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shifuimam · Jun 25, 2013, 11:39 AM

I have this mid-2007 (C2Duo) MacBook that I never use. I've seen some details online on how to upgrade to ML on unsupported hardware, so I thought I might give it a shot.

That being said, I've been hesitant to try Lion or ML at all because of the changes that were made compared to SL. Is it really that bad? Is it worth at least trying the install?

P · Jun 25, 2013, 12:15 PM

It's not exactly bad, but unless you see a feature that you absolutely desire, I wouldn't bother running it on unsupported hardware. SL is much more polished. Absolutely don't go to 10.7 only - there are a few sharp edges left in there that were only fixed with 10.8

shifuimam · Jun 25, 2013, 12:29 PM

Are there any killer features in ML that I should know about?

So far all I really know offhand is that Expose completely changed in Lion, which I hated (from what I saw of previews/screenshots), but that it was sort of fixed in ML. I use Expose a LOT with all four hot corners to switch apps/windows, too.

I am starting to see that a lot of freeware apps are going 10.7+ only, so that's starting to sway me a little...

Hawkeye_a · Jun 25, 2013, 02:36 PM

I begrudgingly upgraded to Lion. I was effectively forced to for iCloud (my primary email).

I was perfectly happy with Snow Leopard which, I felt was a very worthy upgrade. There was no feature in Lion which compelled me to upgrade; there isn't one in ML and so far, there hasn't been one in Mavericks. The lack of Rosetta has been an unnecessary inconvenience & annoyance for me; definitely worth more than the features traded for it

I'm on a late 2008 MacBook (Core2Duo). Lion runs fine (SSD, 4GB RAM). But i think SL was optimum. One of the reasons I'm hesitant to upgrade to ML is a degradation of performance for features I don't really value.

Cheers

FireWire · Jun 25, 2013, 02:45 PM

I don't know for your particular machine, but I recently upgraded my mid-2007 iMac from 10.6.8 to Mountain Lion and it's like day and night! Even booted from an external USB 2 drive (while I was waiting for my SSD to arrive), it was faster than before. No more sluggishness, no more beachball, and it finally fixed Safari's tendency to hog all my ram and make my computer slow as molassess! It feels like a new computer!

Spheric Harlot · Jun 25, 2013, 03:24 PM

If you're on Lion and your machine supports Mountain Lion, there is ZERO reason to stick with 10.7.

10.8 is better in every way it differs, and it's a lot smoother ride.

shifuimam · Jun 25, 2013, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by FireWire

I don't know for your particular machine, but I recently upgraded my mid-2007 iMac from 10.6.8 to Mountain Lion and it's like day and night! Even booted from an external USB 2 drive (while I was waiting for my SSD to arrive), it was faster than before. No more sluggishness, no more beachball, and it finally fixed Safari's tendency to hog all my ram and make my computer slow as molassess! It feels like a new computer!

Might give it a shot, then, on a spare hard drive I have. Hmmmmm. We'll see.

dpfenninger · Jun 25, 2013, 07:03 PM

I recently upgraded my officially-unsupported-for-ML Late 2007 MacBook 3,1 to Mountain Lion via MLPostFactor (OSX Hackers | Installation) and it seems smoother and 'snappier' than Lion. No complaints here. I have a dual-drive SSD/HDD setup, and 4GB RAM, and it runs really well.

Try it on an external drive first, and if you don't like it you can always get rid of it. If it works well then you can migrate your data over.

Cold Warrior · Jun 25, 2013, 07:25 PM

10.8 / ML is a lot better. I had Lion on my 2008 MB C2D and regretted leaving 10.6. ML was worth it and I don't miss 10.6.

angelmb · Jun 26, 2013, 03:32 AM

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot

If you're on Lion and your machine supports Mountain Lion, there is ZERO reason to stick with 10.7.

RSS feeds are no longer available in Mountain Lion's Mail.

Spheric Harlot · Jun 26, 2013, 04:39 AM

They were in Lion?

angelmb · Jun 26, 2013, 04:59 AM

Sure thing. I have plenty of them in Lion's Mail.

Spheric Harlot · Jun 26, 2013, 05:18 AM

Ah, I didn't remember. It always seemed completely boneheaded to me to clutter my already overloaded business inbox and personal mailbox with, of all things, News. I don't recall ever having met anybody who used Mail (see? — "Mail") as a newsreader, but YMMV, obviously.

P · Jun 26, 2013, 09:05 AM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

Are there any killer features in ML that I should know about?

The trackpad controls are probably the biggest improvement for a laptop, and it's quite convenient to combine them with the full screen features. AirDrop is also nice. Under the hood, it is more secure and the OpenGL implementation has taken a big step forwards.

shifuimam · Jun 26, 2013, 09:20 AM

Welllll....do those controls work on a non-unibody trackpad? I had to install a third-party tool for my trackpad to be able to do anything beyond two-finger scrolling.

Spheric Harlot · Jun 26, 2013, 07:42 PM

Not really, sadly. Magic Trackpad FTW.