shownotes_MCM20110713

Do you have the right stuff?
  Check the system requirements and make sure your hardware is ready
    At least an Intel Core 2 Duo Mac
    2 GB of RAM
    10 GB of free hard disk space
    Mac OS X 10.6.6 or greater installed
    Not ALL Lion features will work on all system. Likely older systems might have some GPU intensive things turned down
  How to check your specs
    Click the 'Apple' menu and choose 'About this Mac'
      Check version, processor, and memory
      Processor should say Core 2 Duo, Xeon, or anything in the Core iX series. Core Solo or Core Duo (without the "2") are out.
    MacTracker is another great app for getting specs
    Processor will be pretty much anything made late 2006 (after August) or later
      Mac Pro : August 2006 or later
      iMac: September 2006 or later
      MacBook Pro: October 2006 or later
      MacBook: November 2006 or later
      Mac Mini: August 2007 or later
    While 2 GB is the minimum for RAM, consider an upgrade to at least 4GB
      4 GB upgrade kits starting around $50 USD depending on model.
      Crucial
      Other World Computing
    Probably want more headroom than 10GB of space for install.
      OWC is a good place too if you need a new hard drive
  Is your software ready, too?
    Make sure to check that all apps are Universal or Intel, now PowerPC (Rossetta)
      Option + Click 'Apple' in menu and choose 'System Profiler…'
      Set 'View'-->'Full Profile'
      Under 'Software' in the left column select 'Applications'
      Sort by the 'Kind' column and look for 'Power PC'
      You can select an item in the main window and see it's 'Location' (path) in the bottom pane.
      Do the same thing for 'Extensions'.
    Also note that while some Applications might have been updated to Universal their installers might not have been. If you plan on clean installing apps you'll want to check that with the manufacturer.
      Particularly important for older print driver installers.
Prepare the deck for launch
  Free up disk space
    Do a review of your Applications folder, Preference Panes, menubar items, login items, etc.
    Do you really need all that crud?
    I have a copy of AppFresh that seems to still work and can show 'Last Used', but hasn't been updated since 2009
    Finding large files
      Use Spotlight
        In Finder select your drive from the 'Devices'
        Choose File-->Find from the menu (Command+F)
        Next to 'Search:' select the drive instead of 'This Mac'
        From the search parameters drop down choose 'Other;' and then find and select 'Size' and click OK
        Set the options to 'Size' 'Greater than' and then set the value to find the larger files (say 100 - 500 MB or greater)
        Select an item and check the path at the bottom of the window to see it's location (View-->Show Path Bar)
      PathFinder
      Omni DiskSweeper
      Grand Perspective
      Disk Daisy
      WhatSize
  Update your stuff
    Run software update on Snow Leopard and make sure your OS and Apple apps are up to date
    Update your 3rd party apps, etc.
    RoaringApps has a community updated list
  Check and prep your drive
    Run Disk Utility and make sure there are no errors
    Could also use 3rd party tools to check
      Drive Genius
      Tech Tool Pro
    If there are issues detected with your drive
      See if you repair them
      For more serious issues you could try a tool like Disk Warrior
      Consider maybe replacing the drive. Not a bad idea if the drive is more than 3 years old.
        Note that most drive fail at either end of their life, so a new drive can also fail. That's why we backup.
    I also like to run maintenance like clearing the cache, rotating log files, etc.
      Cocktail
      Onyx
  Backup, backup, backup
    You should have at lest one (likely two) full backups of your current set-up.
      Time Machine counts
      Super Duper
      Carbon Copy Cloner
    Verify your backup
      Can you boot from it?
      Can you copy and read files off it.
      Confirm you can restore files form your Time Machine
Disable whole disk encryption
  If you use File Vault or other whole disk encryption turn it off.
Bring home your new kitty
  Lion will be purchased via the Mac App Store
    $29.99 USD (10 computers). $49.99 for Lion Server
    Must have Snow Leopard installed, so buy now if you need it.
  The download will be 4GB, so be prepared if you are on a slow connection
    May want to borrow a faster connection, get on public wi-fi to do the download.
Other things to know
  Lion and the Mouse
    Will work fine with a mouse, but has new gesture based features that take advantage of the trackpad
    If you care about those and don't own a Macbook or Macbook Pro it might be time to invest in a Magic Trackpad
  Do you want to upgrade day 1?
    In addition to being a major new OS…
    The whole process for installing Lion is new.
    If you rely on your system for critical day to day tasks you may be wise to wait.
      If you have to have the latest and greatest consider getting a second drive to install and play with (dual boot).
  Emergency booting
    Lion will set aside an emergency boot partition that you can boot from
    There are early reports of ways to hack together a boot DVD or USb stick, but so far no Apple sanctioned way of doing this
  Clean install
    For now the process looks like doing a clean install of Snow Leopard, applying SL updates, and then applying the Lion upgrade over that.
    Be careful of Rosetta based app installers