OSX 10.8 - Mountain Lion is released

[Omaroo]

Twenty bucks at your favourite App Store.

Downloading now. :)

[silv]

admire your bravery :D

good on you!

[Octane]

Awesome! Will do when I get home. :)

What's new?

H

[troypiggo]

One of the "reviews":



O. M. G.

And the kicker:


!!!

"Was this review helpful? Yes/No" I wish there was an option for "idiotic"

[lacad01]

Perhaps that reviewer had just partaken of some illegal substances :P
I've seen a lot of moaning about OSX Lion in various forums but thankfully I've had a pretty good run with my laptop. From what I've read Mountain Lion is a more "efficient" os, whatever that means...whether it's not such a resource hog as Lion :question:

[Omaroo]

Bravery? Never had any real problem with any new OSX release. Just downloaded it and installed on my home 27" iMac, 11" MacBook Air and MacMini - all work great. Besides, I HAVE to load the latest and greatest at all times - otherwise I don't find potential problems with our applications before our clients do. I don't subscribe to the "let the world suffer before I upgrade" philosophy. Never have.

@Humayun - lots!: http://www.apple.com/au/osx/whats-new/ :)

[rally]

Not me !

I upgraded first day last time when 10.7 was released, I cant remember all the problems, but here some of the major ones.

NAS file services completely broken - was without my file server for over a month, had to buy new hardware and install a completely new *nix OS and NAS software on my new NAS machine
Apple upgraded Netatalk to a more secure version without any suitable workaround, 50% of the worlds NAS servers werent using that version, So I ended up having to work off a USB drive after 2 weeks of messing around trying to get things working

TimeMachine functionality and Time Capsule file access was affected - although i could access my Time Machines from my PC, I could no longer access my Time machine reliably from the Mac ! This was a little easier to fix, but involved reinstalling an older version of the software on both eras of Time Capsules.

Parallels no longer worked - all my Astro Win applications live on a Virtual machine plus some other stuff I use everyday that had no Apple equivalent
Needed to wait approx 3 weeks while parallels released a new version and pay for the upgrade.

My VNC services also ceased working, so i could no longer log into my Windows machine to access the files I could no longer access on the Mac ! Had to wait for a new version of my VNC software and pay for the upgrade.

I was disappointed since Apple knew most of these things well in advance and yet offered no warning.

So for me my system was completely crippled and I wasted huge amounts of time trying to identify the problems and find solutions and try many workarounds blindly - some of which worked and most of which did not - I vowed - never again would I let my guard down.

Dont get me wrong I still love my iMac but next time I will not throw caution to the wind in the belief that because its an Apple it will work !

[Omaroo]

Yep - I can relate to that in an office systems environment, and remember that 10.7 (Lion) was a major release, almost an architectural change in many aspects. ;) There are so many variables involved it's enough to make everyone's head spin. I don't have a problem doing it on my home machines though - they are in an all-Apple environment from connection (TimeCapsule) to AirPort network to Macs to iOS devices to AppleTV and it's a closed system that is carefully maintained and kept stringently clean. Never a problem that I've found so far - and they're non-critical. I'n not overly cautious but by the same token not stupidly eager either.

At work, I wait for a week or two before upgrading - but we're on an all Apple environment there too and have had very few problems if any over time. I guess that the more connectivity you have to non-Apple devices, devices and drivers the more problems you're likely to encounter - seems natural. As far as your Parallels problem, I'd be looking at the vendors... NAS server issue - were the vendors privvy to the betas as part of the Mac developer program? I'll bet they were. Same for the VNC issue. It's hardly a surprise when any major OS is released - either Windows or otherwise. They're discussed for months ahead of any release date. :shrug: Were your IT personnel pre-checking and performing any real due diligence prior to your upgrades? :question:

EDIT: LOL... having said all of that, VMware Fusion won't work any more - an upgrade needed from v4.1.1 to v4.1.3 seems to be required.

[kustard]

I've converted all our computers (except for the media server) to iMacs. I'll wait a week or two before I upgrade my production computer but the other two iMacs I'll do pretty much straight away and use them as test benches :)

[silv]

rally, that is about what I would expect. poor you!

I skipped Lion.

