Mac OS X Mountain Lion Notes

I installed Mac OS X 'Mountain Lion' today on my MacBook Pro Retina, which is my (sporadic) travel machine and thus not a “production” machine.

Notes so far:

• Relatively seamless upgrade.
• Adobe DreamWeaver CS 5.5 managed to damage itself and trash my 'site' setup after the upgrade and required reinstalling.
• See my notes on application signing.

Advice for professionals on Mac OS X Mountain Lion

MOXML won’t run on some older Macs such as the original Mac Pro 1,1. Which is just fine. Stick with what is working and ignore MOXML.

I will hold off on Mountain Lion for some time for my 12-core Mac Pro heavy-duty-gotta-work-7X10 workstation— there is absolutely NO REASON to rush into upgrading to Mountain Lion (for anyone doing serious work with the Mac). Let it settle for at least a month; there are always issues that will crop up. This is especially true for more complex hardware configurations (drivers and the like).

For professionals using a Mac for production work, think of your machine as a toaster— it gets your jobs done. Don’t touch MOXML with a 10 foot pole until at least 3 months of public use, where the issues can be sorted and solutions emerge. In fact, unless you’re upgrading to a new machine, you might want to not touch it at all— ever. If the toaster makes tasty lightly browned toast, leave it the heck alone!

If MOXML follows in the vein of Mac OS X Snow Lion, it will be lardered with “upgrades” that impair usability for people with real work to get done. Headaches with nothing included to compensate. Don’t rule out another eye-candy release. Wait and see if there are actually any real benefits, rather than a dilettante release oriented to those with time on their hands— Apple OS versions are no longer targeted for professionals.