What does everyone think of the Mac OSX update?

I wouldn’t consider myself a power or professional user but I don’t see how the app store would be a slap in the face to them. It seems like it’s just an easier way to purchase apps.

I like the direction of combining expose and spaces. Seems like it will make multiple windows open even easier.

Full screen mode is going to be great for the portable computer user. It’s sometimes hard to read PDF’s on small screens.

Overall liked what I saw.

Slap in the face is the wrong way of saying it.

To me it just seem like a dumbing down of the just fine 10.6 experience. I was thinking more of the new Mac App Store guidelines, which are completely ridiculous. By those guidelines, Adobe CS5, Ableton Live, pretty much any application considered “professional” not made by Apple are not Mac App Store material, and will be overlooked by many new users.

In my opinion, it’s one step from a completely closed environment like iOS, which is definitely not good. OSX was simple enough. I’m starting to not want simplicity, now I just want control.

As far as everything else goes, it makes sense. I forgot Spaces until today and combining it with Exposé is a good idea. I’m a little meh on the Full screen idea; it seems like anti-multitasking, the main advantage desktop computers have over phones, but it will be very convenient for a couple programs.

Thank God that this happens right as I prepare to buy a PC (not to replace my Mac physically, but maybe in terms of my usage). So a MacBook is now becoming a “big iPad”...

This just makes me like Windows even more…

This seems to strengthen the idea that Mac is not a “serious” OS. It’s a “fun” OS for amateurs and people who just want “Facebook, Twitter, and email”. But for those of us that like to do a little bit more and want more control, Windows might be a better alternative. I really hope Windows doesn’t start imitating Mac in this regard.

@dverhey Agree completely with “I’m starting to not want simplicity, now I just want control”.

@DominicX I’m gonna disagree with you on the “serious” OS thing. I can get plenty of serious work done using Ableton or Reason or Pages. Just because I can’t make my whole computer’s theme look like the computer interface from the Starship Enterprise doesn’t mean that it’s only for Facebook, Twitter, and Email.

Windows is looking more and more promising, however, especially with Windows 7, which I’m pretty impressed with. But Lion is a long way off, and Apple will have some time to take a look at how the “Mac App Store” is doing before releasing it completely. In theory they should be able to take a good hard look at how people respond to all of it.

@dverhey

lol, I didn’t really mean that seriously. Photoshop, GarageBand, I use those religiously. FTE (Facebook, Twitter, Email) is just a caricaturish thing I say to refer to the “amateur” computer user (à la “Gym, Tan, Laundry”); it was based on a survey on another site I was on where most of the Mac users said that they used their computer for FTE and maybe taking notes in class. I guess I just like the idea of the business-oriented computer that gives you ultimate control, which is part of why I was considering a ThinkPad as a PC to get. It seems that Mac is heading in the opposite direction of what I want it to. It’s becoming more and more “simple” and it’s sacrificing control for that.

I agree with @DominicX that Apple is starting to reinforce the image of OS X as a more basic, consumer-oriented OS where control is less important than “just having things work.” Like @dverhey, I don’t believe this image is accurate; I just think Apple is starting to play it up a bit more.

I use my Mac primarily for heavy surfing (which includes “FTE”, news consumption and research in various databases), writing papers and editing high-resolution photos. I consider myself somewhat in between the power user and the “fluff” user that just has iTunes and Chrome open at any given time.

I like the idea of the Mac App Store, and I don’t consider it a slap in the face to professional software. New users who are looking for an image editing program are either going to find something “less professional” that fulfills their needs in the App Store, or they will know enough about image editing to seek out Adobe Photoshop on their own. Users are not going to “discover” apps like Ableton in the Mac App Store, they’re going to read about them in specialised magazines and forums.

Read somewhere a few weeks ago that Apple is starting to become more of a gadget company than a computer company. I think that pretty much sums up this move.

I miss the old apple – back when I got my macbook pro 4ish years ago the direction apple was headed excited me. Now I feel kind of bored with their computers, I’m not impressed anymore.

I understand what people are saying about the OSX showing off how easy it is. What people need to realize is that true power users KNOW what the OSX is capable of. That is the reason that CAD is now coming to the Mac platform. It is why Office just updated to make it more friendly with the windows version. More and more business are moving to the Mac.

Apples job is to show off the OSX to new users. If you watched the key note with SJ, you would see the huge increase in new users.

I might mention that, as I said before, I am not a power user, if I were I would be using Final Cut Pro and not iMovie. If you think you have outgrown OSX and want more control, there is a ton of software out there that give you that control. Look for it and enjoy it.

Really, my issue with the App Store is what I think it and the entire OSX experience will evolve into. I see in the next few years the mac turning into a completely closed environment.

Whether that happens or not, this is no doubt a pretty good step if that’s what Apple’s shooting for.

@xxii I completely agree about Apple being a gadget company.

And yes, I know. “Slap in the face” was completely the wrong way of saying that. 10.7 is no slap. But the direction I feel it is going could be a pretty big deal for 3rd party developers with unique interfaces or apps that like to put things in the menubar, even. Apple’s restrictions are pretty stringent.