I remember the Snow Leopard upgrade. Printer drivers were not up to date from the printer manufacturers, and it took months for some!
in many cases even later on the drivers were not updated, at all, because they were outside support.
etc etc etc.

OS X lets you take an image of your existing installation with the onboard tool Disk Utility. I would do that. Put that image on a separate hard drive or partition and install the upgrade.
Following a checklist, test every single possible workflow you have been using
And if I were on 10.7 already, I'd check whether I need any of the "new features" (http://www.apple.com/au/osx/whats-new/features.html) of 10.8.

I'd wait longer than 2 weeks, too, before I'd test 10.8.

That's from a professional point of view.

And that's how I treat my personal Mac at home.
I will upgrade to 10.8. But I'll wait. Say till 10.8.1. yup.

[Octane]

If you make Time Machine backups of the machine and it gets hosed during an upgrade to 10.8, you can always roll back, can't you?

I've never had the need to do this... yet.

The only problem I experienced after upgrading to 10.7 was that Citrix Access Gateway software was running at 99% CPU and killing my battery in a very short timeframe. Once that issue was resolved, I had an increase in battery life. :)

H

[Omaroo]

Hmmm... Only the one? ;)

Upgrade working beautifully all 28 non-server Macs in one of our studios, and six I have at home - three of them my personal Macs. The rest get done tomorrow. Smoothest update yet. Networks fine. Main applications fine.

[silv]

roll back the OS with time machine?
time machine doesn't store the system files. it takes them from the install media you boot from.
so you'd get an old version of the OS.
then you would have to download and install ALL the updates.
you'd also have to re-install many of the applications you had been running because these files, too, do not necessarily get backed up by TM or are rolled back to old versions by the restore process.

What time machine is good for is the backup of your user account. I wouldn't use it for any other purpose than restoring the account or some files of said account.

I have seen people backing up their OS X server with TM - and of course never test that backup solution in a disaster test scenario.
Not a nice site visit when they then have attempted to restore the OS using TM.

So no - do not trust TM when the OS is affected. Or be prepared that you will spend a lot of time getting all your bits and pieces running again on your client machine.

Better use different backup solutions. Like Carbon Copy Cloner, for example.
Might not yet run on 10.8, though ;)

[silv]

you're right, chris, I might wait till 10.8.3.

that's awesome that everything works a treat! (except VMWare and the other obstacles that only show up later.)

does that mean my call for caution is silly/stupid/boring/etc?

I think not. :D

[Octane]

Cheers, you. :)

H

[Omaroo]

Ah, you see, we've been running 10.8 for four months already. Today I rolled out the release version, that's all. :lol:

I don't think that being overcautious is warranted in most situations. If people are sensible and back up their document data it really doesn't matter what happens to the rest. Restore it - it isn't really a big deal. Making it out to be life and death is nuts.

With my personal Macs I like to experiment, so I run the latest of the late at all times. As I said before, I want to find problems before my clients do.

If you want to wait until 10.8.3 then go for it. :) You must have a very important Mac there. ;)

[silv]

:lol: My time is important, too. :thumbsup:

[Steffen]

I just finished reading Tolstoy's epic Mountain Lion review. I mean, John Siracusa's (http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/07/os-x-10-8/)… Lots of good information, insight and perspective.

Sadly, my redemption code for a free copy of ML hasn't arrived yet.

EDIT Funny: Marco Arment's review (http://www.marco.org/2012/07/25/siracusa-mountain-lion-review-review) of John Siracusa's review :)

[2stroke]

Woot native support for my 6970HD, time to pwn some n00bs.

[Colin_Fraser]

The only negative (for me) is the "All-new features for China"

Prefer not to have it as it seems a bit of a waste of space and resources.
Anyone know if this optional or does it install regardless.

Probably upgrade this weekend.

[Octane]

Looks like I won't be upgrading just yet, after all.

EOS Utility is incompatible with 10.8. It took Canon almost a year to sort out support for 10.7. This is a must for me while doing portrait shoots (Remote Shooting/Live View). :(

Also, Steffen, John Siracusa's reviews are awesome. Up to page 7 of this one. :)

H

[troypiggo]

Time for you to upgrade to LightRoom 4 :P

[Octane]

Get out.

