Lion versus Snow Leopard

[re:dream]

So I am running a 2009 MBP 5.5. with an Intel Core Duo processor. Everything is very smooth on Snow Leopard.

I've been wanting to try out some new software (e.g. Traktor demo) and those require at least Mac OS 10.7

- Can OS X Lion run on Intel Core Duo processors? I have heard somewhere they are no longer supported...
- Are there stability / resource gains or losses
- Does Lion play nicely with Live?

Any advice would be appreciated

[Datendisco]

Hi, I think I am running the same macbook as you and made the switch to mountain lion a few month ago. So far everything runs fine but I had to upgrade my ram to 8GB. I made some changes to the system with ONYX (http://www.titanium.free.fr/downloadonyx.php) like switching of notification center and now it feels mostly the same as Snow Leopard.

[8O]

Upgrading to Mountain Lion, not Lion, seems to be the recommended route...

See also:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=188574
viewtopic.php?f=40&t=195548

[bigbadotis]

I really, really wish I could have stayed on Snow Leopard. I know some people have had good experiences with Mountain Lion, but my advice is don't switch unless you have to. Whenever I fire up my 2007 laptop that has Snow Leopard on it, I'm always amazed at how much faster everything is than on my 2010 (4GB Ram, 2.8 GHz Core i7) running Mountain Lion.

I curse Mountain Lion almost every day.

[8O]

I really, really wish I could have stayed on Snow Leopard. I know some people have had good experiences with Mountain Lion, but my advice is don't switch unless you have to. Whenever I fire up my 2007 laptop that has Snow Leopard on it, I'm always amazed at how much faster everything is than on my 2010 (4GB Ram, 2.8 GHz Core i7) running Mountain Lion.

I curse Mountain Lion almost every day.

Did you have to "upgrade" due to Xcode & latest SDKs too?

[Valiumdupeuple]

If you can stay on SL, stay. I have a powerfull machine (4core i7) shipped with Lion. I've tested Live for 5 minutes... then I immediately format the HD and installed SL on it. It's day and night (for music production with Live and m4L at least).

[re:dream]

How so? What is it about Lion that makes you prefer SL?

[dazzer]

On my system, L worked the same as SL and ML is the same. Lots of angst on Mac blogs a few years ago about how SL won't be bettered - load of hot air IMO.

What's the supposed problem with ML?

[Valiumdupeuple]

How so? What is it about Lion that makes you prefer SL?

If you run the famous Live performance test that you find on this forum, you'll notice that on Lion Live struggled 3 times faster than in SL. I'm not joking.
From that test on my machine, if I remember well, I wasn't able to play more than 30 and so tracks correctly in Lion. SL can handle something like 80 tracks...
I've never test ML, though, but from the test results on the thread, it seems that people aren't able to use the power of their fresh new computer better than 8 years ago when machines were 10 times slower. That's quite ironic.

[bigbadotis]

I really, really wish I could have stayed on Snow Leopard. I know some people have had good experiences with Mountain Lion, but my advice is don't switch unless you have to. Whenever I fire up my 2007 laptop that has Snow Leopard on it, I'm always amazed at how much faster everything is than on my 2010 (4GB Ram, 2.8 GHz Core i7) running Mountain Lion.

I curse Mountain Lion almost every day.

Did you have to "upgrade" due to Xcode & latest SDKs too?

Exactly. I manually installed new SDKs into the last version of Xcode that ran on Snow Leopard for a while, but got sick of all the hacking that was involved to keep things working and upgraded. That was definitely a mistake for me... but I'm glad some people have had better luck.

[8O]

I really, really wish I could have stayed on Snow Leopard. I know some people have had good experiences with Mountain Lion, but my advice is don't switch unless you have to. Whenever I fire up my 2007 laptop that has Snow Leopard on it, I'm always amazed at how much faster everything is than on my 2010 (4GB Ram, 2.8 GHz Core i7) running Mountain Lion.

I curse Mountain Lion almost every day.

Did you have to "upgrade" due to Xcode & latest SDKs too?

Exactly. I manually installed new SDKs into the last version of Xcode that ran on Snow Leopard for a while, but got sick of all the hacking that was involved to keep things working and upgraded. That was definitely a mistake for me... but I'm glad some people have had better luck.

Heh, same here, ran that hack too for a while, then gave up... Pretty annoyed at Apple for doing that and also basically making my old armv6 iPod Touch obsolete for any new apps... but I guess that's another thread...

[photonal]

I stuck with Snow Leopard for ages, as I was finding the annual OS update cycle too quick - and I was quite happy with SL, so I skipped Lion. I was worried too about a machine that would be slower, incompatible with software etc after upgrading.

However, I finally upgraded to Mountain Lion and it has been great. There has been *no* downgrade in speed - everything is as snappy as with Snow Leopard.

[stallos]

I stuck with Snow Leopard for ages, as I was finding the annual OS update cycle too quick - and I was quite happy with SL, so I skipped Lion. I was worried too about a machine that would be slower, incompatible with software etc after upgrading.

However, I finally upgraded to Mountain Lion and it has been great. There has been *no* downgrade in speed - everything is as snappy as with Snow Leopard.

thats re-assuring! Am in the same boat to be honest
Spent the last few years getting my lappy the way i like it and still on SL, I only really use it for production and surfing the web
Didnt really see any huge benfit in changing but now it seems some newer software plugs etc are not supported in SL such as sound forge for mac. Am weary about upgrading when everything works but wouldnt mind picking up sound forge as loved that from pc days. Did you have to re-install any plugs or software post upgrade or did it all just magically work - cheers