OSX 10.8 - Mountain Lion is released

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Twenty bucks at your favourite App Store.

Downloading now.

[silv (Annette)]

Downloading now.

admire your bravery

good on you!

[Octane (Humayun)]

Awesome! Will do when I get home.

What's new?

H

[troypiggo (Troy)]

One of the "reviews":

new *****
by Stevie Kinnaird - Version 10.8 - 25-Jul-2012
i havnt tried it yet but 5 stars coz im enjoying downloading it!

O. M. G.

And the kicker:

1 out of 1 customers found this review helpful

!!!

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

[lacad01 (Adam)]

Perhaps that reviewer had just partaken of some illegal substances
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

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by silv

admire your bravery

good on you!

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 (Chris Malikoff)]

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. Were your IT personnel pre-checking and performing any real due diligence prior to your upgrades?

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 (Simon)]

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 (Annette)]

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" 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 (Humayun)]

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 (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by silv

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.

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 (Annette)]

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 (Annette)]

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.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Cheers, you.

H

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by 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.

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

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 (Annette)]

You must have a very important Mac there.

My time is important, too.

[Steffen]

I just finished reading Tolstoy's epic Mountain Lion review. I mean, John Siracusa's… 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 of John Siracusa's review

[2stroke (Jay)]

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.