H

P.S. :P

[Omaroo]

That's a pity Humayun. Just another case of a vendor, even one as large as Canon, failing to get off their proverbial and appear proactive when extremely well-documented and advertised OS changes appear on the horizon. To Canon - get on the beta program already!!! :lol:

[kustard]

I'm pretty sure this isn't right. As far as I understand it, Time Machine does backup system files. In fact, when my iMac started to Kernel Panic thanks to some faulty RAM that ended up corrupting the hard drive I was able to restore the whole system to the last backup (the day before the crash) from the external Time Machine HDD I use with no worries.

Now to be honest, this was done when I was still running Snow Leopard so I don't know how an updated Lion (or Mountain Lion) restore would go but I would be surprised if it took you right back to the oldest OS, it would depend on the last time the system files were backed up with TM?

I'm not trying to start any trolling here, just speaking from my experience.

Cheers,
Simon

[Omaroo]

I didn't register this before either Simon, but you're dead right. TM does indeed back up ALL system files except for those that are dynamic and re-buildable - i.e. indexes and caches. A restore does NOT pull system files from the boot media in preference to those in the backup timeline.

[silv]

oh dear! I confused that behaviour (having to reinstall updates and apps) with the ancient Archive&Install option for os x clients.

apologies!

(I want to stress the correctness of the other thing, though - that TM is no good for server backups as a tool for disaster recovery.)

again, sorry for the mistake. :)

[Steffen]

Yes, TM only backs up what's unique (and therefore valuable) about your system. The OS and system apps can always be obtained, but your own data and settings are precious and need protecting.

That said, if minimum downtime is required a SuperDuper or CCC backup is the ticket. It allows you to be back up and running within minutes by simply swapping the boot disk. TM restores do take some time.

The beauty about TM is that once set up it just does its thing, and you won't find yourself in a situation where the last backup is 3 months old ;)

Cheers
Steffen.

[kustard]

Silv and Steffan, yeah for a server system I'd probably use something else and the TM restore took a good couple of hours to restore...

I must admit a bit of ignorance when it comes to using a mac as a server though and the best tools for them, all my server experience were mainly *nix and some windows.

Cheers,
Simon

[silv]

hmm,
is the design.
I fell in love with OS X when I first saw that "sweeping into space" when launching a file restore.
sooo pretty!

[kustard]

Well I updated all three iMacs including my production iMac. No probs. I really like the icon "loading" bar when you copy or move items about, it's really handy :)

[Colin_Fraser]

I updated my iMac late last night. Everything went fine, without a hitch.
Well maybe one little hitch. Sticky Notes was replaced by Notes and all my Stickies went missing.
Other than that it was a breeze :thumbsup:

EDIT: Sticky Notes is still there. Found in in the Launchpad under "Other"

[xstream]

Updated mine yesterday without a hitch. Only downside is the processor has been running overtime since. :shrug:

[Omaroo]

Were you running Spotlight before John?

[xstream]

No I wasn't Chris, even now the processor fan is running flat chat.

[Steffen]

Did you install any fan control software previously?

If not, I'd reset the system management controller (SMC) to its defaults, that usually sorts out mad fans. It's quick and easy, you'll find instructions here (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964), click your way through depending on the type of Mac you've got.

Cheers
Steffen.

[Octane]

John,

Applications > Utilities and bring up the Activity Monitor and change the drop down to All Processes.

In there you'll see what process is using the most CPU -- that is likely what is running your fans (CPU heating up) and consequently draining your battery.

Once you know what's eating your CPU, then, you can perhaps let us know, or Google the process name and find out if it's a regular problem. In my case, upgrading to 10.7 caused issues with a Citrix Access Gateway service that was running at 99% CPU -- it was a common problem and there was a workaround.

Activity Monitor is a GUI frontend to the UNIX top command.

H

[silv]

and if you can't find a solution for that CPU hungry process, yet, create a new administrator user in SystemPreferences/Accounts.
Log out of your normal user (as in Apple icon---> Logout ) and log on as new user.
if the fans behave properly, here, you could continue to work in this account or troubleshoot the old account.
if the fans keep spinning in the new user then it's OS related.