Upgrading to OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion et al

I have a mid-2010 macbook pro and on it I had Snow Leopard OSX 10.6.8

I had skipped OSX 10.7 Lion

The main reason for opting for an upgrade were : XCoding, iClouding, curiosity, and some new apps, etc... 

Some features like AirPlay Mirroring, Power Nap are not supported for my mac. 

But I guess I can live with that. 

Check specs here 

http://www.apple.com/ca/osx/specs/

Check how to upgrade here

http://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/

Basic Steps are quite simple as follows:

1. Upgrade to OSX 10.6.8 if you have Snow Leopard. If you have OSX Lion you can go to next step
2. Backup using Time Machine
3. Download OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion from App Store
4. Follow the simple instructions to upgrade
5. Restart and check whether your apps are running or not
6. Install Apple Java for OSX if you have apps which rely on Java
7. Install iCloud options

It was quite a marathon experience.

Time Machine backup

Was I glad that I took a backup before upgrading... Time Machine is a great time saver and backup plan. I am really happy with this ...

Downloading OSX & Upgrading

I had a slow internet broadband connection which broke down a few times. After a harrowing 3 days, and, nearing completion of the download - I left it for an overnite completion. When I woke up, I noticed that the download was starting from the beginning ... I stopped the download, shutdown the mac and tried to restart. My Mac would not restart ... it just hung...

So I inserted the Mac OSX installation disc that came with mac and restored my backup from Time Machine option ... that was a relief ...

I went for a faster broadband connection and this time the download got done in a few hours

Upgrading

This was very simple ... and got done in about 40 min.

Checking my apps

Many Apps are working.

For the Java apps, I downloaded and installed Apple Java for OSX from here

 http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1515/ 

(Maybe the Java update should have been included with Mountain Lion)

Some beautiful apps like EverNote, Flux4, etc did not work.  I have raised tickets/informed the respective App owners / Apple ... Should be a matter of time before the fix is done ... 
Temporary work around for EverNote - use the web version.


Resolved the above by re-downloading OSX Mountain Lion (time consuming) and reinstalling OSX Mountain Lion.
Still testing but looking good ...

Installing iCloud

Apple recommends you use your iTunes Apple ID

http://www.apple.com/icloud/setup/mac.html/

It is simple but for photo streaming it asked for an update of iPhoto. I have iLife 09 (iPhoto, iMovie, Garage Band) which was free with my mac. It now looks like I may have to upgrade to iLife 11 which appears to be $15 x 3 = $45

Installing X11

Mountain Lion does not include this. If you have apps like inkScape, wireShark, etc then you need X11.

here is the link for X11 or rather XQuartz http://xquartz.macosforge.org/landing/

Note about downloads from App Store

Installables go to /Applications 

Wish List

1. Java update should be included with Mountain Lion upgrade
2. App Store Apps should allow for reinstall (unless I am missing something ...)
3. Out of the two: Spaces and Expose, I am going to miss Spaces the most ...(on my 13” mac)...
4. X11 should be included with Mountain Lion upgrade

more Later ...?