Apple’s “solution” of disabling Java on versions prior to Snow Leopard isn’t realistic for users that still intend to keep their Mac on the Internet, since web-based Java is still popular, especially for proprietary corporate applications. If you are on a Leopard (10.5) or older system, Apple’s solution means that you could try to enable Java only while you are using websites that require it and then immediately turn it off afterward (a common example of usage is for remote control programs such as GotoMyPC and Logmein). To be fully secure though, the better solution is to upgrade your OS. However, upgrading your Mac’s OS could introduce incompatibilities with existing software that will require further costs to upgrade. Plus, if a user hasn’t upgraded to Snow Leopard — an admittedly old OS — yet, they may have a good reason for doing so.

Apple updates its operating system at a much faster pace than Microsoft. Leopard was superseded by Snow Leopard in August 2009 and Windows XP was superseded by Vista in November 2006, yet Microsoft is still providing critical security updates for XP until April 2014. Microsoft is providing more security updates for more versions of their operating system while Apple is starting to abandon users after less than three years.

To be fair, a majority of Mac users have already moved to either Snow Leopard or Lion, according to estimates from Net Market Share so most Mac users will be protected from this security flaw after installing Apple’s latest updates. Windows XP, meanwhile, is still on a majority of PCs according to that same study, even though its successor, Windows 7, was released in July 2009. Microsoft is doing this right by continuing to provide security updates for its older operating systems, which sort of makes sense given Microsoft’s constant battle with malware over the years. But Apple isn’t.

With Apple’s accelerated OS release cycle, leaving Leopard’s Java security unsupported after less than three years is unfair to users and a potential class action lawsuit waiting to happen since Apple’s extended warranty (AppleCare) is designed to support the Mac for three years. That MacBook you bought in May 2009 has a problem that Apple knows about, and Apple’s solution is to simply disable portions of the OS provided by Apple for your computer.

At the very least, Apple should be required to either patch a security flaw in any computer still under AppleCare or provide a free update to a currently supported version like they are doing for MobileMe users. Two years is simply too short of an upgrade cycle to expect users to keep up with in order to maintain the security of their systems.

If Apple continues this “current and previous version” approach towards security, Snow Leopard users are going to miss out on security updates when Mountain Lion 10.8 comes out this summer, only two years after they upgraded to Snow Leopard. Apple needs to step up to the plate and provide security updates for at least three years — otherwise Mac users could be more secure wiping an older Mac OS on that Intel-based Mac and installing Windows XP instead! At least then they’ll have until April 2014 before their computer turns into an unsecured ticking time bomb.

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Fusion 4 ships with Lion-specific features, and the ability to officially run a virtualized OS X machine for the first time, something which was introduced to virtualization rival Parallels with that software’s latest release. You can run either a Lion, Lion Server, Snow Leopard or Snow Leopard server virtualized machine using Fusion 4, which could be very useful if you’ve upgraded to Lion but want to use Snow Leopard to access software or features that you miss from the older version of OS X.

Of course, you can still also install Windows on a Mac using Fusion 4, and VMware has added a bunch of features that make using Windows right inside your OS X desktop even more seamless. For instance, you can add Windows apps to Launchpad, managed them as separate application windows in Mission Control, and also use them in full-screen mode and with OS X gestures.

Other advantages new to the latest version of Fusion include significant performance improvements, with VMware claiming 2.5x faster 3-D graphics on contemporary multicore Macs, as well as general improvements to how virtualized apps perform running side-by-side with native ones. You can check out the full list of changes in VMware Fusion 4 via the official site.

Some people prefer Parellels, and some VMware Fusion, but Fusion 4 offers a significant advantage for existing fans and switchers alike; a much cheaper price tag. Right now, Fusion 4 is available at a promotional price of $49.99, which compares very favorably to the $79.99 that Parallels is charging. Fusion customers who bought version 3 on or after July 20, 2011 are also eligible for a free upgrade.

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Apple’s latest desktop operating system, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, is doing well in its early days, nearing the almost four-year old OS X 10.5 Leopard in popularity, according to new OS market share numbers released Thursday by Net Applications. Mac OS X 10.5 Snow Leopard, released in mid-2009, is still the most popular version of the Apple desktop operating system out there with 3.46 of the overall market.

In just a month since its release, Lion has a 1.03 percent share of the overall desktop OS picture, while Leopard is still in use by 1.17 percent of Internet visitors, 160 million of which are the source of the Net Applications data. Snow Leopard and Leopard both gave ground to the newer operating system, dropping from 4 and 1.24 percent percent shares respectively in August, while Lion’s cut rose from just 0.33 percent.

