Mac OS X Lion is here!

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is here. OS X, the desktop counterpart to Apple's mobile iOS, has taken iPad innovation "Back to the Mac" with this release, including the iPad home screen-like LaunchPad for app management, automatic save and resume, etc.

“Lion is the best version of OS X yet, and we’re thrilled that users around the world can download it starting today,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Lion makes upgrading a Mac easier than ever before; just launch the Mac App Store, buy Lion with your iTunes account, and the download and install process will begin automatically.”

It's also the first time a major Mac OS X version will be distributed exclusively online, through the Mac App Store. Gigabytes of download will be an interesting challenge for those with multiple machines, but especially for those with slower internet connections or restricted bandwidth. (Never mind what the launch day rush might do to the internet in general -- Apple servers have gone down during iOS releases in the early days.)

All that aside, we welcome our Mac OS X cousins to the goodness we've been enjoying for a while now in iOS. Who's getting it?

[Apple PR (opens in new tab), $29 - Mac App Store (opens in new tab)]

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

51 Comments
  • I've been using the GM seed and I have to say that it is really nice. The upgrade process is about as simple as it gets. Download from the Mac App Store, launch, accept the license, type in your password and go. Everything else is taken care of.
  • Bought it! Downloading it right now!
  • I plan to get it but going to wait a few days to see how it goes for everyone else. I use OSX on my for work laptop so I need it in working order, just in case something goes wrong. I've been a user of Windows for a long long time and a new user of OSX so I'm cautious.
    I would be interested if there are instructions on how to do a 'clean' install of Lion, do you just download it from the Mac App Store and are giving the option to do a 'clean' install vs. a upgrade?
  • I'm with you vim going ti wait a few days.
  • Have a friend that installed it and not he's having issues with Adobe Premiere Pro. Anyone else?
  • Just started download. Who knows how long it's going to take... :)
  • Downloading it now, should be finished by the time I get home from work. Love logmein
  • AppStore downloads screen shows it's "Only" a 3.47GB Download. :)
  • Just bought it, I had my ISP here this morning waiting with me. They connected a T8 Line straight to my laptop thunderbolt port and it downloaded in 5 secs. I already got it installed and I must say that I am pulling your leg. J/K... Downloading now! Prob be done in ummm by the time I get off work at 5pm hopefully!
  • Downloading on all 3 of my machines now. Once downloaded takes about 40 minutes to install...
  • Downloading it now also. I don't know what you guys are talking about... Mine is only going to take 25 minutes. :D
  • $69 Bucks! They clearly want to push the download until their servers go down... then, they will push the USB drive for $49
  • I thought the USB drive was $69
  • I'm saying that they will lower the price of it once their servers crash
  • Are you serious?? Apple's servers won't crash. They're getting hammered today with millions of simultaneous d/l's and are purring like a kitten.
  • You should be Koolaid_Joe. Apple is not impervious to crashing.
  • For those with multiple machines: Download once, then copy the Lion install app from your /Applications folder to your other machines (to avoid having to download it once per machine).
  • Might get it for my Girlfriends Macbook Air so I can live vicariously through her.. I currently have the 2007 black macbook.. don't know how much fun lion would be on it without multitouch..
  • does anyone know if the black macbooks can run lion without multi touch?
  • It was going slow at first but finished in less than 45 minutes, now all I can do is look at the install screen, synology released dsm 3.2 beta with support for lion too if you need it.
  • Is taking long on a 25mbps connection :( is been downloading for like 30min and is not even 1/4 of the download :(
  • Downloading it now :) For only $30 who would pass this up?????
  • People whose livelihoods depend on applications which may be, or are, incompatible.
  • My livelihood depends on it, but only one is Parallels 6 to run the old 90s style windoze 3D CAD apps, but Parallel's confirm it is compatible.
  • Just finished D/L. I copied it to another folder on my Hard drive and am now making a Bootable DVD from the InstallESD.dmg disk image located in the package contents. I hope I can take that DVD to my daughters MBPro and do a Clean Install, we'll see?
  • Suck it.
