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By now most Mac and many Windows users are aware that Apple has released its latest and greatest version of Mac OS X, better known as "Lion". Lion takes all that has been learnt throughout the evolution of OS X (pronounced "OS ten" by the way, as in the Roman numeral), starting with Cheetah, the first release of the OS through all the updated versions - Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard - and to this has added a number of technologies developed for iOS, the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad operating system.

The result is the most revolutionary version of OS X, with significant multi-touch gestures, apps that automatically resume wherever you left off when last you quit, auto-save technology, document versions, a cool networking feature called AirDrop, full-screen apps that utilize the full size of your Mac's display, the Mac app store and much, much more.

The intention of this message is not to discuss the details of Lion (click on the image above to read them for yourself) so much as to make you aware of a few things that you should know before attempting to dive right into it.

First of all, you need to know whether Lion will actually run on your Mac. Here are Apple's listed system requirements:

Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor
2GB of memory (you may be able to upgrade your Mac's RAM to 2GB or more - check here)
OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
7GB of available space
Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.

If your Mac doesn't meet the first two, forget Lion until you get a new Mac.

Secondly, Lion drops support for PowerPC apps, programs written for OS X prior to the introduction of Intel processor Macs. If you've only relatively recently switched to the Mac platform, this should not be an issue for you (its still a good idea to read on and check your system as described below anyway). If you've been using Macs for more than a couple of years it is very important that you check your critical apps and determine whether any of them are PowerPC-based. Here's how:

Select "About This Mac" from the Apple menu.
In the Window that appears, click the "More Info..." button. This will open the System Profiler app.
When the System Profiler window appears, scroll down and click "Applications" in the left column.
When the list of applications appears, click on the "Kind" column (you may need to scroll to the right or widen the window to see the column).

All your applications will be sorted by the type (kind) of application. Possible kinds include Classic (if you've been a real long-time Mac user), Intel, PowerPC and Universal. Classic apps will not run on Intel-based Macs without special emulation software, so unless you already use such software, you can ignore (and delete) these. The ones you need to pay attention to are the PowerPC ones. Go through the list and if there's anything in it that you know you need, you have two options:

Find an up-to-date Intel or Universal version or substitute.
Forget about Lion until you either do 1 above or no longer need to use the app.

OK, if you're still with me, it means that everything qualifies your Mac for Lion. There's one last hurdle. Unlike all previous versions of OS X (or any other operating system, for that matter), Lion is currently only distributed via internet download through the Mac App Store. In order to use the Mac App Store, you'll need an iTunes/App Store account (preferably for the US, but now available for T&T with limitations). You can create the account from within the iTunes app or the App Store app. Here are the basic requirements:

An e-mail address and password.
A US street address and phone number if you're creating the account for the US store, otherwise your local address and phone number.
A US-billed credit card for the US store or an iTunes Gift Card for either the US or local stores (we sell iTunes Gift Cards at Right Enterprises) or a locally billed credit card for the local store.

As noted above, Trinidad & Tobago has been added to the Mac App Store (for Mac apps) and iTunes Store (for iOS apps but not music, movies and TV shows). A US address, phone number and US-billed credit card are not required for a T&T account.

Once you've set this up you go to the Mac App Store application and purchase Lion (US$29.99). It will download and the installer will automatically launch. You can choose to install immediately, or you can quit the installer and install at a later time (you'll find the installer in your Mac's Applications folder). Apple will allow you "to download, install, use and run for personal, non-commercial use, one (1) copy of the Apple Software directly on each Apple-branded computer running Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server (“Mac Computer”) that you own or control" so, at US$29.99, that makes it a great deal!

The Lion installer app is big - almost 4.0GB. It will take a few hours to download, even on a fast internet connection, so initiate the download (the purchase from the App Store) only when you have the time to let it complete. If you're using a Mac laptop, you probably should leave it plugged into a power source so that the battery doesn't die while downloading.

A final point. Having downloaded it, I'd recommend that you create an installer DVD or other installer drive (flash, hard). There are lots of places on the net where you can find the instructions for this, including the link in the next paragraph, but you must do it before installing since after installation the installer is automatically deleted from your Mac's hard drive.

For more details on preparing for and installing Lion, as well as for creating an installer for other Macs, check out this article.

Enjoy Lion!

Gordon