When compared to the adoption of previous new versions of OS X, Lion adoption is already ahead of the curve. Snow Leopard, for example, saw only 0.78 percent share after its first full month of availability, passing 1 percent during its second month on the market. Both cost $29.99 on release, but the difference this time could be the digital distribution of Lion through the Mac App Store, which may have led more customers to upgrade earlier. At the very least, it shows that opting for the App Store as a primary delivery vehicle for major software upgrades (albeit with pricey physical media backup options) isn’t having a negative effect on Lion adoption.

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The tiny flash drive carries a full copy of OS X Lion so that you can install and reinstall OS X and access disk utility without an Internet connection. This could come in handy for customers who feel left out of Apple’s bold new future of digital-only distribution.

Still, $69 is a lot to pay for a product that Apple is selling for $29.99 on the Mac App Store. But Apple likely has at least a couple of very good reasons for charging more: First, the cost of a wide-distribution physical format probably wasn’t factored into Lion’s pricing prior to launch, and second, Apple would much rather customers shop through the Mac App Store, since it clearly has a lot invested in the idea that digital distribution is the future (that’s the whole point behind the Mac App Store, after all).

At least users can take comfort in the fact that the thumb drive version of Lion carries the same far-reaching licensing conditions as does the digital version, meaning you can install OS X on any “Macs you own or control running Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Snow Leopard Server.” Just note that if you install Lion using the USB drive, you won’t be able to use Lion Recovery to reinstall your system.

What do you think of the Lion USB drive and its price tag?

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1. The “best fit” solution

Most won’t have a cloned backup of their drive on hand, I’m guessing. The good news is that performing a clean wipe and install is a good idea for general maintenance of your Mac. The bad news is that in this case, you really have no choice. Here’s how to save what you can and get back to Snow Leopard, provided you have a Snow Leopard install disc (including the one that came with your computer, if it’s a recent purchase). This method also erases the emergency recovery partition Lion automatically installs.

1. Backup your User folders to an external drive. This should preserve your documents, photos, music, etc. If you store those things in locations not in the User folder, make sure to copy those over too.
2. Insert the Snow Leopard disc. Restart your Mac and hold down C to boot to your DVD drive.
3. Go to Utilities in the menu bar once the installer pops up and select “Disk Utility.”
4. Find the drive in the sidebar where Lion is installed, select it and navigate to the Partition tab.
5. Click on the drop down menu under Partition Layout and select “1 Partition.” Hit Apply.
6. Now navigate to the Erase tab and make sure “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” is selected, then hit Erase to delete all data on the drive.
7. Quit Disk Utility to get back to the Snow Leopard installer and proceed with the install.
8. Restore your User folder and documents from your backup.
9. Run Software Update to get everything current, install your apps from your original install media and update those as well.

2. The “best case” solution

If you managed to clone your drive (Dave describes how in this recent piece) before you installed Lion, which you should do if you haven’t yet taken the plunge, then you can get everything back the way it was.

A popular option for cloning your drive is Carbon Copy Cloner, which is a handy utility to have for any Mac owner. Assuming you’ve done that, follow the directions above to get your drive primed and ready, but stop at step 6 and follow these instructions instead.

Now you’re ready to install Snow Leopard from your Carbon Copy Cloner backup. Here’s how to do it:

1. Attach the drive containing your CCC clone to your Mac.
2. Open System Preferences, then go to the Startup Disk preference pane.
3. Chose your CCC external drive as the startup disk.
4. Restart and launch CCC, then choose your backup from the “source” menu.
5. Select your Mac’s internal drive as the destination.
6. Chose “Restore items from a backup” from the settings pop-up menu and hit the “Clone” button.

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Apple is off to a roaring good start with sales of its newest operating system. On Thursday the company announced that it had already sold 1 million copies of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion since it went on sale Wednesday morning. Already the company is saying that “users are buying Lion faster than any other OS release in Apple’s history.”

Now, Apple didn’t offer any numbers back when Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was released in August 2009 that can be looked to for a comparison. But the pace of Lion sales does indicate that the way it’s delivering the new OS is going over pretty well.

Apple has chosen a nontraditional way of distributing a major desktop OS release: through the Mac App Store, which officially opened for business in January. Of course, for most Apple customers, buying software that way isn’t all that new: For the past three years the iOS App Store has been hooked up to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

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Ready to ditch discs?

Apple is putting a lot of faith in the fact that its customers are ready to leave physical install media behind, and instead wholly embrace a digital distribution model. That’s the whole idea behind the Mac App Store, of course, and it has worked out very well for mobile software with the original App Store for iOS devices. But will Mac users be willing to take it to the next level, and welcome digital delivery even for that most essential software component, the core desktop operating system?

