Compatibility in OS X Lion

A lot of Mac fanatics, including me, got really excited with the anticipated release of Apple's OS X Lion. But after upgrading to the new OS, compatibility issues have arise in both software and hardware. This prompted me to at least delay my upgrade until Apple releases a software update. I just upgraded to Lion last week when 10.7.1 was released. You can check out my post about installing Lion here.

Software

Mac OS X Utility found in the Recovery HD

Applications installed on my Mac had been migrated successfully from Snow Leopard to Lion. My Windows 7 partition was left untouched after the upgrade. In addition, Lion installed a recovery partition for troubleshooting. I did not do a clean install on my Mac. What I did was backup my Mac first using Time Machine, transferred the Lion application to a different folder to prevent it's deletion then finally launched the installer. After I upgraded to Lion though, I felt a little slowness to my Mac, some applications launch longer than expected and there are beach balls indicating sluggishness. These seem to be addressed a little with the 10.7.1 update. The Lion experience so far after the 10.7.1 update is great. I only had minor issues with two applications I have used.

First in that list is the TechTool Deluxe application that came with the Apple Care I purchased last year. After launching the application, a window is displayed prompting that the application has not been fully tested with Mac OS X 10.7. From all the tests available, Video RAM can't be executed successfully triggering the diagnostic check to quit and start again from scratch. An update is already available but you have to pay $39.99 to upgrade to TechTool Pro 6. You can check on the upgrade here. As a workaround, I just disable Video RAM checking and still use the tool in performing diagnostic tests on my Mac.

Second on the list is the secondary clicking via trackpad when playing Starcraft II. There are inconsistencies in it's behavior and most of the time I have to press on the trackpad to attack my opponent in multiplayer. Yes, I use the trackpad in mobilizing my units in Starcraft II instead of a mouse. Blizzard may release an update for this minor issue.

Setting this aside, I did not have problems with the other applications. The usual applications that I use like Caffeine, Alfred, AppCleaner, IceClean, Dropbox, Bowtie, TabLauncher and Twitter work great in Lion. Firefox and Chrome also work fine in Lion. Applications I have purchased in the Mac App Store are also compatible with the new OS.

If you want to check on other software's compatibility with Lion, please check on the Roaring Apps site -- http://roaringapps.com/

Hardware
Aside from checking software compatibility, I also have to check on hardware compatibility. The ports on my Mac still work after the upgrade from the SD card reader, USB 2.0 port and ethernet port. DVD slot also works just fine. My external hard drive (Buffalo) is also compatible with Lion. The next day after the upgrade, I created a backup of my Mac using Time Machine. It took some time to backup though. I spent almost an hour backing up 11gb of data which is slow compared to Snow Leopard. I'm thinking that aside from the file size, some configurations need to be backed up too since I did an upgrade. I would assume it will be faster next time. What I haven't tried yet is using wifi, bluetooth, the infrared sensor and connecting to an external monitor and printer.

OS X Lion is just a month old. Apple only had their first update to the OS last week. This is still normal after upgrading. If I'm not mistaken, 10.7.2 has been seeded to developers already to try out and test. I'm pretty sure that all of this issues will be addressed in the coming months with updates that will be come from Apple, the software developers and the hardware manufacturers.