I think Tim is on crack. Snow Leopard was specifically about refactoring and bug fixes—huge under the hood improvements. It's true that Lion has some annoying bugs, but so did previous versions, I wouldn't say it's buggier on the whole (I certainly see far fewer kernel panics than I used to see circa 10.3/10.4). Lion is ambitious, so there are definitely some annoying UI changes, but there are a lot of meaty changes that offer huge improvements.
Some of my favorites are: mission control is much better than exposé + spaces which I could never really put to great use. Fullscreen mode is very cool (although it sucks with multi-monitors, hopefully they'll fix that). Finally the ability to resize windows from every corner. Autosave. Remembering open windows. New gestures are great once you internalize them. What Apple is doing with sandboxing is really a revolution in PC security even if the costs are high to user and developer freedom.
I'm pretty concerned about the App Store model and the future implications, but so far Apple is still doing amazing UX work. I imagine at some point I will have to go Linux if Apple keeps tightening their grip, but that day is not yet here.
I just got a new Air, and began using Lion, I have to say I've been very, very pleased. Especially on this machine it seems like it was naturally made for this type of computer. I use Alfred, but confession, I sometimes find myself using Launchpad... Though this seems to be true of most new OS X features they've introduced over the years, I plan not to use them, decide to give them a try, and end up really liking it.
The only thing I can't do is the natural scrolling, because I switch between too many computers at work.
I share the App Store concern, but I think they're going to find the right solution, developers have always been a key part of their plans, they get things wrong of course, but they tend to make it right, just not always as fast as people want - understandable gripe.
Some of my favorites are: mission control is much better than exposé + spaces which I could never really put to great use. Fullscreen mode is very cool (although it sucks with multi-monitors, hopefully they'll fix that). Finally the ability to resize windows from every corner. Autosave. Remembering open windows. New gestures are great once you internalize them. What Apple is doing with sandboxing is really a revolution in PC security even if the costs are high to user and developer freedom.
I'm pretty concerned about the App Store model and the future implications, but so far Apple is still doing amazing UX work. I imagine at some point I will have to go Linux if Apple keeps tightening their grip, but that day is not yet here.