Our recent poll on the subject indicates that many will be upgrading, and that most will do so as soon as the 10.7 update becomes available. Only a tiny 3.4 percent of all those surveyed didn’t plan on upgrading at all. Those results favor Apple’s decision pretty highly, but they also probably aren’t a terribly accurate representation of the population at large, since our readership here at GigaOM tends to lean toward the early adopter end of the spectrum.

The old barriers, and some new ones

Typically, new operating systems are greeted cautiously by consumers. For example, take a look at the chart below, taken from a Net Applications report on OS market share in May. It shows the trajectory of Apple’s last few major OS updates, and you can see that adoption of each tends to start relatively slow and grow steadily over their lifetime. People can be hesitant about major OS changes, since it’s the software they depend on most heavily, and unfamiliarities necessitate an adjustment period some would rather not deal with. But Apple may be setting itself up for a lower than normal initial pool of upgraders, because Lion is digital-only, and because it requires 10.6.8, the most recent update, to be installed.

Because OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is already so well represented among OS X users, it’s good for Lion’s prospects. Installing Lion requires the Mac App Store, which is only available for Macs using Snow Leopard, but a good number of Macs should fall into the category of those technically able to upgrade.

We’ve also talked about the risk Apple is taking with regard to customers who may have poor Internet connections, or severely restricted bandwidth allowances for their home connections. Some reports suggest Apple might get around that for some notebook users by offering Apple Store wireless as a means to download the update, but that’s not a practical solution for everyone.

Digital supply and demand

Apple has also had hiccups with major digital software launches in the past. Download speeds have been slow for past iPhone OS (now known as iOS) launches, and in some cases demand brought Apple servers down for extended periods. Apple now has a new data center facility which should help alleviate the strain, but at around 4 GB per copy, Lion stands a chance of causing a strain on the Mac App Store servers as early adopters rush to grab it.

The Lion launch, whether it comes next week as rumored or later on, could represent a major turning point in how we approach software distribution. But there’s also a small chance that it could turn out to be a moment when consumers say “we’re not ready for this just yet,” sort of like what pro users have been saying about Final Cut Pro X. Which way do you think the wind will blow?

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If you can’t wait to try out some of Lion’s new features, but don’t have access to the developer preview, I’ve got good news: You can get many of Lion’s features in Snow Leopard using third-party apps, tweaks and downloads.

Lion theme and wallpapers

If you want the new look of Lion, there are already several themes for Snow Leopard that mimic it. One from deviantART user Lukeedee has to be my favorite, though. To use it, you’ll need to install ThemePark, a free theme editing app for OS X. You’ll also need to download the theme itself, of course. To apply the theme, open the “Aqua Lion” file in ThemePark and hit the “Apply Theme” button, and then log out and log back in.

To get the old look back, open ThemePark, go to “Theme “in the menu bar and choose “Revert to Aqua.”

You can make the theme even more convincing by downloading Lion’s new wallpapers, courtesy of deviantART user lordalpha1.

Launchpad

Lion’s Launchpad provides an easy way to access every app on your system. The closest thing to this on Snow Leopard is an app called QuickPick. QuickPick also has a few extra things that Launchpad doesn’t, such as the ability to launch files, and the ability to launch apps with keyboard shortcuts.

AirDrop

Lion’s AirDrop integrates into the Finder and makes it easy to share files with other users on your wireless network. There’s a free app called DropCopy which provides much of the same functionality. DropCopy doesn’t integrate with the Finder like AirDrop does; instead, it places a movable “drop zone” on the user’s desktop. The user simply drags a file to the drop zone, where they can choose to share it with any Mac on their network that’s also running DropCopy.

DropCopy has some advantages over the minimalistic AirDrop. There are DropCopy apps available for iOS, so you can share files with your mobile devices. DropCopy doesn’t require a password to transfer files, and it also has the ability to send text messages to each Mac it’s connected to, which is pretty handy.

Indicator-less Dock

By default, Lion’s Dock hides the indicator lights that show which apps are running, signaling a shift to the way multitasking works on iOS. Removing the indicators in Snow Leopard is fairly straightforward:

1. Open /System/Library/Core Services/ in Finder and find the file named “Dock”.
2. Right click on the file and choose “Show Package Contents”.
3. Open the Contents folder, and then the Resources folder.
4. Copy every file that has “indicator” in its name to another folder for safe keeping, then move them to the Trash. You can do a spotlight search in the Finder window to find them.
5. Restart the Dock by opening Terminal (/Applications/Utilities) and running the command “killall Dock”. The Dock will disappear for a second, then come back up with the indicators gone.

If you want the indicators back, select the indicator files from the backup location you copied them to, and copy them back to the location where you first found them, enter your password, and then restart the Dock with the Terminal again.

