Ryan Cushley

This time last week I published my review of OS X Lion. In it, I largely praised the operating system, while only picking up on a few – often aesthetic – negatives. However, despite the positivity I exhibited throughout the review, I proposed that general users should avoid updating until August at the earliest. During the review I chose not to go in depth about the reasons for my recommendation, and so will elaborate on the issues here.

For the second time in all too recent history, Apple is receiving a lacklustre response to a new software release. This article does not deal with those reasons – see the main review for some – but instead looks at buggy behaviour exhibited by the Golden Master (likely to be the public version) release of Lion. There are several considerable issues in the release; general system instability; crash-prone Resume; Full Screen problems; poor SSD performance. As I have previously mentioned, none of these issues will be considered large enough by Apple to hold off release. Instead, the software will be released in July and patched as necessary (possibly even a day zero patch). However, until Lion is updated to fix these issues, my recommendation is hold off on updating, particularly if your computer is used professionally.

Since I posted the review, a long since forgotten aspect of OS X has reared it’s ugly head; Kernel Panics. As I posted on my Twitter feed a few days back, this is something I have not had to deal with since Mac OS X Tiger all the way back in 2007. In the past week I have received three such errors. For anyone unfamiliar with them – as many newer Mac users may be – a Kernel Panic is a show-stopping error, similar to the Windows Blue Screen of Death. Receiving a Kernel Panic requires a hard-reset of the computer, holding the power button down until it powers off. Two of these Kernel Panics have been caused by Wi-Fi (formerly AirPort) alone. The first time was when trying to select a new Wi-Fi network through the menu bar, while the second was caused when trying to access the Network System Preferences pane. A third Kernel Panic was initiated yesterday when searching in Mail. Perhaps obviously, the necessity for a hard-reset of the computer without any ability to save work can result in data loss. Fortunately at the time of the first two I had only powered on the computer, and for the third one was just emailing, but much greater damage could have been done had I been working.

For any potential updater, this general system instability should be noted prior to purchasing Lion. Further to the most drastic error – Kernel Panics – Lion has also exhibited some other unusual issues necessitating a restart. I have now on more than a few occasions had to restart because Wi-Fi freezes. This usually occurs on a resume from Sleep, but can occur at any time while working online. I have not yet found a way to fix this problem without restarting, as further irritating the frozen Wi-Fi menus causes the whole system to freeze. On the issue of Sleep, many times the SSD will freeze for 30 seconds – a few minutes before allowing work to continue. I have not been able to replicate this bug on a HDD.

An issue I mentioned in passing a couple of times in my Lion review is a whole host of problems caused by Resume. Quite frankly, Resume does not yet work as well as it should. Effects of a bad start with Resume can be everything from a full system freeze, to Finder quitting and then unable to restart, to Full Screen applications unable to be quit. While I accept this issue is perhaps anecdotal, 0r perhaps as a result of third party applications, it is my belief that the feature needs more work before public release. Handily, however, Resume can be disabled on a one time only basis. There is no universal way to disable Resume, but by remembering to unselect the ‘reopen windows when logging back in’ option, these issues can all be prevented.

Issues with Full Screen are numerable. Safari, iCal and Mail all exhibit the same problems. Sometimes pressing ‘escape’ from Full Screen will cause the application to crash. Other times (seemingly) the animation from making a Full Screen application will cause the system fans to go at full speed. An issue with Resume can cause Full Screen applications unable to be quit due to a permissions problem. Most notably, gestures are still slightly wonky in this release and it can sometimes be very difficult to leave iCal; two finger swipe is used in iCal to switch months; three finger swipe is used by Lion to switch Space/Full Screen app. On many occasions OS X refuses to recognise the difference between two and three finger swipes, necessitating the use of the Dock or Mission Control.

Despite earlier rumours that Apple intended to improve SSD performance on OS X Lion, this never did come to fruition. While some SSDs (Apple-shipped) now support TRIM, others don’t. For me, this is not so much a problem. The problem is the new freezing exhibited by SSDs. In writing this, I am willing to accept that this is again possibly anecdotal, as both my SSD-driven Macs are using Crucial drives; one a 128GB C300 and the other a 128GB M4. Both drives are running the latest firmware. Freezing is a big, big problem. It seems to occur most when resuming from Sleep or when trying to navigate Finder, but the system will occasionally stay frozen for up to 4 minutes, before springing back to life. It is a strange, unnerving, annoying experience, and one which has now become daily since running the Lion Golden Master.

For many users, these issues will not present any major issues. By temporarily avoiding Resume, Full Screen and not altering Wi-Fi upon startup, they can mostly be avoided. In running the Lion Golden Master for two weeks, three Kernel Panics is not a great beginning, but again, these could be machine specific or isolated occurrences. It remains my belief that for anyone considering the update to Lion on a business-critical system, the release should be avoided for a few months at least. For other users, updating is of course at your own risk, but again, if you enjoy the stability of Snow Leopard, do not update immediately.

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