Those of you who follow my posts on my page, or on Facebook know I’ve been a HEAVY supporter of 1Password, recommending it to my clients and students on both the Mac and Windows Platforms.
Well, I’m requesting data from the company as regards their newest upgrade – and it’s possible that I may be writing back with some news that may cause me to retract my support. Please keep watch.
The Macworld Help Desk has a really helpful article about what to expect when upgrading to Mac OS 10.8 (currently 10.8.2) Mountain Lion. The article can be seen at http://bit.ly/10n5gNc
Personally, I haven’t performed this upgrade, but there’s really only one reason for this at this point. I HAVE upgraded to Lion (10.7) and do not particularly like it. It’s GREAT for new users, but for those of us who’ve been using the Mac for a long time, we have to jump through too many hoops to do anything with real control. This is the same issue with Mountain Lion, and from what I see, Mountain Lion has some improvements over Lion. So, you ask, WHY have I upgraded to Lion, and skipped Lion?
Well, I NEED my old applications that run in Rosetta. “But” (you say), “Lion doesn’t run Rosetta either, so how can this be a good reason?”
In my efforts to keep my old apps running, I found the ONE version of VMWare Fusion that allowed us to install Snow Leopard as a guest operating system so I can run my old Snow Leopard installation (my favorite OS so far, btw) in emulation – much the same way I run Windows. Now, I need you guys to know that installing Snow Leopard’s Client OS may be breaking the “letter of the law” unless you use the Server version.
The ONE version of VMWare Fusion that will allow the use of Snow Leopard’s Client (means end-user version) will stop working if I upgrade it, and the old version will not run on Mountain Lion – simple as that!
Oh, and I should tell you that I HAVE tried using the Server version of Snow Leopard in Parallels and VMWare. They work fine, but don’t have the same capabilities as they do when emulating Windows – they don’t allow copy/paste to work between environments, and they don’t allow drag and drop of files from the main environment to the virtualized one (a VERY helpful feature between Mac and Windows – non-existent in Mac to Mac emulation – can you believe it?!)
All this, so you can understand the implications of upgrading your Operating System on the Mac. It may not affect you as most of you have been using the Mac for a short enough time that you don’t have any older programs that require Rosetta. But if you do, you may wish to take heed.
It’s very rare to see Macs targeted for Malware and Cyber Attacks. In large part, it’s because the Mac OS is really quite a secure Operating System, based on UNIX and containing lots of built-in security controls. However, I believe another factor in it’s lack of focus by the “bad guys” was because it has always been a “smaller target” a less popular, less-used OS, because there’ve never been as many Macs out there as Windows computers.
This time, it’s not the OS that’s been targeted directly, but an addition to the OS, called Java. Java (developed by Sun Microsystems) is a programming language that’s used within operating systems to enable the development and implementation of many functions and applications that can work on both Windows and Mac systems (and others). It’s something we rarely see directly being used, but lots of interfaces interact with Java: in particular lots of web apps and games.
So, imagine my surprise when MacWorld released an article named “Apple confirms cyber attack, releases Java update and malware removal tool”. Don’t worry – there’s a fix already posted by Apple in their software update – but you should all know.
Read MacWorld’s article at: http://www.macworld.com/article/2028740/apple-confirms-cyber-attack-will-release-security-tool.html#tk.nl_macwk
MacLegion.com is offering a FREE Mac App bundle for a limited time. I’ve bought bundles from them before – nice offerings…
FREE – my 2nd favorite price! ;D
I’ve been a Mac user since about 1990 and, despite a zillion improvements on the Mac and in all computing, I find myself nostalgic for Mac’s Good ‘Ol Days. The days when it didn’t take itself too seriously. The days when cute little extras and Easter Eggs could be found in software, and in the Finder.
One man has managed to bring back a little bit of the quaint times on the Mac by recreating the original Classic Mac sounds for the New OS’s and for the iOS as well.
Check out the free download from http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/19079/mac-os-classic-sound-pack
Also, I recommend checking out the Steven Jay Cohen’s Blog, on which he has some serious software development stuff, his resume, and some very cool Doctor Who stuff! http://www.stevenjaycohen.com/tags/development
Lions are beautiful animals – smart, strong, powerful. However, I’m not feeling that great about upgrading to the new Mac OSX 10.7 Lion. From what I read, it seems that some features on which I depend are going to be either completely deprecated, or won’t function at all in the way I want them.
However, I am NOT an early adopter – I don’t install version 1 of ANYTHING, especially an operating system. It’s my hope that by the time I do install it (probably around the .2 update), Apple will have addressed my needs for Address Book, and iCal, and will have maybe found a way to sell Rosetta as an addition to Lion – or at least for Parallels to devise a way for me to use my Snow Leopard installation in emulation, and have resolved some issues I already see as being against my personal interests to upgrade.
However, many of my clients ARE early adopters, and I get the phone calls to help bring them back, when they’re sorry for what they did. That’s great – thanks – I love the work! But, as I’ve mentioned to ALL my clients and students in the past, it’s IMPERATIVE to have a reliable “Cloned Backup” of their original startup disk.
This article addresses how one may go about resurrecting your Snow Leopard installation, if they don’t like Lion. It emphasizes the “Cloned Backup” idea quite strongly. A good read:
http://gigaom.com/apple/how-to-downgrade-from-lion-to-snow-leopard/
Okay, I’ve actually been a fan of the Mac Mini, for a great many of my clients. It’s small, you can attach any monitor, it had good processor speed, and could handle a decent amount of RAM – and it was cheap for a Mac.
They’ve announced the new Mini – with NO OPTICAL DRIVE! Sounds like they may be touting it for an Apple TV replacement with more features? Bad idea, Apple… 🙁
Here’s a quick review:
http://dealmac.com/features/Dear-Steve-Jobs-The-Mac-mini-Is-Crap/482596.html
Here’s a really good checklist for preparing yourself and your Mac to upgrade to Mac OSX 10.7 Lion, which went on sale today. Courtesy of Gigaom.com
http://gigaom.com/apple/mac-os-x-10-7-lion-install-checklist/