The problem with scrolling in Lion is not so much that it's "new stuff" but rather that it breaks a convention that people (even Apple users) have been used to for decades. All of a sudden, by moving your pointer down, you scroll up. It is freaking annoying.
I don't know, I don't like most of the changes in Lion. They look like a really bad "first step" towards something that isn't there yet. Like removing your car's wheels just because you imagine that at some point people will want flying cars that work on antigravity. And then you get the inconsistent bits like making the window buttons smaller. Just... crap.
> it breaks a convention that people (even Apple users)
> have been used to for decades
And it took me about 40 minutes to adjust. I just told myself "you are moving content within a window, not window around the content, just like you do on iPhone" and thing everything clicked into places.
I'll make the seemingly-obvious argument that is made every time this issue comes up in Internet forums: "natural" scrolling is fine for a single user of a single computer, but if you use multiple computers -- particularly multiple OSes -- "natural" scrolling is anything but natural.
Further, it may be easy to adapt to for one person on one system, but what is the net benefit? It seems to me the sole benefit for "natural" scrolling (and most other Lion changes) is seen primarily in unifying the UI for users who own a Mac and one or more iOS devices. Otherwise, it's yet one more change forcing users to adapt. And yet, the new scrolling method is the default. Was the old way really hindering anyone?
If we kept on doing things by tradition though, we'd be stuck with some of the base assumptions of the first computers. Breaking changes are absolutely necessary for many kinds of changes, especially one like scrolling direction where there are only two mutually-exclusive options.
They don't always lead to improvement, but they are a requirement a large amount of the time. Why the nostalgia for what you've used for 'decades'?
All this talk of suddenly the scrolling going in a different direction reminds me of playing Halo in middle school. Everyone knew who played "inverted" to avoid picking up their controller.
I agree with you though, I bought a refurbished Macbook Pro for school this summer and I was so happy to learn refurbished machines still shipped with Snow Leopard.
The scrolling direction change was one of the few changes in Lion's UI that I actually liked; it took me an hour or two to get used to it, but I'd gotten scrolling directions confused between iPad and iPhone and the Mac before that -- especially when the iPad was propped up and facing me, like a monitor.
I don't know, I don't like most of the changes in Lion. They look like a really bad "first step" towards something that isn't there yet. Like removing your car's wheels just because you imagine that at some point people will want flying cars that work on antigravity. And then you get the inconsistent bits like making the window buttons smaller. Just... crap.