[asciimov]

2009 marked the last year of good Operating System releases with both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard shipping that summer. After this point, bloat became good, non-flat design became bad, and existing system apps started to be replaced with buggy alternatives.

[grishka]

Lion did introduce the notification center, the one feature that was truly long overdue. I don't miss Growl.

[Wowfunhappy]

Lion was a bad release filled with bugs, but it introduced a lot of features I don't think I could live without. Things like high DPI support, the ability to render emoji (!), and the ability to rename a document from an app's title bar. Behind the scenes, Lion is when Apple introduced Automatic Reference Counting. And, while I know they're controversial, I really like how Apple implemented full screen and auto saving, particularly after the Apple tweaked them in Mountain Lion.

Mountain Lion went a long way towards fixing Lion's problems, and Mavericks just about finished the job. Which is why I run Mavericks. The only remaining Lion things I really dislike are the Launchpad, the hidden Library folder, and some minor-ish aesthetic differences. I've patched some of these.

[icybox]

Hi Wowfunhappy, you got me thinking. Like ... really thinking. So, to cut long story short, I've installed Maverics in a VM to do a short & free PoC, how much would I like this "retro" experience with iWork, iLife and friends. Turns out, very much! So I've grabbed a refurbished mac mini from 2012 and now I'm running Maverics on real hardware and absolutely love it! I've even patched the snow leopard window controls, so I'm one happy camper! Thank you!!!

[grishka]

> Behind the scenes, Lion is when Apple introduced Automatic Reference Counting.

Hm. I've never written anything serious for Apple platforms but of course played around for a bit. But, I've always assumed ARC is implemented purely in the compiler, isn't it? I remember disassembling something I wrote and learning that the compiler inserted retain/release calls as necessary.

> Which is why I run Mavericks.

Actually, I ran Mavericks for several years after it was superseded. I was made fun of by some people (who complained about glitchy WiFi on Yosemite, lol). Had to finally update when I got a new job and needed to compile an iOS app, which required latest Xcode, which required latest macOS. Then I stayed on Mojave for like 2 more years, refusing to update to Catalina to keep using 32-bit apps. And then several months ago I bought an M1 Max MacBook, which means Monterey.

[Wowfunhappy]

I don't really understand how ARC works, but I can tell you it's tied into the OS somehow.

ARC does partially work on Snow Leopard, but only for 64-bit, and it's limited (namely, you can't use weak references).