Mac OS X Lion Released Yesterday

Hello, all.
As many know by now, Mac OS X Lion was released yesterday morning. In fact, I was one of the first to get and install Mac OS X Lion, though wasn't the first to write an article about it due to some memory issues I was having. However, as promised, I'm writing an article detailing my experiences in obtaining and installing Mac OS X Lion.

As Apple stated on their website, obtaining Mac OS Lion was as easy as launching the Mac app store, clicking on the link, and buying the operating system. Before you do that, though, it's a good idea to keep the following things in mind.

Backup your data. I'm glad I did. Just in case you either need to do a clean installation of Lion, or simply choose to as I did, backing up all of your data is always wise to do.

Ensure all of your software is up-to-date. This is a good idea to ensure compatibility with an operating system upgrade.

Before you start the installation, you should disconnect any external devices such as USB hard drives, or any other such thing. Leaving headphones connected, at least for me, was essential and won't harm the installation of the operating system. Leaving headphones connected may not be an issue for anyone else, but there seemed to be a bug in the installer. During the preparation process, I disconnected the headphones. When I rebooted, I didn't receive any audio until I connected my headphones again.

Keep this in mind. The installer for Lion will be deleted from your system if you're doing an upgrade. If you want to keep it, copy it to a new location before upgrading.

The installation process is relatively simple. The instructions are quite clear and concise. After you've agreed to the license agreement and the installer prepares to install Lion, take a walk, bake a cake, do something to occupy your time for anywhere from twenty-five minutes to an hour. It only took thirty minutes for me to install Lion, and that was a fresh installation with no previous operating system files on the system.

When Lion reboots, you will be taken through a small tutorial on scrolling, as its different in Lion than it is in other operating systems. This only happens if you've upgraded, I believe.

Once you're ready to boot into Lion, there's a button you click, though I don't recall its name. It's near the bottom of the window, though, but I could be wrong about that as I'm not sure where its visually located on the screen.

After you've booted into Lion, you can enjoy the many new features available to you. I'm not going to detail those here, though.

I also stated in my previous article that I'd detail how to burn OS Lion to a DVD. This is indeed possible, though I've not tried it myself. I have found the dmg file, though, so I can tell you where it is and how to burn it.

Go to the location you stored the installer app for Lion. If you didn't keep it, don't worry. You can re-download it from the app store for no additional cost to you.

After you've found or downloaded it, show the contents of the package. In windows, it would be a right click on the file name. In the mac, I'm not sure what the command is. If you're using VoiceOver on the mac, interact with your browser list, find the installer app for Lion, press VO+SHIFT+M, then press enter on Show Package Contents.

Once you're viewing the list of folders and files within the package, enter the contents folder, go to shared support, then copy the InstallESD.dmg file to a new location.

Once copied, close all windows accept the one containing the location of the dmg file. Open the file, which will mount it. Once its been opened and the list appears with the contents of the dmg, close the window and open the disk utility by pressing CMD+SHIFT+U and finding it in the utilities list.

Insert a blank DVD into your disk drive. Find the newly mounted OS Lion installation drive. Once selected, click burn and the contents of the dmg should be burned to your DVD. If I've forgotten anything or left any directions out, be sure to let me know.

That's all for today, folks, and enjoy Mac OS Lion!