Please note this is not a review and is not intended as a guide in any way shape or form...it's just some random notes on things I discovered whilst getting ready to install Mountain Lion and on starting to use it.

Getting Ready

1. You should look at this page on How to Make a Bootable OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion USB Install Drive or look at this application (Lion Disk Maker) before you install Mountain Lion. I prefer to have a DVD of each OS to keep and so first tried Lion Disk Maker but it failed to function (note, it was a release candidate version of the app and appears to have had one update since I tried) so I ended up taking the more hands-on approach to burn a DVD. You'll need a dual layer (8Gb) DVD and be warned that the DVD is very slow to boot up once you create it...so you might want to consider the USB stick approach instead.

2. Screen Casts Online has created a superb free to view tutorial about Installing OS X Mountain Lion that I urge you to watch before hand

3. As always, Ars Technica has an incredibly detailed review of Mountain Lion. Interestingly, the author has also posted details on other ways you can view the review and support him and the site. The ePub version is a massive 117 pages long and worth every cent!

4. Roaring Apps have also updated their superb Application Compatibility Chart

5. If you really want to keep up-to-date with all your software, I recommend the superb AppFresh for checking if there are updates available to software. It seems to catch more updates than CNET's TechTracker, although both sometimes show inaccurate updates. AppFresh has just turned commercial it would seem and is for sale at $9.99 USD at the moment....I think that's a bit much, but the exchange rate makes it great at the moment.

After almost a week of using Lion I confess I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. I'm wishing I had stuck with Snow Leopard in many ways and am in fact turning many options back to act more like they did on Snow Leopard. These are just some random (actually very random) notes from things I discovered.

• I would strongly advise you to create a bootable DVD of the install. Do this once you download the installer, but before you apply it. Learn how to do it here
• Have your serial numbers for software handy. Some software will treat it you like it's the first day of install and prompt you for serial numbers (Snapz Pro for example)
• Try to be as up-to-date with everything before installing Lion. I had to update a number of apps (like my M$ intelligent mouse) because the version installed didn't seem to work once Lion was installed
• Safari - They seem to have killed off the download window. I truly hate that!
• "All my files" as the top item in the side menu. Why can't I access the HD from there? Learn how to get rid of it here
• Where is the little icon to get the left side menu to appear in a window that has just a title bar? I understand it is called the Lozenge and the fix (though it's not really a fix) is here...and is also mentioned here
• The last link also provided a fix for my mouse issues. I have an M$ mouse and the scrolling was reversed. I couldn't find the setting mentioned, so I had to plug in my Apple mouse to then untick the setting.
• The link also provides a fix for disappearing sidebars.
• I really don't like the way that 1Password now looks and behaves. The company say they might fix it in the future, but the changes don't seem welcome (check out the comments)
• I was really impressed that when I logged into my Google Apps For Your Domain account, Safari asked me if I wanted to use that Gmail account with Mail, iCal and iChat. Very clever, but sadly it didn't work properly. It's probably because I don't have a Gmail account, but Google Apps Gmail account
• Apple Mail can't import from Microsoft Outlook for the Mac...grrrr!!
• iCal and the Address book - yuck! They look awful on a large iMac screen
• Don't like the fact that the bottom of the Window doesn't have any real estate or the ability to tell you how much space you have left? This page has the fix
• Ars Technica (yet again) do a superb review of Lion
• Versions is very cool !!
• A couple of glitches