You'll be seeing a lot of articles about Mountain Lion which was released this morning. See Apple's site with a 5 minute video about the 200+ features. Here's a USA Today's columnist's take on it. Jim Hamm sends us this link to author Galen Gruman's book. Now, he's installed it! "When Lion first came out, July 20, 2011, the very first day I downloaded and installed it. Not a good idea to do that the first day (let other people catch the problems), and I said "never again". Well, I must have a short memory, or not too smart (both, probably), because I just now did it again.

"I just finished downloading and installing Mountain Lion, and am using it now. Took 15 minutes to download and 20 minutes to install. When the install starts the screen says installing with 30 minutes, etc, remaining. As long as I can see the screen I feel comfortable that something is happening. Then, at some point, the screen goes dark. Uh oh, what's happening? A problem? The fans kick into high gear as the Mac seems to be heating up. I have to resist the temptation to start clicking keys to find out what is going on. Good sense prevails, and I do nothing but wait. Then, after 20 minutes, a screen appears, and I feel better.

"At first glance, everything looks and feels the same as before. All of my apps seem to be working, which surprises me — even Avast, the anti-virus program works. And even a nondescript program like Radium works, which is an internet radio station, and I'm listening to it now. Mountain Lion pops up a display box and mentions that programs that are not compatible will be listed in a folder on the hard drive. I checked, and only Avast needed to be re-authenticated. As I progress along I may find some surprises, but so far so good.

"Now I'll have to read the article to find out just what are the 25 'goodies' I got in Mountain Lion. Hope they're worth the $20 bucks..(grin)...." Jim

And now, from the Prez Art Gorski: "Personally, I'm going to wait a week or so before installing Mountain Lion to see if there are any critical flaws. But when I'm ready to install it, I'll refer to this guide:

"If it's not mentioned in these articles, make sure you do a complete backup of your hard drive first. Time Machine isn't good enough, I recommend making a bootable clone using the Carbon Copy Cloner app." Now, back to Jim Hamm who says, "Here is a very good, and simple to understand, review of the changes made in Mountain Lion. As the author states, the price is right and the upgrade process works well. No glitches observed yet -- by the author or me." Stay tuned for more info from our PMUG members: the Mountain Lion roars!