A more practical comparison would be between Lion and Snow Leopard. That’s really your other alternative.

The Macalope’s used OS X experimentally since Cheetah and as his primary OS since Puma. That’s almost 10 years. Overall, it seems obvious that the last two have been less impressive than Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, and Leopard. But the horny one wonders if we aren’t just more jaded. We’ve got other things to hang our collective hats on these days (other than the ill-fated Apple Coat Rack of the early 1990s). It’s not just that the success of the iPhone and the iPad have made each upgrade to OS X emotionally less critical, it’s also made those updates  less critical, as we’ve replaced some of the hours we used to spend on OS X with hours spent on iOS.

There’s no denying that some people have had real problems with Lion. But there are problems; the Macalope’s really not sure the issues are any worse this time out. While it’s been a little rough around the edges for him at times, the Macalope thinks the improved security model and the new version of Mail have made Lion worth it.

Your mileage may vary.

Particularly if you’re driving the ill-fated Apple Motor Scooter of the early 1990s.