Mountain Lion general thoughts and reviews thread?

We've had a couple specific issue threads about ML (dictation, copy protection), but no general thread for reviews and thoughts. So I thought I might start one.

What follows is not meant to be a complete review, but just some preliminary thoughts.

THE INSTALLATION:

Easiest OS upgrade I've ever done. Bought it in the Apple App Store, let it download, let it reboot, answered about four questions, and I was up and running. Very nicely done.

LAUNCHPAD:

A lot of people pooh-pooh having an iPad interface on an Apple laptop, but after getting over the urge to touch the screen, it's actually very handy. For one, it's a centralized method of uninstalling software, which OSX has lacked in the past (digging into the applications program and just throwing icons and folders into the trash always felt "wrong" to me). And it's a reminder of stuff you have on the machine that's not on your dock. I personally like the full-screen approach; even though my MBP 15 isn't a tablet, displaying the icons that way makes it easy to review at a glance.

MISSION CONTROL:

My biggest gripe about ML so far. Let's say you've got five Safari windows open and four Word windows open. Swipe up into Missing Control, and...you can only see three of each. Am I doing something wrong here? How am I supposed to see all the different windows I have open so I can go to the one I need, even if it's not one of the three most-recently-accessed windows for that program?

The Mission Control interface is very attractive, no doubt, but seems to me to be a bit style-over-substance. It's not good for managing more than about a half-dozen open windows.

OVERALL AESTHETIC:

Everything has been perfectly smooth since I upgraded, which I couldn't say about Snow Leopard. No framerate dips ever with ML, even on old hardware. Nice.

For the most part, the aesthetic is nice and futuristic...a little "Star Trek," if you will. But then there will be things that just make you scratch your head because they don't fit with ANYTHING else aesthetically in the OS. Like the stitched leather top to the calendar. Really? Really? Who signed off on this? Keep it consistent, folks.

 

Sounds about right, except the calendar aesthetic issue is actually a rollover from Lion.

Copy protection isn't an issue, I was just asking about it before I switched - no issues there, still works as expected.

Other than that, it works well, but there's nothing really huge in this release. Mostly just better integration with iCloud and some web services. Seems to work well so far.

 

Yeah, since I went right from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion, I don't know how many of these were new to Lion and how many were new to Mountain Lion. Reports of bugginess had kept me away from Lion, but ML has been perfect for me so far, and I'm running it on four-year-old, rigorously-used hardware. Maybe a case of "similar concept, better executed" (like Win 7 was to Vista)?

 

Sort of, except Lion also worked well. Some of the new features in Lion didn't go as far as they probably should have (iCloud integration, some of the first party apps like Messages) - but it was still stable and functional.

 

They introduced that bad interface idea in Lion. They've dialed it back a little (Address Book was worse in Lion than it is now), but they still really like this skeuomorphic nonsense. I'd probably use Notes if it didn't look so terrible.

Mission Control has actually been improved compared to its namesake in Lion. Uncheck 'Group windows by application' in the Mission Control system preferences and it should act more like what you're after. You'll probably also want to uncheck the first and second checkboxes (from the top).

 

That's a bingo!

 

Hate that they removed the RSS reader from mail.

 

Apple giveth and Apple taketh away.

I can only recommend you take a look at Reeder. It's a fantastic program (and it's even better if you grab the iOS apps as well). You'll need a free Google Reader account to get going, but once that's set up you can manage your feed subscriptions from within Reeder.

 

No idea why this happened... now they have no way to do RSS in the OS at all which is kind of absurd.

 

I've not played with ML too much, but it's a decently snappy OS. I am disappointed by no apparent improvement in gaming/graphics performance. I would have thought the update would include some newer drivers or optimizations, but performance in the games I have (mostly Steam titles) is unchanged.

 

I was surprised that it took my MBA a total of 7 minutes to upgrade to ML from Lion. It took my early 2011 13" MBP (with a faster processor and SSD) about 20 minutes to upgrade to Lion and that still wasn't bad. To me, the Lion upgrade performed like an upgrade and things were a little smoother once I re-installed the OS from a blank slate. I'm actually not going to do that with ML as it performs just like a clean install. Boot times have even decreased a little and so have the times between sleep and wake. To me, the biggest improvement was the addition of AirPlay display mirroring. It is much smoother than it is on the iPad and the <1 second lag isn't problematic as, when watching videos, the audio lags by the same amount. Now, if I have my MBA in my lap, I can show someone something on a much larger display whether it is my TV or the projector we have in the conference room (we finally purchased a 2012 Apple TV 2 since so many people now have iPads). The notifications area is also a plus. I had to go through my first ML upgrade last week and it was pretty easy. A notification came up and it went away but it was always in the notifications area. Before, the Software Update program would launch whether I wanted it to or not and then I would be informed of an update. The notifications area is much more relaxed.

