Attention Mac users RE Lion OS X

[Mike Romkey]

Hi, all. The other day I upgraded to the new Mac OS, Lion. It's gotten rave reviews, so I figured, why not?

Here's my review: Aiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Noooooooooooo!

ProTools 9 won't work. (Should have anticipated that. They're famous for being customer un-friendly.) Barfly won't work. TEFview won't work. The Alesis software that transports files off my Alesis HD24 hard-drive recorder won't work.

So, in addition to giving me a fab enhanced user interface, Apple has thrown a lot of previously-supported Power PC-compatible aps under the bus. Thank you, Steve.

If I sound irate, I am. At Apple mainly but also myself. So: beware.

Does anybody know an ABC player that'll work with Lion? Please? :crying:

[Don Grieser]

I feel your pain. I suppose eventually I'll have to upgrade to Leopard and Snow Leopard, but I'm quite happy with Tiger 10.4.11 for now.

[Ted Eschliman]

I use Carbonite to back up all my computers. My earnest anticipation was doused when I found out it's not compatible with Lion, yet. I'll have to wait until that changes.

[mandobassman]

I have been a Mac user for many years in the printing industry. I would think that anyone that wants to upgrade to a new OS would check FIRST to see if your current applications are compatible. The company that I work for bought mew Mac Pro's within the past year and when we did we knew before the purchase that we needed to upgrade almost all of our current apps. You can't expect Apple to hold back design because the other manufacturers haven't caught up. It's up the application designers to be current. That's the way it works.

[Mike Romkey]

Yeah, Mandobassman, I know. I know, I know, I know. I doubly know regarding ProTools.

But how about Apple, in addition to doing a hardware check, runs a check that says, "Hey, dude, here are all the favorite programs that aren't going to work anymore if you upgrade!" I'm Kool-Aid drinking Mac guy. There are three MacBook Pros in my house -- mine, my wife's and my kid's. I bought my first Mac in 1984.

I guess I blame myself also for being out of the loop on this. The reviews talked about the cool, iPad like gesture features. I wasn't expecting "major software will no longer work." For instance -- this is that last thing I'll say, because I feel a tsunami of rant rising up in me -- there are, apparently, no ABC players that will work with this. This kind of move seems to have a lot less in common with the "I'm a Mac" guy in the commercials than the clueless dorkenheimer other guy.

[Jeff Budz]

What is an ABC Player? Weird that Pro Tools won't work, but I'm sure it will soon...

Me, I do whatever Steve tells/wants me to do. If he doesn't want to me use ABC player or Pro Tools it's probably for the best. Have you tried Garage Band? :)

[Mike Romkey]

Funny you should ask about GargeBand. No. However, after my OS update, I discovered a lot of my native Apple software needed updating. Including GB. That took quite a while to download. The updates are buggy. QuickTime won't record video, even after updating. My gawd, this is JUST LIKE A MICROSOFT PRODUCT! Aiieeeee! (I think I issued a similar scream earlier.) I've recorded the Tune of the Week tune three times now. No video, sound quality like crap. Meanwhile, Chrome -- which I realize is an obscure piece of software, like BarFly, that only music nerds use -- has crashed about 10 times since the new OS. I think I'm going to go to work, get the install discs, and try to undo this great upgrade.

[JimRichter]

This was a significant update to the OSX. To believe that you could continue running "heritage"-based software indefinitely is ill planned. If you've been using since '84, you know that significant upgrades such as the move to System 7, to PowerPC chips, to OSX (remember trying to use the Classic environment in early X), and to Intel have all left some grumbling.

I knew that Avid/Digidesign would not be ready for this update. That is why--before I installed Lion--I partitioned my hard drive, keeping Snow Leopard (and Pro Tools) on one partition and Snow Lion on the other--as I did with the other significant upgrades.

I know it sounds like an "I told you so" but truthfully, this is the rule of thumb regardless of any update- especially the big ones.

And, it is not like any other Microsoft release. It's representative of early adopting.

[michaelpthompson]

Jim's right. There are incremental upgrades and there are major changes. This one was a major change. As I understand, it moves beyond any carbon-based apps, and no longer supports Motorola-based computers. It's all Intel now. They've kind of kept the ball rolling up to this point, but I guess it's time to move into the future. I'm still on OS X 10.4.11, but I'm finding more and more that doesn't work, so you have to keep up with progress one way or another.

[Fretbear]

Stick with Snow Leopard, she's got lots of legs left, and runs smooth and fast.

[Pete Braccio]

As I stated on this thread, (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?75151-tabledit-and-barfly-don-t-function-in-Lion) Harmony Assistant does TEF and ABC and EasyABC is available for ABC format as well.

Also, Matthieu (the TablEdit developer) chimed in on that thread about update plans for TablEdit and with a work around.

Pete

[almeriastrings]

Real simple... I upgraded one Mac on our network, just to see how it goes, but the "mission critical" ones can wait. There are a lot of audio drivers in particular not available for Lion yet... including TC Electronic and many Focusrite. Give it a few months for updates and new drivers to appear, and for the wrinkles to be ironed out. Overall, Lion looks/performs great. I like it.

[dang]

I upgraded and have not had a problem yet... I have only had an iMac for a year and all my software was brand new so there were no issues with the conversion.

