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John Siracusa's Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Review

arstechnica.com

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Re: John Siracusa's Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Review

#151

Post by Zev »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #55
asolove wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, this has been one of the fundamental UI differences between Mac OS (from farther back than OS X) and Windows/Linux. Mac windows can only be resized from the bottom-right, with those other points being used to drag the window around.

I haven't owned an Apple since my old IIgs, but from playing around with friends' and Apple Store Macs, I always wondered if there was just a non-obvious way for powerusers to maximize Mac windows for an alt-Tab type window switching workflow. Now I know there wasn't. Was this ever a pain point for powerusers, especially on laptops, or did you just get used to it?

Apps that support full-screen mode are supposed to add a menu item with the keyboard shortcut of cmd + ctrl + f to enter/exit full screen.

Re: John Siracusa's Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Review

#152

Post by pablasso »

unwantedLetters wrote: post #148

I am in India, and have a connection that is 256Kbps. This is sufficient for most things, but I cannot get Lion from Apple. I don't mind waiting for 40 hours for ~4GB to download, but the likelihood that a connection in India is sustained for more than 10-15 minutes is rather low. The problem here isn't with the speed (it is with that as well), but with the reliability of the connection. Even at 8MBPS, this download…

I have a faulty router that just this morning rebooted itself several times while Lion was downloading. Everytime the connection was lost it just resumed.

Why don't you try leaving it some hours and see how it goes?

Re: John Siracusa's Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Review

#153

Post by etherael »

blahedo wrote: post #67

ARGH. I'm still bitter over the introduction of Spaces in the first place—a crappy implementation of virtual desktops that nevertheless drove all the third-party versions out of business—and now they cripple their already-weak version further? Over and over in this review I'm seeing Steve Jobs's message come through loud and clear: "You should be on an iPad. We're going to make Macs as much like iPads as we can, even…

What changed in spaces? I really can't stand stock spaces in snow leopard and am currently using hyperspaces to get reliable hotkey switching in spaces, if something breaks this I would like to know so I can not upgrade.

Re: John Siracusa's Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Review

#154

Post by unwantedLetters »

pablasso wrote: post #152
unwantedLetters wrote: post #148

I am in India, and have a connection that is 256Kbps. This is sufficient for most things, but I cannot get Lion from Apple. I don't mind waiting for 40 hours for ~4GB to download, but the likelihood that a connection in India is sustained for more than 10-15 minutes is rather low. The problem here isn't with the speed (it is with that as well), but with the reliability of the connection. Even at 8MBPS, this download…

I have a faulty router that just this morning rebooted itself several times while Lion was downloading. Everytime the connection was lost it just resumed. Why don't you try leaving it some hours and see how it goes?

To be very honest, I have a 3G connection with a limit of about 1.25 GB per month. Since I wanted Lion as quick as possible, I downloaded 1 GB of material using the 3G connection (took me a very, very short time - relatively). When I tried to resume the download from the App Store using my normal internet connection it didn't, and I lost about 1GB of stuff.

That's why I posted the earlier message.

In the interest of full disclosure, it was probably because the Mac App Store needed to re-authenticate me (I changed IPs remember), clicking resume resulted in me not being able to start the download, and the App Store just decided that the 1GB downloaded was useless.

The point about flaky internet connections, and "chunk"ed downloads still stands. I don't expect to be able to get through this download, and even my current issue would have been more gracefully handled with a smaller download size since only 1 chunk of data would have been lost.

Note: Interestingly, my 3G connection is more reliable than my broadband with respect to reliability. Even more interestingly, the provider is the same in both cases.

Re: John Siracusa's Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Review

#156

Post by jodrellblank »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #91
pkamb wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dock is an application organizer, the taskbar is a window organizer. Big difference. The windows on each monitor should be represented in a taskbar on that same monitor. Easier to comprehend, faster to mouse to. The app Ultramon does this very well, it's essential for any multi-monitor Windows install.

With the default Windows 7 group and icon behavior, they're virtually identical in behavior...

One puts a task bar on the same screen as the applications which makes it easy to switch applications per window, the other hides pictures of the application in a task bar on another screen which makes it harder to switch applications at all and completely ignores screen distinctions.

They aren't virtually identical; they aren't even the same thing done differently, they're completely different.

Re: John Siracusa's Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Review

#157

Post by Perceval »

callahad wrote: post #77

Woah. I actually reported an erratum and John responded within 10 minutes for clarification and subsequently updated the article. (Previously, page 18 stated that "The old lock screen didn't allow account switching." Turns out it has, since at least Panther back in 2004.)

I've emailed John before to ask him about language issues on OS X – I think this was back around the time that Apple decided they weren't going to roll their own Java runtime anymore. He responded back promptly and pointed me toward some reading material he thought was insightful.

Not only are his reviews and articles awesome, he seems like a really decent, chill guy.

Re: John Siracusa's Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Review

#158

Post by danielparks »

sp332 wrote: post #14

You can buy this review as an ebook on Amazon, for the same price as a month's subscription to Ars Technica ($5) http://www.amazon.com/Mac-OS-10-7-Lion-ebook/dp/B005DHYPR4 Downvotes? Did I copy-and-paste an affiliate link or something?

I wanted the EPUB version, so I bought an Ars Subscription for $5 (it auto-renews, though). You can also get MOBI and PDF versions with the subscription.

Interestingly, I was offered a 1 year subscription to Wired, or a $10 refund (which requires printing something and mailing it in). Does anybody know if I can send that in and get my EPUB for an effective -$5?

It's not really worth the time, but it's amusing.

BTW: Gruber had an Amazon affiliate link for Siracusa, which was almost enough to make me get the Kindle version: http://amzn.to/oJtmGd

Re: John Siracusa's Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Review

#159

Post by drivebyacct2 »

jodrellblank wrote: post #156
drivebyacct2 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the default Windows 7 group and icon behavior, they're virtually identical in behavior...

One puts a task bar on the same screen as the applications which makes it easy to switch applications per window, the other hides pictures of the application in a task bar on another screen which makes it harder to switch applications at all and completely ignores screen distinctions. They aren't virtually identical; they aren't even the same thing done differently, they're completely different.

What are you talking about? I'm dual monitoring with both windows and OS X right now. Both have their taskbar on my right hand monitor. Both have icons for launched applications with indicators representing each instance of the application. They both include icons for quick, often used apps that are present even when the application is not open.

They're identical... Is there any chance that you're using "task bar" to mean the application's menu? There are lots of engrossing UI discussion surrounding the application menu and the global menu, but that's not what we're discussing here...

Hell, if you ignored the fact that the Windows taskbar extends across the bottom of the screen and is grey rather than floating in the middle, and ignored the start button vs the finder button... my taskbar and dock look identical, Chrome, Firefox, VLC, Office Apps.

Re: John Siracusa's Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Review

#160

Post by greengarstudios »

unwantedLetters wrote: post #154
pablasso wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a faulty router that just this morning rebooted itself several times while Lion was downloading. Everytime the connection was lost it just resumed. Why don't you try leaving it some hours and see how it goes?

To be very honest, I have a 3G connection with a limit of about 1.25 GB per month. Since I wanted Lion as quick as possible, I downloaded 1 GB of material using the 3G connection (took me a very, very short time - relatively). When I tried to resume the download from the App Store using my normal internet connection it didn't, and I lost about 1GB of stuff. That's why I posted the earlier message. In the interest of…

What's your broadband? FTTH? DSL? Cable?

I'm in Vietnam, and we're able to download Lion over FTTH.

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