I think they've improved on the Launchpad between Lion and ML. In Lion, it would display more apps across my screen but I don't remember there being a search bar. ML displays less programs at a time but there is also a search bar. Browsing seems to be a little smoother too. The one feature I wish they would add is the ability to drag programs from the Launchpad to the Trash as a way to remove them instead of having me open up Finder and going to Applications to do the same thing. It would be nice if Launchpad and Applications were truly linked together. To me, it seems like Launchpad is a series of shortcuts to programs/whatever instead of acting as a true front end to the Applications folder.

I also like the new dock and it is definitely more iOS like. I thought the translucent dock looked alright but I like the solid, gradient, reflective dock better. Program icons clearly stick out from my wallpaper now as they would sometimes blend in with the previous dock. Things still aren't perfect though. The Notes app is laughable at best mainly because the interface is carried straight over from iOS. Apple's updates to Safari have been nice but they changed ML's auto-correct features. Before, I could type in ipod all lowercase and Safari/OS X would automatically correct it to read iPod. Now it doesn't, typing in ipod just causes the word to be underlined in red. Similar auto-correct performance has been taken away either in OS X or Safari as I'm not sure where it was to begin with. It's a little annoying to be used to something for a year (while also heavily relying on it) only for Apple to take it out.

 

its not a front end to /Applications... it is just a bunch of shortcuts, but it finds all Apps on your computer, not just things in /Applications... so you can have things in other areas and still be on LaunchPad. Like its name says.. its just a way to Launch things.

I hate autocorrect so I always turned it off... but the option is still listed. Does ML just turn it off by default? There is an option for it in System Preferences under Languages & Text on the Text tab.

 

You can delete applications from the Launchpad akin to the method used in iOS. Click and hold. Click the X. (If they were installed via the Mac App Store)

 

Korn I don't see how the ML Dock is like the iOS Dock. If anything, Lion's Dock is the same because iOS 5's Dock was updated to resemble the Mac Dock. ML's Dock is more like frosted glass and the iOS Dock is still transparent like Lion's.

Well while the Notes app is pretty basic, I guess that's the whole point but I've found it most useful because I have an iPhone 4S and iCloud so each time I take a quick note on the iPhone like jotting down a price at the store, that same note ends up on my Mac when I get home. I use my iMac for work so it's great that my notes on the iPhone get transferred to the iMac automatically. I don't think Apple was going to "jazz up" the ML apps but rather mimic the iPad so a new customer starting out on the Mac that already has an iOS device will feel more at home and familiar.

 

That did the trick. It's now much more like Espose and allows me to see more than three windows of each program. Thanks!

 

yeah, i switched too. much, much, better.

 

you guys are making me twitch, I think Im going for it

 

Why even think about it? It's only $20 and you certainly get a lot more for your money. People tend to focus on what they expect to be "BIG" but honestly it's all the little things in ML that make me love it. For example, I like the addition of the progress bar on the folder when I transfer files to it. No longer is there a separate window that pops up that gets lost underneath other open windows, it's built-in on the folder using a nice graphic. I also like how now you can't just easily drag icons off the Dock. You have to hold it much longer until the "poof" appears. I always wondered how OS X would hold it in a business environment with employees accidentally dragging stuff off the Dock? Now you have to purposely do it. . I'm very happy with ML so far and the stability is amazing.

 

Pull the trigger. Some skeuomorphic aesthetic gaffes aside (and they don't affect functionality), I think ML is the best version of OSX yet, and I'm certainly not some fanboy loyalist who says that about every version of OSX. (In fact, I think I've been accused of being a Microsoft shill at some point or another). Mountain Lion is convenient to use, well-thought-out, and remarkably stable and lag-free. Anyone who owns a Mac capable of running it should go ahead and upgrade IMO.

 

Currently worried about setting up ML and having to redo the 3 partitions that I have, hopefully chrome will start working again in ML.

Btw does anyone know why chrome cant sync when the docs are in another partition? Basically I have the OSX (HFS+ 50gb), windows 8 (NTFS 50gb), Files (ExFAT 20gb), I thought it was some code that couldnt read the entry for the info files that are left in whatever part of the OS, however I couldnt find anything related in the code, or I failed looking at that.

 

Mountain Lion is unequivocally better than Lion, but I still think Snow Leopard was the Mac OS X interface at its pinnacle.

 

^ This. Only thing that would have made Snow Leopard perfect would have been Lion's full-screen support for applications.

