EThings I've noticed so-far. Of note I'm a Winblows software developerat work but am re-training as a lawyer so do all my legal research/assignments at home so use Pages, Word, Endnote. I also use iPhoto, iTunes and a stack of widgets on a day to day basis (and a Mac Mini as a media centre for my TV). Observations:
- Login!!!! The login screen appears INSTANTLY... then the OS loads. They reversed it? Sure startup only takes ~10 seconds since I have an i7 with an SSD but still. I was used to pushing the power button, turning the kettle on, coming back THEN entering my password. This is no longer possible. Also, startup seems a bit slower? Maybe? Probably because I have to watch it all now (the whole 10 seconds of it... okay not a biggie).
- Widgets in that sidebar are cool but none of the ones I use work with it. I was sorta thinking they'd let you use ALL widgets in the sidebar. Oh well, time for me to make some for it... really neat idea.
- The new look is more up with the times. I personally like it (and the green button turning into a fullscreen button). Only complaint is all the completely new icons. I'll get used to it, but I'm a visual person... I look at the icons, not their labels so get a bit confused when somebody changes them all up.
- To me the big negative (which has been happening for a while) is file navigation! I'm certainly not a windows guy but IMO Apple is progressively sandboxing our access to our HD. The other day I was trying to copy a file path and navigate to a variation of it. At work I just change the address like I would a web address. Sure I can 'go to folder' but... hard to describe! When I open a folder I'm not navigating the absolute path and I find it hard to find out WHERE a folder is. I've done a terminal hack that shows the exact path at the top (which looks butt ugly).
- Spotlight? Again... the big search box in the middle of the screen is clean and simple. I'm often searching for hidden files/folders or wanting to do advanced searches though!!! I feel REALLY sandboxed with spotlight. Sure it's fast, but I sorta know where all MY files are because I catalogue them. Usually I only search when it's a file that I'm unsure of... 90% of the time I find Spotlight won't discover these files because it's sandboxed.
- Stability... seems solid? Which is great for a brnd new release. Admittedly my friend (a video editor) ALWAYS has issues because he has lots of high-end pro quality PCI cards/devices that invariably cause crashes until the OS is a few years old. For me... OS X gets faster and more stable with every release. I like Apple's polishing!
- Overall... it's free and offers a lot of stuff (without breaking anything that I use). I'm personally a fan. Although, I would sorta prefer an 'advanced' mode for power users such as myself. I prefer a lot of features being a little less sandboxed and unfortunately feel that Apple's moving down the sandbox road a little too quickly for my liking. Still love it and am glad I got a lot of free value out of it (on my 2010 i7 MBP... no issues despite the age, faster if anything)!
Thanks Apple! You still provide the only OS I can stand to use at home. Hard to say but when I'm studying the law's the difficult/technical stuff so I really love how OS X lets me focus on THAT work rather than the computer itself. Apple user since 1984 and it just feels right... they've still got it.