Hopefully not a Mountain of Lion poop (to deal with)

I (temporarily?) return to my tech commentary roots on this blog, to observe that this is going to make next to no sense to the proverbial "Granny":

When OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" came out, it was easy to explain to any user what the system requirements were, for them to upgrade from previous versions (something any technology which SELLS software features wants them to do): 10.6 simply required an Intel processor and 1GB RAM.

Then 10.7 "Lion" muddied the waters a tad more, by requiring an Intel Core 2 Duo processor or higher, and 2GB RAM.  OK, still easy to say in a sentence, and as long as the listener is actually thinking about what they hear, there's a good chance they'll get it.

Now the notes on the Developer Release of 10.8 "Mountain Lion", the full version of which is due out some time late this summer, read like this: http://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/16/os-x-mountain-lion-drops-support-for-many-2006-2008-macs-with-integrated-graphics/

Did you get all that?  I'm not sure I did.  And it's changing.  Which is fair for a product not released yet.  In fact, I have to admit that as long as handled carefully, this shift in the way Apple handles the secrecy of their release schedule could be a good thing*.   I just hope this morass of legacy computers that will and won't be supported by 10.8 gets clearer, because I can tell you from personal experience that confusion is just about the most frustrating thing possible, for computer consumers.

Now, Apple could have been trying to "C" their "A" a bit in 10.7, by putting the name of the model (and time of year released) in the first screen of System Information† a lot easier to find than Model Identifier, which doesn't say anything, but a technician can identify, in the old System Profiler in 10.6§.

Somehow though, that seems like (to extend the metaphor) updating Granny's prescription on her glasses, when the real trouble is she's got cataracts.  Hopefully Apple finds a way to help her clear those up, before 10.8 gets released.  Apple tends to make products look amazing.  Let's make sure 10.8 can look amazing to Granny too, or at least that her upgrade path clears up.

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* Read more on this, at http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/02/16/mac_os_x_mountain_lion_release_signals_shift_in_secrecy_at_apple.html

† System Information is an app available when you select "About this Mac" under the Apple Menu, and then click on the "More Info" button in the new window that comes up.

§ The functionality of System Profiler is still available under 10.7, if under that second "About This Mac" window that came up in System Information, you click on the "System Report" button near the bottom of the window.