Your thoughts on OS X 10.8

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BTR

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#106900 2-Aug-2012 13:45

Just wondering what everyones thoughts are on Mac OS X 10.8,

To be honest I think I personally prefer Lion opposed to MLion, software update doesn't seem to work very well. It tells me my system is up to date even though ARD and anything Java related wouldn't work until I manually downloaded the updates from apple.com

It has also broken Mail for me and it no longer likes my smtp server and deleted all of my mail rules.

All this just to get a notification centre and dictation seems a bit harsh.

Would like to know what everyone else thinks.

Cheers
Blake

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Blake R

www.btr.net.nz

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BitSignal

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#666196 2-Aug-2012 13:50

Much, much faster on all my Macs. Quite liking the new Mail.app, although the Archive function does not work as expected with Google accounts.

Notification Center is cool, but I still keep Growl for non-NC-enabled apps.

"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." - Doc Emmet Brown

nicks

126 posts

Master Geek

#666222 2-Aug-2012 14:09

I'm also finding it much faster. I agree that the new software update setup is a bit more convolued. I like the notification centre but don't really find myself using it. All in all not a lot different from Lion but well worth the $25.

reven

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#666226 2-Aug-2012 14:10

never really used lion, came on a mac mini i had, but i installed win 7 on it and used as a mediaportal frontend.

so went from 10.6 to 10.8 yesterday.

initial impressions are: meh.

something things are nice (not sure if these were in lion though)

- 3 fingers to switch desktops

actually thats it... thats the only thing i really like over snow leopard.

cant for the life of me figure out how to show the desktop though, use to be four fingers up....

very surprised how quickly i got use to scroll the opposite way (the iphone/ipad way), i remember i had to change it back on my mac mini because with a mouse it was just silly. touchpad its fine, accidentally did it wrong way a few times, but pnly took 5 mins to get use to it.

still see Lion and Mountain lions as just service packs though... so think its a bit of a rip off.... but at least you only have to pay $25 for 10.6 to 10.8 (skipping 10.7 all together)

magu

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#666229 2-Aug-2012 14:13

Notification Centre became more useful to me after I assigned a keyboard shortcut to it: Cmd+ Shift + M (which is the same for the mini-player in iTunes).

"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." - Doc Emmet Brown

gehenna

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#666260 2-Aug-2012 14:43

magu: Notification Centre became more useful to me after I assigned a keyboard shortcut to it: Cmd+ Shift + M (which is the same for the mini-player in iTunes).

that's an awesome tip!

myopinion

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#666287 2-Aug-2012 15:18

Show desktop four or five fingers spread from a pinch.

johnr

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#666288 2-Aug-2012 15:19

Fast on my older MBP

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gzt

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#666337 2-Aug-2012 16:11

BTR: It tells me my system is up to date even though ARD and anything Java related wouldn't work until I manually downloaded the updates from apple.com

Lion came without Java by design - so ML will not be any different. Interesting if it disabled (or broke) your existing Java install during upgrade - might be a design decision tradeoff intended to save Apple from even more security embarrassment wether it is deserved or not.

Behodar

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#666344 2-Aug-2012 16:21

If I recall correctly (I haven't done an upgrade since one of the developer previews), you need a new version of Java under 10.8 and therefore the old version is removed when you upgrade. However, it should prompt you to download it when you try to use a Java app; I haven't had any problems there and haven't had to manually download it.

BTR

1527 posts

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#666407 2-Aug-2012 17:34

Behodar: If I recall correctly (I haven't done an upgrade since one of the developer previews), you need a new version of Java under 10.8 and therefore the old version is removed when you upgrade. However, it should prompt you to download it when you try to use a Java app; I haven't had any problems there and haven't had to manually download it.

Yes it did prompt me to download Java when opening a Java app but it kept saying that the download wasn't available.

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stevenz

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#666957 3-Aug-2012 13:25

I found an app called "Hiss" (might've been a link on this forum someplace?) - It replaces Growl and just redirects everything into Notifications. I don't see a great deal of use for Notifications really, most apps go "bing" or have a notification on their icon anyway if it's anything I'd care about.

It's certainly a pretty snappy OS. It's taken a while to get used to the "new" (since 10.6) multi-desktop method since they ditched Spaces, but after a bit of shortcut tweaking it's actually pretty versatile.

Works happily on both my 2010 model Mac mini and my Ivy Bridge hackintosh.

Java appears to be a bit of an issue with 10.8. They don't seem to have a standalone version for 10.8, but the version for Lion seemed to work for me. (Got Minecraft going at least).

Try:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1515
or
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/39490/apple-java-for-os-x-lion/

Edit: And just while scrolling around GZ, I find myself thinking that the "natural" scrolling they introduced in 10.7 actually does make sense as I now find it a bit odd to scroll the mouse forward to move down the page :)

@KnightNZ

samdouglas

203 posts

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#675081 21-Aug-2012 13:29

I have several macs and a custom built PC that i use for games.
Installed Mountain Lion on the PC last weekend and have been using it ever since - seems fast and stable - but it's not a huge leap over Lion.
Will wait for windows 8 to be released to decide if Mountain Lion or Windows gets to reside on my SSD...

Behodar

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#675085 21-Aug-2012 13:32

samdouglas: seems fast and stable - but it's not a huge leap over Lion.

It's not, but it does resolve some of the stupidity that was in Lion. For example, I can now edit documents and then close without saving (such as for a one-off print), whereas Lion would auto-save without any option to turn this off.
Mountain Lion is similar to Snow Leopard; it's a "tweak" release that doesn't have many new features but makes the system a whole lot more enjoyable to work with.

samdouglas: Will wait for windows 8 to be released to decide if Mountain Lion or Windows gets to reside on my SSD...

Should be an easy decision once you try the disaster that is Windows 8 :)

reven

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#675103 21-Aug-2012 13:58

ive had mountain lion crash on my 2011 MBP quite a bit (about 5 times) where its gone to the grey screen and had to be rebooted. 10.6 was completely stable.

Behodar

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#675106 21-Aug-2012 14:04

Clean install or upgrade? Do you have any third party hardware (such as RAM)?

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