If I can just figure out all the new gestures!

[John Duncan]

I have been running snow leopard since it came out. I think it is pretty boss. My 2007 macbook, on the other hand, has lots of crazy problems: the disc drive ejects continuously for about two minutes when I open my laptop, and there is a skittering sound directly under the keyboard.
I am probably going to be getting a new Mac Air later today or this week. Like, almeriastrings said, my 2007 macbook will remain on snow leopard and the new air will be running lion, just to see.
Lots of great info here, Thanks!

[J.Albert]

I've got Lion going on my white Intel iMac.

My not-quite-current copy of Cubase LE4 runs fine under 10.7, as does the software for the Echo Audiofire interface that I use.

And the new version of Safari seems faster, especially when loading images....

- John

[Jack Roberts]

I can report that Sibelius First and Amazing Slower Downer work well for me with Lion, and Lion is impressing me a lot at my day job. YMMV.

[sgarrity]

We're Mac nuts and early adopters around my house and I'm not happy with Lion. The biggest issue is Power PC is no longer supported which means TEFView doesn't work. That dog won't hunt!

[michaelpthompson]

These little glitches always happen with upgrades. The developers will catch up soon enough, or we'll find alternatives to our current software. Hard to imagine there won't be some workaround for TEFView soon enough. He got it to work with Snow Leopard.

[mando_dan]

Go Linux!

[michaelpthompson]

Go Linux!

I went with my wife to the Mac Store the other day to have them look at her Powerbook. A fellow nearby was chatting with the guy behind the counter about doing Linux on the Mac. Since it has a Unix-based shell, it apparently works natively or something I don't really understand. If I was a Windows user, I'd definitely go Linux. However, then you've got the question of whether TEFView would work on Linux.

[Mike Romkey]

LIVE, LATE-BREAKING, LOCAL: Just installed the Lion Beta update for Pro-Tools 9. Took them a little less than a month to release. Suddenly, all is forgiven. Although this, alas, does nothing to make TEFView and Bar Fly work. But at least my glass is half full again.

[Brad Weiss]

Just chiming in after a long mandolin cafe hiatus. Lion stinks in so many ways! Yes, faster, smoother, cleaner, etc. But I STILL can't get it to use tef files, the TEF viewer program on the tabledit site does NOT work (not for me, at least). Help!! Snow Leopard was a challenge for me, at first, but this is a life changer. I wouldn't have done it, but at work, I get a new laptop every 3 years (and if I don't take it, I miss out for 6 years, so I'm stuck for good or ill) ANybody found any good workarounds and/or alternatives??

[Mike Bunting]

Does the Crossover app not work.
http://www.tabledit.com/download/lion.shtml

[Spruce]

Yeah, I'm in the middle of downgrading from Lion to Snow Leopard so I can run my stuff, and am now dead in the water because I erased something I shouldn't have...

It'll all work out, but steer clear of Lion unless you really want to go there....

[mandroid]

Got the computer version of a brick, Mac Mini, have to go see what creature .. 10.6, I think, is the OS
its smaller than the dust ball cavity, inside the old G3..

[Brad Weiss]

I couldn't get that Crossover fixto work for me. It created a hideous looking interface with tabledit, and it just kept shuting down, never opened a damn thing. Grrr... Can't really go back, just want something that'll work, even just to read files, not compose anything. Boo.

[almeriastrings]

Tefview for Lion IS now out and can be downloaded from their site.

Seems to be working fine.

http://www.tabledit.com/tefview/download.shtml

[sunburst]

Wouldn't the "time machine" get you back to Snow Leopard (that is, an "upgraded" computer, not a new one)?
It's a real question, I'm asking because I've never had to use the time machine to bring anything back, and I understand you can "go back in time" to where things worked right. Correct or no?

[ColdBeerGoCubs]

No, time machine is data back-up only, has nothing to do with compatibility.

And the beauty of Apple is that if you bought a Lion machine, you can't drop to a previous version of the OS.

[almeriastrings]

You could go back to Snow Leopard by booting from the start-up DVD's and doing a clean install, then using TM to restore your data. However, would probably be easier to just set up a new partition or virtual machine. Most manufacturers now have Lion audio drivers out, TEFVIEW works on Lion, and right now we have Lion on three machines running with no problems at all. If you really need to run incompatible "legacy" stuff, I'd look for a used Mac with an older OS and run it all on that.You can often pick them up quite cheaply.

[Loretta Callahan]

Exactly. I've been working with computers since 1982. On thing I've learned: new releases of anything, OS or App ... wait, wait, wait and wait some more.

Also, I second running another operating system when possible. I've been bi-coastal for well over a decade. I always run Windoze on my Mac. Started with Virtual PC; now use Parallels. If it won't run on a Mac, you can run it with Microsoft.


Stick with Snow Leopard, she's got lots of legs left, and runs smooth and fast.

[Brad Weiss]

It's working!! Matthieu, who does the programing for TablEdit now has a version that works with Intel and Lion. It's working great with my stuff, old tabs, importing midis, etc. The interface looks different, but it's cool. Yay!

[Spruce]

And the beauty of Apple is that if you bought a Lion machine, you can't drop to a previous version of the OS.

You can (and I did) using this very valuable guide on YouTube:

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