Figure I’d have learned by now, but I had to jump the gun once more:
1) Once it downloads, it updates your system; It DOES NOT do a fresh install. So, make sure you have a recent Time Machine Backup and a recent “Old Fashioned” backup as well, before you start…
2) The Installer that downloaded will disappear from your hard drive once it updates your system. You want to keep this from happening! To do that, when it first tries to install – STOP IT – and move that file to an external HD, Thumbdrive, or a DVD. If you ever want to reinstall or update your system, you don’t want to wait for another install file to download (which is how it seems to be wired at the moment)…
3) I didn’t find out the two points above until it was too late, my system had already updated (no fresh install) and I had already started working before I got that deep into the system. By that time, I really didn’t have time to reload the last OSX, download Lion again, do a fresh install of it, and pull in all my data from my Time Machine backup. If you have the time, go for it – I’m not gonna go through all that again at this point (maybe in a few months after all my third party software has been updated to Lion)…
4) My “Mail” wouldn’t open – it would attempt to “update” the database, but would go away after and not return. I had to rebuild the mail dB with iTweak and try to run the “Mail” app three times before it actually opened. All my addresses were in there, but none of my folders and folders of mail. Luckily I keep a running backup of all my mail folders @ me.com and just copied them into “On My Mac”. So, just to be clear – the Time Machine backup did not work for my Mail app; if I would not have had another type of backup, all of my mail would be lost right now…
5) I run multiple monitors. When you go full-screen with an app, the second monitor basically just goes to a funky desktop – so it’s a totally useless feature for me. I’m actually kinda miffed about this “feature”…
6) I got use to combining pdf’s, or adding to existing pdf’s, in preview to make little books of information. The new Preview doesn’t appear to have this feature. It’s a big deal for me, but most likely not for you…
7) My “Legacy File Vault” will not UNDO – I’m sure this is screwy, but I’m not sure how/why yet. I went ahead and activated the other File Vault last night, so now I have one protecting my Home Folder and one protecting my Whole System…(?) I really got to get into this some more to figure out what’s happening with File Vault. I was also hoping that Time Machine would be able to backup live with the new one, but it appears to have the same short-comings of the last app…
8) The computer itself will not shutdown on it’s own. It pops up something that says that some app (which it does not name) is stopping the computer from shutting down, then it does my Time Machine backup (which may be the app stopping it from shutting down), and goes back to the login screen. At this point, you can shut it down, but by then you just wanna go to sleep – the process is a lot slower than it was with the last OS. So, I’ve just been closing the lid when I don’t use it and opening it when I do – I attempt to shut it down sometime in the middle of the day (lunchtime) just to make sure I have one good Time Machine backup a day. When I get back from lunch I just relog in (cause the computer won’t shut down on it’s own)…
9) The shutdown and startup processes are way slow. Once the system is up and running, it runs about half as fast as the last OS. What I mean by this is that it takes me twice as long to burn a DVD as it did; it takes me twice as long to rip the video I just edited than it did before the update just a few days ago. Most people won’t notice the difference, but I do a lot of high end work…
10) I had to get rid of the preferences for Zinio so it would start – I had to do this once before so I knew where to go. Only Zinio 4 works with the new OS, so you’ll have to update if you haven’t already. For those of you wondering where it is, the user Library is now a hidden folder – so you have to use iTweak, to show hidden files/folders, to get to it…
11) I always kept my apps in specific folders within the Applications Folder, just made it easier to find when you have a lot of them. So I had to spend half the day figuring out which ones where duplicates and getting rid of the older one. I really don’t like how I can’t put the apps that come with the system anywhere I want now – now they have to stay in the Applications Folder. The system will not let you move them – if you want, it will duplicate it for you, but that just gets messy during updates and such…
12) Each desktop can have a different pic – it takes a bit of getting use to with the external monitor, but it’s a cool feature that I missed from my Linux Machine. Thing is, it’s going to throw you off. We’re use to setting the desktop pic and forgetting about it – I thought something was wrong at first – I realized my mistake when I started digging into Mission Control. The typical user probably won’t use Mission Control at all though (I was the only one I know who used Spaces – which is basically what Mission Control is), so this won’t present a problem for most people…
13) Still trying to decide if the last thing I used in a certain app popping up behind the one I’m using now is a useful feature…
14) I like how, if an app isn’t made for the new OS, the OS puts a mark on that app so you know to delete/update it. Kinda nice to know what needs to be updated instead of finding out when you least expect to. I’m really bummed that some of them, such as Onyx, weren’t up2date from day 1 – but hopefully they’ll all be good soon..
14) Trying to decide if scrolling my mouse in the opposite direction I’ve been doing for the last 30 years is a good thing – I’ve been using an iPhone and iPad since the beginning, but this is different – hard to explain, but it is…
More to come – I’m sure…
