Rumor: Mountain Lion Release Date July 19th (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

Me either. But my appreciation for the great reliability my Apple boxes does extend into faith that it will always be so. Drives fail, power goes out. And once stuff is gone it is gone. Backup drives are so cheap, easy and fast that there is no reason not to do it.
How nuts would you be IF it went wrong? Remember that when you go into upgrades unprotected.
Edited to add: Actually there is one caveat to this: With the advent of downloadble apps and OS it's not as critical to backup the system as it is to make sure that your DATA is backed up. If you've got that covered you are better off than if you have nothing, but a full backup of system and data is a heck of a lot easier to restore than to reload an OS, download all your apps and then try to get your data back too. Like Harry says, when you've got a gun pointed at your head: "Well, do you feel lucky, punk?" =)

 

[oesat]

Well, since I use a Hackintosh (Normal "PC" running OSX) I should do backups each time Apple release an update.
Not only the OS Update from SL to LION, I mean the updates in between.
Each time my Mashine could stop working
Well, this kind of fear of updates is a little bit unsusual. But even if I had a native Mac I would use TimeMaschine.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Sam,
You tend to worry too much.
I agree with what could *possibly* happen but your
warnings are generally over-the-top.

 

[Carlo_M]

Ron - I was in the same boat as you. But you only need to be burned once to learn
Granted I didn't lose all of my data, but here's what happened on my 2010 MBP when I first upgraded to Lion 10.7.0. Keep in mind prior to this OSX installs had always been perfect from 10.4.X through 10.6.X. for all of my Macs.
Lion had a graphics driver/compatibility problem for my build (which at the time was either still the newest, or just replaced model, so it's not like I was rolling with old hardware). My MBP would crash/freeze multiple times in a day (sometimes in an hour). They did a logic board swap which lessened the problem but it still happened. It wasn't until 10.7.3 that the crashes really stopped.
Had I done a CCC or SuperDuper backup (don't use TM because I want the whole system as it was) I would have restored back to 10.6.7 and waited until Apple solved the graphics issue. Instead I dealt with the freezing for months, and the loss of my laptop for 2 days while they swapped the logic board out. I even had to install gfxcardstatus and force it to use on-board graphics and disable the discrete GPU because that's what caused the most instability. There were long, angry threads about this in the official Apple forums if anyone cares to try and dig them up.
So with this scenario I had broken a couple of truisms that many Apple fans hold:
1. Always do a complete backup prior to upgrading
2. Wait until at least X.X.2 to upgrade
I will certainly be doing that for ML - not just because of what happened but also because ML really has no super-appealing features for me that I just can't wait for.

 

[Sam Posten]

Sam,
You tend to worry too much.
I agree with what could *possibly* happen but your
warnings are generally over-the-top.

Well one of us in this conversation is a computer scientist and software engineer with 35 years of computing experience and the other isn't =p

Ron - I was in the same boat as you. But you only need to be burned once to learn

There are two kinds of people:
Those who have lost data without a backup
and those who are going to.

ML really has no super-appealing features for me that I just can't wait for.

This part I agree with. This is a very incremental upgrade. Can't see major fuss on it but I want my Air to have the latest and greatest Xcode so....
Anywho.... guide to getting ready:

Back up your Mac, and test that backup: Let me say that again: Back up your Mac, and test that backup—before installing Mountain Lion.

http://www.macworld.com/article/1167629/get_your_mac_ready_for_mountain_lion.html#lsrc.twt_macworld

 

[DaveF]

Originally Posted by Sam Posten /t/321659/rumor-mountain-lion-release-date-july-19th#post_3947349
I meant that as a general comment, not directly to you Mark =)
To be clear: Anyone considering upgrading to ML is craaaaazy if they don't do a full backup (using Time Machine, Super Duper or CarbonCopyCloner) beforehand.

Agreed. I always do a full SuperDuper backup first. Then unplug the SuperDuper and the TimeMachine drives. Then I'll upgrade. And I don't plug SuperDuper back in for at least a day, to make sure it's stable. And that's for both my computer and my wife's.