Reverse scrolling

In Lion, scrolling is reversed, so you push content the way you want it to go, like on iOS. There’s a free app called Scroll Reverser that reverses the scrolling on Snow Leopard, so you can get a feel for this before it arrives. Don’t worry, even if you can’t get used to it, Apple offers a way to reverse it in Lion.

Safari 5.1

A lot of the improvements in Safari 5.1 are Lion-only, like the new downloads manager and iOS-like gestures. However, a lot of these improvements are also coming to Snow Leopard, including Reading List and many under the hood tweaks. Fair warning, though: Once you install the Safari 5.1 beta, you can’t go back to a previous version.

The beta is available for registered developers at Apple’s dev center, and you can register as a developer for free. Resourceful non-developers can likely find a way to download it, as well, but be forewarned that you do so at your own risk.

Are there any other tweaks that can make our snow cat purr like the king of the jungle? Tell us about them in the comments.

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No word on what specific changes have been made to the Mac App Store, but they’re probably designed to optimize the delivery of OS X Lion, which will be available exclusively through Apple’s official Mac software distribution channel as a 4 GB download. The fact that Apple mentions upgrade preparation specifically in the update notes for 10.6.8, combined with Lion’s announced July arrival time frame, indicates that this will likely be the last minor point update for Snow Leopard prior to 10.7′s release.

Other things the update offers include resolving a Preview problem that was causing unexpected applications quits, and a fix for importing some types of media into Final Cut Pro. Also, frustrated Lisbon-Portugal iCal users should no longer have a problem with timezones. Check out the full list of fixes and changes at Apple’s official support site.

Happy downloading, and as always, let us know if you encounter any problems with the update.

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The beginning: 10.0 Cheetah

Cheetah was the first release of OS X. It featured the new Aqua user interface, which at the time was quite the visual upgrade for OS 9 users. Despite being named for the fastest land animal, Cheetah was fairly slow, eliciting complaints from many Mac users. Theoretically, it was supposed to be more stable than OS 9 since it was based on Unix, but in reality ,it had many fatal bugs that would cause system crashes. Even with its flaws, Cheetah was a good base upon which to build the future of the Mac platform.

Gradual improvement: 10.1 Puma

Puma was released a little less than a year after Cheetah. It was a free upgrade, as it was meant to fix bugs and performance issues in its predecessor. However, there were still bugs and missing features, and the Aqua user interface remained largely unchanged. Many Mac users said it still wasn’t fully developed enough to use full-time. But it was getting there.

More gradual improvement: 10.2 Jaguar

Jaguar featured more stability and speed improvements, bringing it up to the point where users started changing their minds about running OS X full-time. It also featured a revamped Finder, Quartz Extreme, network support for Windows computers, and more.

I like my metal brushed: 10.3 Panther

Panther was the first OS X release that couldn’t run on some older PowerPC-based Macs, such as the earlier G3s. Like its predecessors, it included numerous revisions and fixes, and also introduced us to Exposé, iChat AV, the Safari web browser, and, everyone’s favorite, the brushed-metal Finder.

Leaving the past behind: 10.4 Tiger

Tiger was the first OS X version that was released much more than a year after its predecessor — 18 months, to be exact. As such, it included an advertised 150+ improvements, including Spotlight, Dashboard, Automator, Mail 2, Safari RSS, QuickTime 7, and more. Tiger also represented a sea-change for OS X, as version 10.4.4 was capable of running on both PowerPC and Intel processors, bringing about Apple’s transition to Intel’s architecture.

X in space!: 10.5 Leopard

If Tiger was late, Leopard was worse, coming out two and a half years after Tiger. The delays were worth it though, as Leopard was advertised as having twice as many new features as Tiger, including a revamped Aqua interface, Time Machine, Spaces, Stacks, Quick Look, 64-bit support, and more. Leopard also did away with the Classic emulation layer, taking away the ability to run OS 9 apps on PowerPC-based Macs.

A new foundation: 10.6 Snow Leopard

Snow Leopard, the current version of OS X, was released almost two years after Leopard, and was all about architectural improvements to the platform, rather than new user-oriented features. It included a complete rewrite of the Finder in Cocoa, a new version of QuickTime, and minor changes to several other core Mac apps. Under the hood, Snow Leopard introduced Grand Central and OpenCL, and was the first release of OS X to run core apps as 64-bit by default.

The future: 10.7 Lion

And that brings us to the newest edition to the Mac OS X family: Lion. Lion includes many changes that bring it up to date with concepts introduced in its mobile cousin, iOS, including Mission Control, Launchpad, Resume, Versions, AirDrop, full-screen apps, and a new user interface that makes a clean break from the glossy days of Aqua. Plus, for the first time ever, OS X goes digital-only delivery with Lion, which might be its single most influential change.

Do you miss brushed metal and translucent title bars? Share your memories of past versions of Mac OS X in the comments.

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