“I suppose this is the sort of uncertain question that many ask in one form or another whenever Apple or Microsoft releases a major OS upgrade,” Gene Steinberg writes for TechNightOwl. “Early so-called ‘version one-point-zero’ bugs appear, one or two quick updates are released, and you have to wonder whether they might have done better to wait rather than rush the product out.”
“With Lion, Apple has changed the mold. Unlike previous versions of OS X, most Mac users are expected to download their copies from the Mac App Store, for $29.99,” Steinberg writes. “But the methodology of delivering Lion isn’t the problem. It’s the persistent bugs reported in the initial 10.7 release that trouble a number of Mac users.”
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Steinberg writes, “First and foremost, I do not regard OS X Lion is necessarily buggier than other OS X upgrades. They all had early-release flaws of one degree or another. It makes sense there will be problems because of all the serious changes in Lion. At the same time, I have little doubt that Apple is going to straighten out the worst ills in the months to come… Despite some of the complaints, I do not see Lion as being necessarily less stable than other versions of OS X. But there’s nothing wrong with waiting out a few maintenance updates before diving on.”
Read much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Aside from some funkiness with artifacts on desktops with dual monitor setups (iMacs), we’ve had smooth sailing with Lion. No issues to report at all with Lion on any of our MacBook Airs or MacBook Pros.
Are you experiencing issues with Lion? If so, please describe them below.
I run ScreenSharing from my iMac to my MacMini in full screen mode and it sucks. The screen “wobbles” and occasionally ends up with large black blocks over it. It’s almost unusable.
Snow Leopard has been around the jungle, active, for some time ….. Lion is just waking up and needs to stretch before he will be running circles around Leopard ……
We did upgrade to Lion and I myself love the new features but it seems Lions needs more ram and faster processors than Leopard as our 2007 machines ran OK but the 2010 machines, with upgraded ram, scream …..
We are waiting on server for a few months though …..
Wish Apple had a pdf userguide.
I agree.
A proper full blown one. Not one of those 10 page highlights kids either…
Unmounting a CIFS mount is instant kernal panic.
Safari crashes all the time – usually when closing a window or opening a new one.
When waking up, it won’t automatically join my WiFi net. I always have to go select the network, every time.
Other than those two annoyances, it’s luvly. The OS itself is rock solid – no crashes and runs smoothly.
I have had four or five random gray-screen kernel panics since installing 10.7.1 on a late 2010 MBP
Lion’s Mail is no longer able to connect to Exchange 2017 or 2010 Group accounts. Other than this, Lion is trouble free.
1. Capital Block-A’s in Safari. Resolving the font conflicts made my Finder go into a continuous loop. Couldn’t restart (still kept looping). Had to restore from Time Machine.
2. Time Machine took 3 offing days to complete a backup
3. The system sometimes “forgets” Command-Tab
I get the spinning rainbow ball way more than I used to with Lion. . . . annoying. . . .
The two finger scroll well with my Macbook and I like but no sucess with the 3 an 4 fingers…
No issues with Lion, it purrs nicely on all our Macs.
The reason “one-point-zero” releases are buggy isn’t necessarily because they were released before they were finished. The developers of the OS try very hard to anticipate very possible situation in which someone might use each and every feature and build in defaults if one of their anticipations isn’t right. Through the use of beta releases they can obtain feedback from beta users about bugs that are being found so they can fix them. Once no more bugs are found, they generally release the version one-point-zero.
However, the beta testers are usually computer savvy and are limited. When the release gets into the wild with millions of users, more bugs are prone to be found. It’s just a fact of life.
I have had some issues where I will be working only MacBook Air and it will decide to close and go to sleep. Checked all system prefs and everything is OK. This happens periodically and will last for 5-10 seconds. Have found the most common time is when I am using Safari( but not always Safari!!)
On my iMac mouse clicks on windows are ignored in the bottom 20% of the screen
I did have a problem with the new version of Safari (not Lion I know, but the fix is related to it). My address and search bar disappeared. My daughter says the computer seemed to lock up and she accidentally dragged those items off the toolbar. The customize toolbar menu would not come up for me to add them back though. I was going to remove the com.apple.safari.plist file, but could not get to it until I discovered that the Option key could be held down when selecting GO in finder since the LIBRARY is hidden in Lion. I’m not sure what caused the initial problem, but I’m watching for it to happen again when I’m using the mac in question.
My MacBook consistently fails to obtain a unique ip address from my airport extreme. It seems to want to grab one that’s already in use, rendering it useless. Also the lack of smartcard support is problematic. I’m in the air force and I used to be able to access the air force web portal and work email from home without needing a pc. Now the only option is to purchase PKARD for 32 dollars to do something I used to be able to do for free.
The WebProcess process in Safari has a wicked memory leak, but that’s the only issue I’ve had. Everything else is smooth sailing.
Steinberg is forgetting a very important part of all software releases and upgrades. Waiting a few extra months doesn’t do anything. Without feedback of the large number from the public (as oppose to a small number of private beta testers) there is no way to discover all the bugs you need.
Bets testers are important, but that only takes you so far.
With these uber-complex systems we lack of ability to know whether an upgrade will really work or glitch.
A partner upgraded 10.6.x to 10.7 and something essentially corrupted the OS & hard drive, making it only possibly recoverable in a hard drive recovery clean room.
No telling if 10.6 already had the problems which 10.7 couldn’t “fix” or get around or if it was an incipient hard drive failure or what.
I always install a new OS to a blank hard drive. I maintain clones so I an ALWAYS reboot on the last state of my hard drive before any update.
Given hard drive sizes, I wonder if there shouldn’t be a built-in option from Apple to maintain a clone on a separate partition. Then the Mac can survive any sudden corruption on the normal boot partition.
In order to test Lion risk-free, i installed it on an external drive. I also chose to implement FileVault, to secure the whole disk. Now, the disk is useless! When it asks for the master password and I
give it, nothing happens. If I deliberately insert a wrong password, I get the familiar “shake” so that part of the OS is working ok. But typing the correct password locks the whole disk. Disk Utility, run from a different drive, reports no problems.
Lion roars like MGM most always.. Except for the pesky crashing wifi. Happens daily.
I wish that I had not upgraded. Crashed (the OS vaporized and re-booted itself) the OS once. Infinite loops when trying to print directly to HP printers a couple of times. HandBrake is not compatible. I disabled the stupid auto window re-open after re-boot feature. No Rosetta. Hell, Filemaker required an update. It was released before the bugs are out of it. It reminds me of the Tiger OS which was never right until about the 7th point release.
My MacBook pulls a duplicate ip address from the airport
Extreme almost every time. I’ve tried redbuilding the entire network and it still happens. The lack of smartcard support is awful. Now I have to buy PKARD for $32 to access to my military email and web applications from home. Lion is slow and hogs a lot of RAM too.
1) Safari lags and crashes in Lion more than in Snow Leopard
2) Mission Control app windows don’t always separate as they should, sometimes even blocking the view of the other desktops.
3) The last file in a list (in finder) is usually partially hidden under a scroll bar.
4) Why can’t we still have the old expose?
Only the occasional wifi drop off and just a quick off/on with the wifi and its back. Most assuredly this will be fixed with an update. Lion rocks on the new iMac 27″ 3.4Ghz i7…
Windows 7 or 8 will not be able as usual to compete with 10.7. I am running parallels for windows 7 for the specific software…
now back to the GoW2 XP weekend! your mother is a horde!
All the ‘bugs’ I’ve discovered were released as ‘features’.