Apple's brain surgery is pretty easy and safe. But it's still brain surgery.

 

[Sam Posten]

Sounds like the 25th is more likely.
http://9to5mac.com/2012/07/15/apple-store-overnights-happening-july-24-mountain-lion-launch-the-next-day/

 

[DaveF]

How's performance on older systems? Ithink there's a significant decrease on my 2007 MBP with Lion. if Mt. Lion will make it worse...but maybe it will make it better?

 

[Carlo_M]

Dave - I think ML has an issue with older MBPs, in that it won't officially support them. But I think it's only the 2006 and earlier MBPs (graphics driver issue is the rumor), so I think yours is safe in terms of compatibility. With regards to performance, I can't help you there, I have no idea.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Mountain Lion download in APP STORE just went live at 8:40am EST

 

[Sam Posten]

For those of you who aren't updating to have the latest Xcode, what about ML is enticing you? I never had a single problem with Lion and so far ML seems almost boringly the same to me, I have no idea what to be excited by here.

 

[Sam Posten]

Siracusa epic:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/07/os-x-10-8/
Marco review of the Siracusa Epic:
http://www.marco.org/2012/07/25/siracusa-mountain-lion-review-review
DF on ML:
http://daringfireball.net/2012/07/mountain_lion
I feel dumber for having read this:
http://gizmodo.com/5928783/mountain-lion-review-os-x-needs-a-new-vision
Verge with a good video:
http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/25/3185644/mac-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion-review
Review roundup:
http://davidchartier.com/mac-os-x-mountain-lion-review-roundup

 

[Sam Posten]

Called it, iWork 09 updates, NOT iWork 12!
http://9to5mac.com/2012/07/25/apple-rolling-out-updated-iwork-today-with-icloud-document-sync-retina-display-support/

 

[Sam Posten]

Important news you will want to keep in mind wrt using iCloud file saves:

• Documents stored in iCloud are only available to the app that created them. This can become a problem for files that can be opened by more than one application. For example, although Microsoft Word can open .rtf files created by TextEdit, Word will not be able to access the files if you store them in TextEdit’s cloud. If you need to have a document available to multiple apps, don’t store it in iCloud.

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/how_to_save_in_os_x_mountain_lion/

 

[Carlo_M]

I hope that iWork update will appear via Software Update for those of us who bought iWork on physical media, and not only via App Store...

 

[Carlo_M]

Answers own question via Software Update.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

For those of you who aren't updating to have the latest Xcode, what about ML is enticing you? I never had a single problem with Lion and so far ML seems almost boringly the same to me, I have no idea what to be excited by here.

http://www.apple.com/osx/whats-new/
Messages for those not in on the beta. Notification Center (it is really nice seeing email notifications pop up unobtrusively on screen). Airplay Mirroring.

 

[Craig S]

Sam asked what is enticing people to move to Mountain Lion. Well one feature that I am really excited about is the dictation feature. In fact I am using it now to compose this post. So far it works really well for me.

Like Steve, I am also really excited about Airplay Mirroring and the Notification Center. Also looking forward to the iCloud integration in iWork and other apps.

I bought and installed the update today on my MacBook Air. Everything went smoothly. I did the update on my Air first because there's no data on it that's not backed up on Dropbox or iCloud or somewhere else. I'll live with the new system for a few days on the Air to make sure there are no major issues before I start updating the rest of my machines.

Carlo, I also have iWork that I purchased on physical media, and the update showed up for me in the App Store. In fact, when you run Software Update under Mountain Lion, it's the App Store that comes up.

 

[Carlo_M]

For those of us who cautiously wait for a rev or two before updating: Arstechnica has a good writeup analyzing how long on average it takes for a x.x.1 and x.x.2 (etc.) patch to appear, and in general what to expect from them.
I'm at least going to wait until 10.8.1 since it will likely be out by end of August (and if there are significant urgent fixes needed, it could be significantly less than that). Might not be able to hold out until .2 unless ML really breaks something I need.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

I am also using dictation on my Mac and it is working quite well. This is through an old iSight camera and an old hard drive that handles FireWire 400 converted to FireWire 800.