Mac OS X Lion has been released and can be downloaded and installed on existing Snow Leopard machines. I have a Mac laptop for communication, travel, etc. and a Mac desktop which is my primary data reduction/analysis machine. I have chosen to upgrade my laptop immediately and test some of the software I use everyday before upgrading my workhorse desktop. Below, I will describe my installation experience and the software I have tested so far. I will periodically update the post and add comments over the next few weeks.

OS X Lion is the next major release of OS X, the worldпїЅs most advanced desktop operating system. It includes over 250 new features that will transform how you interact with your Mac. Tap, swipe, and scroll your way through your apps using fluid Multi-Touch gestures that make everything you do feel more natural and direct. Full-screen apps take advantage of every pixel of your display пїЅ perfect for reading email, surfing the web, or browsing photos. Launchpad gives you instant access to all the apps on your Mac in a stunning new layout where you can quickly find any app and open it with a single click. And Mission Control brings together Expose, full-screen apps, Dashboard, and Spaces in one unified experience. With a gesture, your desktop zooms out, displaying a birdпїЅs-eye view of everything running on your Mac and making it easy to navigate anywhere with a click.

Cocktail is a general purpose utility for OS X that lets you clean, repair and optimize your Mac. It is a powerful digital toolset that helps hundreds of thousands of Mac users around the world get the most out of their computers every day.