  • Says you have to have Leopard to upgrade to lion. What if I'm running the previous incarnation? 10.5.8? I don't want to have to go out, buy Leopard first to then access the app store to then download Lion!!
  • Wait for the USB thumb drive, it'll cost you a little more, but not nearly as much as buying two operating systems. The only reason you need snow leopard is because you need the bundled app store (which I think is BS)
    It's just like when Snow Leopard came out Apple said you needed to have Leopard installed first. It wasn't true. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that this isn't true either.
  • I'm pretty sure you need Snow Leopard installed to upgrade to Lion. Not only will you need to get a Snow Leopard DVD, once you have installed it you will need to run Software Update (possibly a few times) to get the last version of Snow Leopard. For instance they only put the Lion installer in Software Update last night.
    Anyway you should keep your OS up to date all the time!
  • I downloaded the installer update last week on the 13th
  • Waiting for feedback from CS5 users. Forums have offered no help so far. Other than that, I'm ready to buy.
    Rene, you're a CS5 user. What's the word?
  • Going to install on old MBP and see first then will try unibody. If I hit any CS5.5 issues I'll ping here.
  • Any news... i read on adobe that there are issues with saving in Illustrator, but only when saving to the desktop. Other than that the cs3 and above issues seem minimal.
    WARNING:
    CS2 and below WILL NOT WORK with Lion. These applications require a now discontinued feature called rosetta which made PPC (PowerPC, apple's processor prior to Intel) compatible applications compatible with Intel based macs. If you make your living with adobe CS2 or below DON'T UPGRADE until you are able to upgrade your software.
    **A note to those who use photoshop's droplet feature. The code for for droplet was written for PPC and requires either a PPC based machine or Rosetta. If that's a feature that you rely on you may also want to rethink upgrading until this issue is resolved.
  • Smooth as silk download here on FIOS. Less than 20 minutes. The install however has 29 minutes remaining.
  • Bought it. Downloading it right now.
  • WOOT! $30 is insane. MSFT seriously needs to reconsider their pricing. This is practically free!
  • I have had no troubles with lion for the past 2 weeks except for coda that they just released a fix for. Rock solid performance on my air.
  • Download on my MacBook 5,2 took only 3 minutes. Install took 20 minutes. Make sure you guys do a Time Machine backup first, if not it will ask to do a fresh install which wipes everything
  • Painless process. Downloading onto 3 machines. Just log into app store with same ID and click purchases and then click download/install next to lion. Dowloading is quick and easy. Don't know why people are saying it's a slow download. Maybe they should get a faster connection? Lol
  • Well, not everyone needs a really fast connection; mine is fast enough for my needs. The download itself was 33 min., then a few more minutes after that to complete the installation (about 40 min. total). That's not too long, as I was busy with other stuff while waiting for it.
  • Will i lose my files if i upgrade?
  • No, you shouldn't lose any files; I downloaded it today and have had no issues. But it's always a good idea to back up your hard drive, just in case.
  • Did it up and running is less than an hour. No problems..all apps seems to be running without issue. some minor setting to be reset otherwise from all appearances the transition was...... seamless.
  • Just got it installed... it works great and quick! Very smooth... All files intact... GREAT JOB APPLE!!!! :)
  • Scrolling with my Logitech mouse is going to take some getting used to...
    Edit: I went into the system preferences and turned off the new "natural" scrolling because for me, it's anything but natural. :)
  • Unfortunately, installing Lion has caused my Hard Drive to practically crash. I've been on the phone with Apple Care for the past 3 hours trying to get the issue resolved. It's pretty frustrating.
  • I am at my local Apple Store trying out the Macs and Mac OS X Lion. So sweet!!
  • When I installed it, I don't even remember getting the option to do a Clean Install. It just upgraded it and kept all my files intact.
  • Same here.
  • I just bought and downloaded 10.7 Lion from the Mac App Store this morning. It took a while (about 40 minutes), but once it was finished, it ran just fine. My old 24" iMac runs a bit faster now, and feels like a new machine! It's been taking a little getting used to Lion, but so far I've had no issues at all, and am really impressed with it.
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