 

........And Cut N Paste in Finder which is something Snow Leopard didn't have.

Apple has done a tremendously great job overall with Mountain Lion. Unless the next version is just going to be better, (I hope), ML (IMO) is the best version of OS X ever in terms of features and functionality and UI greatness. While typing this, Notification Center just reminded me of my birthday tomorrow (which I knew of course ) and some important work emails without having to stop what I am doing. All the little things in ML make workflow so much faster.

 

In terms of interface, the only thing I definitely like better in ML than SL is Launchpad. But in terms of execution, maybe it's just me, but ML seems so much more solid, lag-free, stable, etc than Snow Leopard ever was for me. Snow Leopard "hiccuped" for me more than any other OSX variant I've used (Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Mountain Lion); ML doesn't do that at all, at least so far.

 

ML does seem pretty rock solid for stability and maintaining responsiveness and speed. <-- things that the operating system is supposed to be doing

 

That still doesn't stop me from wanting to use it the way I previously described. Now, whenever I want to remove a program, I have to open up Finder, click on Applications, and go that route. It would be so much easier just to be able to drag program icons (in launchpad) to the trash.

It's still listed but, at least for me, its implementation has been drastically reduced. Simple words (like ipod, ipad, and iphone) are not automatically being corrected. I will get a work autocorrected every once in a while but the behavior is buggy. Before, I could switch around a single letter or spell something that had two letters in a row only with a single letter (like wriet instead of write or wel instead of well) and things would be autocorrected. Not anymore. Like I said, I believe it might be more of a bug as sometimes a word will get autocorrected but then the feature goes away.

iOS 5 has a darker reflective dock (it isn't translucent) and now ML has a lighter reflective dock. To me, making the dock reflective is a good way for it to stick out instead of not really having a dock (and just a grouping of icons), a grouping of icons with an outline of a dock around them, and then the highway styled translucent dock. I like the new reflective dock now and it stands out from my wallpapers (which are mainly pictures of Cincinnati where the previous dock and icons would blend in with buildings). The reflective nature and its ability to stand out more reminds me of the reflective iOS 5 dock.

 

I like the new dock but I wish they applied the same effect in the vertical orientation.

 

I have mountain lion on my 2012 macbook air and also on my 2010 macbook pro. mountain lion works flawlessly and is rock solid stable on both machines. no issues at all for me. everything is quite snappy.

 

Apple is still using the dated dock with a translucent outline around the icons. It's pretty much the same dock that Apple used on OS X 10.0.0 all the way until OS X 10.5 (Leopard).

 

Has anyone noticed a rather steep decrease in battery life in ML versus Lion? This weekend is the first time I really used my machine on battery and, without doing anything really intensive, saw the meter drop precipitously.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4135250?start=0&amp;tstart=0


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I haven't. My MBA lasted for about 5.5 hours before needing to be plugged in, I tested that a few days ago at work. 5.5 hours is about the norm I get with my MBA's brightness set to 50%, wi-fi on, and bluetooth on. I can normally squeeze about 7 hours if I turn everything off and set the brightness a little lower. I have heard of it causing issues though and Apple is looking into things. The same thing happened to some when Lion came out last year and Apple eventually patched things. I wouldn't be surprised if ML gets another update 4-5 weeks from now.

 

Not that everyone needs to do this but I've noticed the small amount of people reporting decreased battery life performed an upgrade rather than a clean install. I never upgrade. I have in the past and my system ends up unstable. Also some people say they have a relatively clean system so an upgrade makes more sense for them but even a kernel extension from a certain app may not be compatible with the upgrade system and could cause instability.

On a side note, most people on other forums have reported better battery life after clean installing ML. I have an iMac so I can't confirm but if you didn't do a clean install I would highly recommending it and installing each of your apps one by one and not using a Time Machine restore.

 

Great thread, Ive been cautious to upgrade, I always wait a while before the roaches get cleaned out.

 

I've seen a lot of complaints about decreased battery life with ML on tech blogs. Personally, I can't tell because the battery in my MBP is in desperate need of replacement anyway due to physical age (we're talking less than an hour of battery life with the GPU disabled and just surfing the web).

Mountain Lion having mysterious effect on battery life for some users | Ars Technica
Mountain Lion Kills Battery Life Like Lion Did - Forbes
Mountain Lion Users Report Battery Drain | News & Opinion | PCMag.com
Mac laptop owners report shortened battery life after Mountain Lion upgrade - Computerworld

 

My initial ML install was an upgrade but from what was a pretty clean Lion base. However, I elected to bite the bullet and reinstall from scratch. Since I'll by flying cross country this week, it will be a good indication of whether or not it's made any difference.

