combine to make OS X both the most convenient and the most powerful operating system ever.
The three main things you need to know about OS X Lion are these: It's faster and more flexible than ever. It's more powerful than ever. And you don't have to climb a learning curve to use it. Read on for the details.
Three things to know about Lion
First, OS X Lion is easier to use and more flexible than ever. The interface now includes some ease-of-use features taken from the iOS operating system used in the iPhone and iPad. Also, at long last, OS X 10.7 Lion borrows from Windows the few interface features in which Windows still had an advantage, such as full-screen windows and resizing from any window border, not just the lower-right corner as in earlier OS X versions. Lion's feature that automatically saves and resumes your applications exactly where you left off is borrowed from iOS, and works only with applications that have been updated to support it.
MoreFirst, OS X Lion is easier to use and more flexible than ever. The interface now includes some ease-of-use features taken from the iOS operating system used in the iPhone and iPad. Also, at long last, OS X 10.7 Lion borrows from Windows the few interface features in which Windows still had an advantage, such as full-screen windows and resizing from any window border, not just the lower-right corner as in earlier OS X versions. Lion's feature that automatically saves and resumes your applications exactly where you left off is borrowed from iOS, and works only with applications that have been updated to support it.
Specifications
Apple's iLife and iWork suites get an immediate update that adds the automatic-save feature. Microsoft hasn't said when Office for the Mac will get updated to work with Lion's file saving feature, but I doubt you'll need to wait long. You probably won't have to wait very long for Adobe and other vendors to offer similar updates.
Second, OS X Lion is more powerful than ever. Thanks to its built-in apps, OS X 10.7 Lion lets you hit the ground running as soon as you start using it, unlike Windows 7, where you'll need to install third-party and download-only Microsoft software before you can view PDFs or run an e-mail client. Lion's Preview app, for example now displays and prints Microsoft Office and iWork documents in addition to PDFs and most graphic formats—something that Windows 7 can't do until you add Office and a PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader. A why-didn't-anyone-do-this-before feature called AirDrop lets you copy files to other nearby Macs without setting up networking—even if both machines are on different networks.
A persistent headache for ex-Windows users is also finally eliminated: when you copy one folder over another with the same name, Lion finally lets you choose whether to merge or replace the existing folder instead of simply overwriting the existing folder and all its contents. Similarly, when you copy a new file over an existing file with the same name, Lion asks whether you want both versions or only the new one—and it does so with a far simpler dialog box than the nightmarishly confusing "Copy and Replace?" dialog in Windows 7.
Third, the learning curve for upgraders from OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is almost flat. I experienced only one minor bump in the road, and it was caused by Lion's built-in "multitouch gestures" that it uses, by default, for navigating between windows and within documents. If you've used earlier versions of OS X on recent Mac hardware, or if you've used the iPad or iPhone, you know all about multitouch gestures, but Windows users will need a few minutes to get used to them. A typical multitouch gesture is one in which you "pinch" two fingers on the surface of a trackpad (or Apple's trackpad-like Mighty Mouse) in order to zoom out of an image, or spread two fingers in order to enlarge it. By default, Lion, like the iPad, and unlike earlier OS X versions, doesn't display any scroll bars (those bars on the right, and sometimes the bottom, of a window that you drag to scroll through a document) until you either (1) put down two fingers on the trackpad and swipe them up or down to scroll through a document or (2) move the mouse to the part of the window where you know a scroll bar will be.
Most users—especially iPhone and iPad users—will take to these multifinger gestures as if they learned them by instinct, and Lion adds some nifty visual effects that make scrolling easier to use—for example, a bouncing effect that makes it obvious when you've scroll to the foot of a page. When I started using Lion, a few days before writing this review, I was mostly annoyed by Lion's refusal to show scroll bars all the time, and I thought I didn't like the acrobatics required for multitouch gestures, so I was glad to find a setting in System Preferences, on the General pane, that makes scrollbars stay visible always. But I have to admit that after using Lion for a few days, I became a convert to multitouch gestures, and now I've gone back to the default behavior that uses two fingers to scroll up and down a document.
I tested Lion on a brand-new MacBook Air with Lion pre-installed, and I also tested it after upgrading from Snow Leopard on a mid-2009-vintage white MacBook and a 2009 MacBook Pro. Even though both those old machines were packed with software, the upgrade was the smoothest I've ever experienced. Basically, everything worked, with only two very minor hiccups. At the time I upgraded, the GlimmerBlocker software that blocks ads in Safari wasn't compatible with Lion, so the Lion installer stored it away in an "Incompatible Software" folder. I fixed that by downloading a beta version from the GlimmerBlocker site—but then I encountered the next hiccup. GlimmerBlocker requires Java, and Lion doesn't include Java by default, so when I tried to install GlimmerBlocker, Lion offered to download and install Java for me. All this took about ten minutes—and then everything else just worked. I used my Mobile Me subscription to sync my Mail accounts, Safari shortcuts, contacts, and much else, and Lion has worked smoothly ever since.Upgrading From Snow Leopard to Lion
A sharper bump in the upgrade road will trip up anyone who uses apps originally written for the old PowerPC architecture that Macs used before Apple switched to the Intel platform in 2005. Previous versions of OS X included a compatibility layer called Rosetta which allowed PowerPC apps to run on Intel machines, but Apple dropped Rosetta entirely in Lion. That means PowerPC-only apps won't run at all under Lion, and there's no workaround that isn't both (1) illegal and (2) fiendishly complex. Fortunately, most PowerPC-based apps have long since been rewritten as "universal binaries" that run on Intel or PowerPC machines, so you probably won't need to worry. But if you're still using five-year-old applications, check the vendor's website for an update.
A sharper bump in the upgrade road will trip up anyone who uses apps originally written for the old PowerPC architecture that Macs used before Apple switched to the Intel platform in 2005. Previous versions of OS X included a compatibility layer called Rosetta which allowed PowerPC apps to run on Intel machines, but Apple dropped Rosetta entirely in Lion. That means PowerPC-only apps won't run at all under Lion, and there's no workaround that isn't both (1) illegal and (2) fiendishly complex. Fortunately, most PowerPC-based apps have long since been rewritten as "universal binaries" that run on Intel or PowerPC machines, so you probably won't need to worry. But if you're still using five-year-old applications, check the vendor's website for an update.
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