YiBi's Life|Live Log

Ok, this is just a joke. But I’m actually curious. We have already seen whole family of cats from Tiger, Panther, Leopard, Snow Leopard and now Lion, so what’s next?

Anyway, this cute feline’s name is Maru. Hope you will like it too!

I got on the Lion bandwagon this morning like all the other excite Apple fans. Prior to this, I did a backup with Time Machine. Can afford to lose anything except for my photos.

1. Downloading the 3.7Gb package was a breeze. I have a 20Mbps link that maxed out during the download. Apple did their content distribution as usual with Akamai, so I was able to download from a local server.

2. First boot was slow. I’m using a 2007 White Macbook with 4GB ram, so I was quite skeptical about the performance, so much that I’m ready to fallback to Snow Leopard if the speed is intolerable. The worry was unfounded. After the first boot, everything speed up subsequently, even faster than Snow Leopard. I’m amazed how Apple can do this, speeding up OLD machines with NEW OS update.

3. I don’t have multitouch, but I’m not left out totally from the new LaunchPad and Mission Control. Apple lets you configure Hot Corners from the Mission Control Preference. No need to even think about it. Apple had it all figured out for their customers.

Mission Control and Hot Corners

4. The full screen Chrome and Safari needs some getting used to, but it’s a nice feature.

5. Disk IO seems to be reduced. I can’t quantify it, but I can feel that applications are loaded faster if they have been opened before in the same session.

6. One last important thing before I end my post. After downloading the package from Mac App Store, you can actually hijack the installation package in DMG package format. This package can be written into DVD for installation without going through App Store. You can also copy the package right into the target machine and perform the installation. I’m not suggesting any form of piracy though. The main reason for me doing this is to save the downloading when I install on my other Mac. It’s just $29.90 USD. I would have paid for Windows in the past if they didn’t sell it at crazy prices. The instructions are here.

These are observations for the time being after 12 hours of use. Hope the information here is useful for people who are skeptical of upgrading.

Snow Leopard’s finally being released today. For those who are wondering what Snow Leopard is, get a Mac. You are welcome to join the cult following of Apple fans. And for the Apple fans, I’m sure all of your are waiting anxiously for that package to arrive.

Anyway, Lifehacker has some tips of preparing your Mac for upgrade to Snow Leopard. Read the tips here.