OS X 10.7 Lion Is The First Great PC Operating System Of The Post-PC Age [Review]

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Intro

OS X Lion is the eighth major release of Mac OS X, and it brings to the table several ideas from iOS, like Launchpad (a matrix display of installed applications, similar to the iOS Home Screen — and the Mac App Store) which is being used to deliver the new OS.

Despite the iOS inspiration, Lion’s not a huge shift from previous versions, and it won’t turn your Mac into a faux iOS device. Rather, it borrows some of iOS’s best ideas and uses them to polish the core Mac experience, making Lion the most attractive, cohesive, user-friendly and idiot-proof OS X yet.

It’s a big accomplishment overall. Lion not only looks cleaner and nicer, it fixes a surprising number of long-time niggles. But it also adds some nice new features, and while there are some changes that will cause consternation, like reverse scrolling, almost everything added is for the better.

The question isn’t whether you should spend $29 on Lion, because that’s just a no-brainer. No, the real question is: now that we’re in the post-PC age, how will Lion change the way you use your Mac, and how does it set the stage for the Mac of the future?

Table of Contents

Page 2
System Requirements
Easy Install
Dropped Features
Overall Look and Feel

Page 3
Mission Control
App Expose
Launchpad
Mac App Store
Resume
Autosave and Versioning
Airdrop

Page 4
The New Finder
Full Screen Apps
Reverse Scrolling
Multitouch Gestures
About This Mac

Page 5
Mail
Address Book
Safari
FaceTime
iCal
iChat
Photo Booth
Preview

Page 6
Conclusion

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