OS X Lion is probably the most significant operating system release that Apple has ever made. I recommend that you install it now (only $29.99, a real bargain), except possibly if you have some crucial apps, notably Quicken, or plug-ins that will not run under Lion.

This is not a detailed review of Lion since you've probably read several in computer magazines and on the Web. This column is more of a philosophical overview of Lion, written with the aim of persuading you to use Lion now. This month's newsletter has several articles on specific aspects of Lion — Gestures, Launchpad, All My Files, Resizing Windows, Mission Control, Preferences Panes, Dual Boot, and Auto Save. It also has a great article by Ted Landau on some of the problems with Lion.

Lion is a radical change in many aspects of the operating system. It will take a bit of time to adjust to and learn. It is also the harbinger of the future so you might as well start learning it now.

As some have said, it is the iOS-ifictation of the Mac. For those of you with iPhones and iPads, the upgrade to Lion will be much easier.

Apple has 3 groups of users — power users (technically skilled), consumer users (rudimentary skills), and those users who fall between the 1st 2 groups (probably the majority). Apple has clearly favored the consumer users, attempting in its 250+ new features to simplify computing. Will using a Mac be as simple as using an iPad? No, but it's clear that simplicity and elegance in design and use are two of Apple's primary intentions. Lion has certainly made substantial progress toward those goals.

A number of power users I have spoken to like many aspects of Lion. Do they have problems with some aspects of Lion? Absolutely, but their knowledge level, need to control some operating details, and memory of prior operating systems is such that they are more aware of the underlying details than the normal user. There are some aspects, particularly Auto Save, that drive them crazy and probably will do so until Apple makes corrections in those functions.

One of the respondents to Ted Landau's article stated:

"I like to compare computers to cars. Back in the early days cars could be worked on by 'mere mortals'. Anyone could, in theory, hot rod their car, adjust the carb, change their own brake pads, and such. Over time cars matured and now, though there is a vocal minority that complain, most people are happy with a car that runs, they put gas in, and if something goes bad a light comes on and they take it to an expert to fix.

Computers have turned that corner now too. More and more the back room tinkerer won't be able to see the file system, won't have to run Onyx once a month, won't be able to swap a drive, or add memory. The iPad is the computer of the future. iOS is the system of the future. Locked down, no user accessible features, it is and will remain exactly the way it came from the factory +- apps we add like boxes in the trunk.

Lion is a big step in that direction."

I think the analogy is a great one. You could also make a similar analogy to the progress in moving from machine language to assembler to higher-level languages. In each case, for most people, the increase in simplicity and the savings in time made up for the loss in control of the details. In certain cases, it is necessary to return to a more powerful mechanism, but that is only for a small minority of the users.

Before delving into some of the functions of Lion, there is a path that many of us take in dealing with change. John Martellaro wrote in The Mac Observer:

"So which is easier? Teach a mildly technical user to mark the document as a template? Or try to change the behavior of millions of Apple customers who complain daily about lost work?

I think we go through several phases when Apple introduces a new technology.

1. Fear, uncertainty, doubt
2. Disdain, thoughts of leaving the platform
3. Learning to cope, discovery
4. Grudging acceptance
5. Praise

   Right now, many are in phase 1 and phase 2 with Auto Save. In time, we'll all learn how to deal with these new technologies. Developers will provide their customers with the option to turn it on and off, as their expertise requires. Technical articles, of the kind we publish here at The Mac Observer, will provide tips and guidance. We'll get through phase 3 and move on from there."

I think John is spot on, particularly in the case of Lion. There are so many major changes in Lion that it will take some time to learn them and to use them. Some of them are almost intuitive; others will require breaking long-held habits. For some of us the adaption process will be short and fun or interesting; for others it will be torturous. My guess is that the most difficult time will be had by those who, because of the need to run some older programs, will end up having to run both Lion and Snow Leopard.

My own experience has been that Lion installation was easy, making another partition with just the Snow Leopard operating system was a bit complicated, running most applications was the same as in Snow Leopard, a number of applications had to be upgraded at no cost, an old accounting application I have used for 10 years and never upgraded had to be upgraded at a cost of $150, and I still have to tweak one application, Path Finder, a bit.

I'm still adjusting to the gestures for scrolling; I figure another week should do it. Learning gestures is similar to learning keyboard shortcuts. You just have to keep doing it. I replaced using a mouse with the Magic Trackpad several months ago so gestures are not anything new, particularly since I've used some of them on the iPad 2.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, let me quote what Walt Mossberg wrote in the Wall Street Journal about some of Lion's main functions:

• "Auto-Save and Versions: Apps running in Lion automatically save your work when you pause or every five minutes. There is no interruption during this process and you can still save manually. This isn't a new idea, but it's implemented beautifully and can work on all programs whose authors issue new versions to take advantage of it. Right now, it works on some of Apple's own programs.

  The best part of this is that each auto-save creates a "version" of your document and you can view all these versions in a visual stack arranged by date, next to your current version. You can swap back to an older version, or even copy and paste text from one version to another. These versions are created by storing the changes behind the scenes, not by creating numerous files.

  To prevent auto-saving, you can lock a document and, for privacy, when you share or transfer a document, only the latest version is copied or sent.

• Resume: If you relaunch a program, any document you were working on appears again with the cursor right where it was, and even any highlighting is preserved. If you restart the Mac, all your programs are resumed in this manner, unless you check a box to prevent this.

• Full-screen apps: You can launch some apps, or individual browser tabs, in a full screen, by just clicking on an icon at the top right. In full screen, the menu bar and other controls are hidden unless you move the cursor to the top of the screen.

• Launchpad: Pressing a special key on a new Mac, or an icon on an old one, brings up an iPad-like display of all your app icons in full screen. If they occupy more than one screen, you just swipe through them.

• Mission Control: One of the nicer features on the Mac was called Expose, which, with one click, showed all your open windows in miniature. Now, it's been subsumed into something called Mission Control, which does the same thing, but also displays any fullscreen apps or extra desktops. I found it cluttered and wished the simpler, prior feature had been retained.

• Gestures: The Mac already had a variety of iPhone-like gestures you could perform on the touch pad. But Lion has changed some of these and added more. One I liked: You can double-tap with two fingers to resize a section of a Web page or PDF to zoom in to fill the screen, just like on the iPhone or iPad. Two I dislike: the gestures for calling up Launchpad and Mission Control require pinching or zooming with three fingers and a thumb — a clumsy method for such important features.

• Mail: Apple's Mail app has been totally overhauled to look and work more like the Mail app on the iPad. One particularly nice feature is that it sports a beautiful optional conversation mode, which combines and numbers each message in a thread. It also hides duplicate emails. There are too many changes to detail here, but, after hating the new Mail at first, I have come to like it. And you can switch to Classic mode if you wish."

Conclusion: Lion is the future of computing. It's a superb operating system. I urge you to start using it now if you possibly can.

— Mark S. Bazrod, Editor