A Visual Look at Mountain Lion
I’ve spent the past couple hours playing around with Mountain Lion, and I have to say it is the best version of the OS X I have seen so far. As this is just a developer preview, and the final release is at least a few months away, there were a few issues, but I won’t go over them right now. I’m also not going to go over the Messages app, as you can check it out for yourself, which is a lot better than me trying to write about it.
The first thing I saw that I really liked about Mountain Lion was the new Launchpad. Launchpad has been refined a bit. The icon sizes have changes (they’re smaller), and you can now search for applications.
Also, the UI for adding widgets to Dashboard has taken on a very Launchpad-esque look and feel. Down to the little wiggle when you hold down the mouse button on an icon, or hold the option key.
The App Store has also seen some changes. The most noticeable being some slight aesthetic improvements, and the addition of full screen (which didn’t work quite right in the developer preview). In addition, there was a most welcome change in the way the App Store behaves when installing apps. Instead of shoving Launchpad in your face, the Launchpad icon in the dock gets a progress bar as your app downloads and installs. Much better than shoving Launchpad in your face or shoving the app on the Dock (like in Snow Leopard).
Furthermore in regards to the App Store, it now handles all software updates, and the dedicated Software Update app is nowhere to be found. I actually kind of like that it’s integrated now, and that you can update all your app and system updates in one click.
We’ve also got some neat new screensavers, which are basically just fancy slideshows. You can pick a theme, or use a folder of your own images.
After messing around with Mountain Lion for about a couple hours, I have high hopes for this upgrade. It is pretty speedy and stable for a developer preview (I only had a couple crashes). The biggest issue I found was that the iWork and iLife apps crash on launch, but I’m sure there will be a Mountain Lion compatibility update by the time it ships.
