Mac OS X 10.7 Lion: the Ars Technica Review [Kindle Edition]

John Siracusa (Author)

Book Description

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is no shrinking violet. Unlike its predecessor, Snow Leopard, which concentrated on internal changes, Lion aims to remake the Mac desktop experience in the image of its mobile sibling, iOS. But is this a good thing? John Siracusa gives Apple's new OS his usual thorough consideration.

Product Details

• File Size: 1686 KB
• Print Length: 118 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Ars Technica (July 18, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005DHYPR4
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #252,300 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #72 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Computers & Technology > Operating Systems > MacOS

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 57 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent content, but formatting is condenastied. July 20, 2011

By Varun Nangia

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

It's something of a running meme that most technically inclined people wait for John Siracusa to turn out a few tens of thousands of words for a review of a new release of Mac OS, before investing in it. If John likes it, he says so; if he doesn't, unlike the millions of other "unbiased reviewers", John simply says so. I cannot even begin to express how deeply in his debt I am for his over-a-decade-long series to help me decide whether to spend $129 (or $29) on the latest and great OS. This review is more of the same excellent writing, insightful commentary and brilliant wit that John has shown in his million+ words on Mac OS X - and if you didn't know earlier whether you wanted to buy it ... well you know now.

But something HORRIBLE happened to Ars Technica a few years ago: they were bought, and not by a company that "got the internet", but by that bastion of early 20th century pulp they continue to pump out: Conde Nast Publications. Articles which were a page long got stretched out over three or more pages; John Siracusa's normally 5-7 page reviews became 30+ pages - all to drive a few additional ad hits. So many people came to read John's reviews - still the gold standard of actually unbiased reporting on Mac OS - though, they decided to monetize it by creating this Kindle ebook. But naturally, Conde Nast, still stuck in 1911, rushed it, so this book features:
-At least four different fonts that all sort of look alike but aren't.
-Six font sizes for no reason at all with no consistency at all.
-A fraction of the pictures that the review on Ars includes
-No attempt to edit the content so that when John writes "see the icon on the right", there is no icon on the right or elsewhere.
-No table of contents.
-An introduction to Conde Nast halfway through the text.
-An introduction to John randomly placed in the text.
-An assumption you can figure out how the tables and columns should look like if you see them unlined everywhere.

I will be asking for a refund - the VERY first refund I've ever asked for on a Kindle book. Learn from my mistake and read the review on Ars, with Adblock on, of course.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great writer July 20, 2011

By Mr. P. Thompson

Format:Kindle Edition

His reviews are legendary. Be careful if you want to read on a Kindle screen - there are a lot of colour pictures that won't look great on a monochrome screen.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing July 20, 2011

By Hokie Fan for Life

Format:Kindle Edition

John's writings on OS X are the stuff of legends, and this is no different. Hands down the best, most comprehensive writing on the topic.

More About the Author

John Siracusa has a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Boston University. He has been a Mac user since 1984, a Unix geek since 1993, and has spent the last fifteen years as a professional web developer and freelance technology writer. When he's not destroying the Ars Technica CMS with 45,000-word articles, John enjoys gaming, exercising his TiVo, writing open source software, and pining for the pizza and bagels of his childhood home of Long Island, NY. John lives in Newton, Massachusetts with his wife, two children, and an attic full of classic Mac and NeXT hardware.