For once, determined not to be a too early adopter, I didn’t buy and install the new Apple OS on the day it was released. I managed to hold out for two days.

At just $29.99 (give or take R200), it was hard to resist Lion, despite the 3.5GB download. So far, I’m glad I took the plunge.

The first image greeting you post-install is a bizarre graphic of two fingers repeatedly moving up and down the trackpad, to show you “natural scrolling” – a controversial touchscreen-like scroll which reverses the way you use a touchpad. To be honest, it’s fairly easy to get used to it, particularly if you use an iPhone or iPad, but can be frustrating if moving between different (non-Lion) computers.

At first glance, Lion looks remarkably similar to Snow Leopard, but with a more muted colour scheme and two useful additions to the dock: Launchpad, an iPad-like display of all your apps; and Mission Control, to reveal all open apps. In the new minimalist display, scrollbars are frustratingly invisible by default, but you can easily change that setting.

I look forward to trying AirDrop, a feature using Wi-Fi to quickly and easily transfer files between nearby Lion computers, and to discovering more of the touted “250 new features”.