http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/07/24/apple-to-release-new-mac-operating-system-mountain-lion-wednesday/

They're running out of lion names...

I'm sticking with Snow Leopard for now. It works well for me and does what I want. As I have no iDevices or FB account, most of Lion's and ML's features are not very necessary for me.

then I might switch over.

I'm just saying...

Think I will wait - as Copernicus would surely advise -- a couple of weeks to see how this ML goes down...

John Siracusa, Ars Technica
The Mac is a platform in transition. In Lion, OS X began shedding the well-worn trappings of traditional desktop computing at an accelerated rate. This trend continues in Mountain Lion. Where Lion stumbled, Mountain Lion regroups and tries again—while still forging bravely ahead in other areas.

As the second major refinement-focused release, it's easy to view OS X 10.8 as "what 10.7 should have been." The flip side of this argument is that the real-world mileage we’ve all put on Lion has helped Apple make the right kinds of adjustments in Mountain Lion. If we'd had to wait for two years after 10.6 for the next major release of OS X, chances are good that the worst of the missteps in Lion would just be landing on our doorsteps today. I'll take 10.8, thanks.

Jason Snell, Macworld
All told, I found Mountain Lion to be a stable, solid release. Even prerelease builds were far more stable than I’ve come to expect from OS X betas, leading me to wonder if Apple’s new annual schedule is leading to more careful incremental updates (with fewer bugs) rather than great leaps (with more, nastier bugs).

Nilay Patel, The Verge
Ultimately, this is pretty easy: you should spend the $20 and upgrade to Mountain Lion, especially if you have a newer Mac. You’ll gain a handful of must-have features, and everything will get faster and smoother. I haven’t really missed Snow Leopard at all since upgrading, which is remarkable considering how much I disliked Lion.

more...

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/07/25/roundup-of-os-x-mountain-lion-reviews-faster-and-smoother-incremental-bargain-at-twice-the-price

member of the cat family is that?

You can install straight over Snow Leopard. It's Leopard (10.5x) or earlier that complicates things.

Back up first, of course.

I like the smart search in Safari.

Seems snappier.

doesn't work

I had to wait for a few days - I had my brother download the installer at my cousin's place since it only took an hour there opposed to the 25 or so it would take here.