Mac OS X Lion has just entered in the world and many Mac lovers have already upgraded their Mac and others are almost dying to upgrade the operating system. Hope most of the users have done the primary updations in snow leopard, processors, hardware etc. for smooth transition. For the users who are planing to upgrade, please finish your initial step fast (For the full initial step guide, read: Before Upgrading to OS X Lion…) and then following compatibility issues:
According to Apple, to install Mac OS X Lion you will need:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor;
OS: Latest version Snow leopard (10.6.8).
Free Space: Minimum 4 GB
OS X Lion do not support PowerPC its actually made for Intel based Mac. However, last version of Mac OS X i.e. Snow Leopard also made for Intel based processors but users can also use the applications which are PowerPC based using the translator software called Rosetta . This was one relief program given by Apple for the users who have recently upgraded to Intel and having applications of the PowerPC. But the latest launch i.e. OS X Lion is fully Intel based OS which do not support rosetta. So all those applications users using with the help of rosetta will become inaccessible with Lion.
It is necessary to check the compatibility of applications before up gradation to Lion OS X. To do so: Click on Apple Icon -> More Info and this will highlight the category of software under it. Collect all the “Applications” labeled with PowerPC and it is nice idea to search for similar third party utility which supports Intel based processor and install it before they become inaccessible in Lion.
For home users, free space requirement may be one of the biggest challenges. It is suggested to have 10 GB free space for the hassle free installation. However its installer need minimum of 4 GB the disk space.
Last but not lease point is check if the FileVault is disable! If it is not, do the same because with Apple is launching full version of file vault i.e. Filevault2 with OS X Lion. Apple used XTS-AES 128 encryption in Fillevault2 to keep your whole data (including system files, user files and anything else) more secure so if anyone has stolen your Mac then without your password, not even single applications or system configuration files can be accessed & used by an unwanted third party or thief.
Above all before finally clicking “Install”, check the backup drive for the latest backup updated. Make sure all important data is present in backup. Check trusted Mac data recovery software present near the Mac for extra precaution so that you can fight with data loss that could happen during software update and after satisfying yourself go for installation of Mac OS X Lion from Mac Apps store.