OS X Mountain Lion [10.8] is the eighth significant update to Apple's OS X desktop operating system. It was formally announced on February 16, 2012 and became available exclusively from the Mac App Store on July 25, 2012.
There's been a lot of discussion, both informed and otherwise, of OS X Mountain Lion in the last three weeks. In particular, there's an excellent and detailed review on Ars Technica at:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/07/os-x-10-8/
This analysis won't attempt to duplicate that extensive work, but will point out some salient facts around Apple's newest operating system.
System Requirements
With every new OS X version, Apple ratchets up the systems requirements. This time, they've cut off the first generation MacBook Air and pre-unibody plastic MacBooks, along with almost all systems from 2007 and before. Precise detail on what is supported for OS X Mountain Lion is located here:
http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/
A general rule of thumb for Macs is that when they no longer are capable of running the latest operating system, it is time to start pondering an exit strategy.
Purchasing
OS X Mountain Lion is available as an upgrade from OS X Snow Leopard and OS X Lion for $19.99 (why not charge an even $20?) from the Mac App Store. Apple's continued use of the Mac App Store as the primary distribution channel for OS X complicates how some users (in particular those without the broadband connectivity to easily download the 4.3 GB installer) upgrade OS X on their computers. Alternative purchasing paths do exist for some customers, but the scarcity of physical media complicates the OS re-installation process, requiring manual creation of operating system installation media from the Mountain Lion download.
Issues
There are a number of known issues with OS X Mountain Lion:
The default setting of OS X Mountain Lion's Gatekeeper technology allows for downloading and installing only applications from the Mac App Store and applications that have been signed with an Apple Developer ID. This means that older applications will not install by default. Users can choose to download and install applications from anywhere, but this requires administrative access to the Security & Privacy preference pane.
In OS X Mountain Lion, Apple has changed Software Update so that it uses the Mac App Store. Thus, individuals that cannot access the Mac App Store cannot run Software Update on their Mountain Lion systems.
As with OS X Lion, the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is not installed by default and must be installed by the user. Without JRE, some applications cannot be run, including Adobe Creative Suite and Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP).
Rosetta is neither installed nor available on OS X Mountain Lion. This prevents any program compiled only for PowerPC from running on OS X Mountain Lion.
Most current application versions are generally or mostly compatible with OS X Mountain Lion, but PGP Whole Disk Encryption is incompatible.
Upgrading
Before upgrading to OS X Mountain Lion, make sure that your applications and middleware (both Apple and third-party) are as up to date as possible.
If you don't back up normally (which you should) make an exception when upgrading your operating system. Upgrading an operating system, even a generally smooth upgrade such as OS X Mountain Lion, is one of the hardest things a computer is asked to do during its lifetime.
In testing, upgrading from OS X Lion to OS X Mountain Lion has taken about 30 to 45 minutes, depending on system type and configuration.
New Features
OS X Mountain Lion is a relatively moderate release compared to OS X Lion, but it still has over 200 new features. Many of these features are based on similar or equivalent features from iOS and many (of course) require an Apple ID. Below are some of the most significant changes.
1) Notification Center
A significant feature that made its debut in iOS 5.0, Notification Center informs the user about new events: email, software update, calendar item, app message, etc. Notifications consistently appear in the same location in the upper right hand corner of the primary display and then disappear to free desktop space. A drawer of all current notifications can be brought back at any time with a gesture and all notifications are controlled from the new Notifications preference pane. Tweets can also be sent from the Notification Center.
2) Full iCloud Integration
Like iOS 5, OS X Mountain Lion is heavily integrated with iCloud, so mail, calendar items, reminders, photos, music and other data can be kept up to date. When a change is made on the Mac, that change can be sent to iOS devices such as an iPad or iPhone.
3) Dictation
The Dictation feature that made its debut with the third generation iPad is now available in OS X Mountain Lion and is controlled from within the Dictation and Speech preference pane. Built-in microphones, included on most Macs, are used to convert speech to text. As with other voice recognition applications, Dictation gets "smarter" the more it is used, learning voice characteristics and also recognizing names from contact lists.
4) Messages
Messages replaces iChat and can now send messages to anyone on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 5 or above. Messages appear on the Mac and any compatible Apple device. Messages for OS X Mountain Lion shares most of the features of the iOS 5 Messages app, but also includes many "classic" iChat features.
5) Reminders
Reminders allows the user to create lists of events with due dates, and receive alerts near the event times. Since Reminders is integrated with iCloud, a location-based reminder can be set on a Mac, and then received as a reminder later from a mobile iOS device, such as an iPhone or iPad, when arriving at the relevant destination.
Other features of note:
OS X Mountain Lion integrates high resolution "Retina" display support into the mainstream release of OS X, instead of the specific versions of OS X Lion that were developed for the Retina MacBook Pro. In particular, graphics performance on the recently released Retina MacBook Pro is substantially improved in Mountain Lion.
Power Nap: receive periodic updates to Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Photo Stream, and Documents in the Cloud, even while the Mac is in sleep mode.
AirPlay: send video content from a Mac to an HDTV with AirPlay support (also compatible with Apple TV).
Sharing: sharing of photos, videos, and other data with services such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Vimeo is simplified in Mail, Messages, AirDrop, and Safari.
New features for China: all-new support for Chinese services such as Baidu, video posting on Youku and Tudou, or microblogging to Sina Weibo. There is also a new Chinese dictionary and revised input methods.
John Mulhern III, posted 8/26/2012