 

I am running a battery test right now. I bet I'll beat the advertised 7 hours on this run.

And FYI, I ordered and received the Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter. The adaptor works very well from OS X with complete camera control. I intend to test it with Windows tomorrow, but it passed the required test already.

 

For the most part, I can't tell a difference between ML and L.

Which is good in my opinion considering there is zero learning curve. It was a whole lot simpler than moving from snow to lion. No new behavior to learn about this time around. Basically I didn't have to change a thing on any of my system preferences.

 

Hi HLdan,

Do you use migration assistant to pull in all the apps and data, etc from timemachine after the clean install?

I may try that although I've "upgraded" already and have not seen anything yet that would require a clean install... but I may do it anyway.

I've saved the install .dmg to an external bootable drive with Lion. I may boot up with that external, erase/partition the target system HD, and do a clean install from the .dmg. Then use migration assistant to pull in all my stuff from my Timemachine drive. Does that sound right?

Thanks

 

Migration Assistant is used for transferring your files to a new or another Mac. Once you wipe your system and perform a clean install you may use Time Machine to fully restore your system. If you're not having any issues then you may not need to do a clean install. If you prefer a clean install for piece of mind then by all means go ahead. That's exactly why I do it. I do not use Time Machine to restore my system for a couple of reasons. (1) It brings back everything from your System Folder to your clean install. This can only be a bad thing if you have a lot of old software that might not be compatible with the new OS or some corrupted files that may cause instability. Since I don't always know how "clean" my system is I always perform a clean install and manually install all of my apps. It's not a big deal, I only have to do it once a year when the new OS comes out. Worth it.

My second reason for not using Time Machine is...well...it just takes too long to restore the whole system. . I've set it up to do it overnight so the next morning my Mac will be ready but many times it was still restoring after several hours and mainly due to how many songs are in my iTunes folder. My general purpose for Time Machine is to restore individual files that I have accidentally deleted or use older versions of software that were backed up if I'm not crazy about the update the Developer did. Case in point Skype. I prefer Skype 2.8. I hate the new version 5.0. Hope that helps.

 

HLdan,

Yes, that helps. I've decided to leave things the way they are since it's working well for me. Thanks for the ideas and explanations..

My idea was to try installing clean and then use migration assistant to read from my Lion Time Machine backups to restore the programs, computer settings, etc. . According to instructions, this is possible. Although the intent of Apple was to do this when migrating from one machine to another... Basically I would be using Migration Assistant to pull from an old Lion OS X environment that is in my TM backups to my new clean ML OS X environment, on the same machine. Kind of odd way of doing it but in my brain it made sense. ha. But I can see now how restoration using that method would bring over the old junk (if there was corruption/incompatibilities, etc) just as it was... junk. I was hoping that MA would somehow "clean" it as it migrated it. A manual install of all programs and data would really be the CLEANEST solution but for me would not be worthwhile considering it is working fine for me the way it is now.

You are right about the performance using TM for a full restore. Using only USB 2.0 or Firewire, it is a slow process. Took me about 2 hrs to perform a complete system restore of 320 Gb file system. Not as bad as an overnight deal, but still not very fast. Using thunderbolt or usb3 would be nice if I had a newer machine

Thanks again. Sorry all for off topic.

 

So, do I have to have calendar, chat etc physically open, even if minimized for the iMessage to work? I had to add more gmail and yahoo accounts, so temperature information that I get on my ipod calendar automatically synced with the mac. Also, are there advanced settings for the iMessage app in Settings other than the appearance and beeping options for the apps listed in Settings? There was no way to add any other apps to the list already population in settings.


I guess iOS would have to go from 5 to 6 before the icloud feature of synced tabs would work with my Mac? Overall, there isn't a whole lot of difference only that I should be able to install this on multiple computers and the fact that somehow I shaved off 6 GB off of my storage after installing ML which is COOL !

 

Here's a small, but awesome detail I noticed the other day:

Calendar (ie. iCal) finally has an option to show week numbers!

 

In Safari there's a button on the tab bar 'Show all tabs' in which you get some sort of 'Tab Exposé' in the Safari window.
You can activate this by zooming out using the pinch gesture

 

I just upgraded to ML from SL, skipping Lion entirely (I tried it, was not ever a fan).

Things I like:
Blazing fast
$20

Things I hate:
Got rid of "time remaining" battery indicator
No dashboard key on my late 2011 MBP, and no easy way to remap it.

It's only been a couple of days, I'm sure both lists will grow.

 

I was hoping that Apple would update the full-screen feature on machines hooked up to multiple monitors so that 2 (or more) apps can be full screen at the same time. Other than that, so far so good.