I remember when TextMate's author announced he started working on TM2 and that it would be $big_cat_name-only. I had a heated debate in the comments because I thought paying a full system upgrade (the computer could not run $big_cat_name) was too much for getting a free upgrade to a simple text editor.

I eventually bit the bullet and bought a new Mac. But TM2 never came and I paid thousands of euros for nothing.

Since then I've moved to Linux at home and I use Vim everywhere. For some reason, I can't imagine being unable to build Vim 7.4 on this machine.

And now that I feel very comfortable in Vim, I can't imagine switching to ST or back to TM.

I feel you man. I've been stubbornly sticking to Snow Leopard myself, it works great with my late 2008 MBP.

I'm also holding out for a Mac Pro bump that isn't a pisstake. So I guess I'll bite a few bullets at once.

Don't hold your breath -- I felt the same way about xserve before Apple shocked us with the axing of the server line.

I am certainly concerned that they might give it the official arse.

The only thing that gives me hope is that the Pro fits a small but important niche in the overall ecosystem: a system better suited for the developers of iOS applications than the iMac is.

What does the Mac Pro offer for iOS developers that the iMac does not?

More. Of everything.

More cores, more RAM, more GPU grunt to drive more screens.

The initial version of ML was terrible on my 2008 MBP but they made performance enhancements and now 10.8.2 works fine. Spending $50 for gb/RAM didn't hurt of course (best investment of my life btw).

You must not have an SSD yet. I highly recommend them.

I'll second that. I put an SSD into a 'poor performing' laptop as a stop gap before buying a new laptop. I still haven't bought that new laptop 2 years later.

I used an SSD to breathe a second life into the late '08 iMac I'm typing this on.

Yeah I was checking them out when I was getting my RAM, I'm just on the fence on how long I want to keep this computer.

Super bummer. Am one of a few mac users at work and we have VPN software that requires use of 10.6 :(

Why can't you just use the 10.7 built-in VPN software?

Seems like the reason is no default libc++ install... which sucks because libc++ can be installed on 10.6 just fine.

Upgrading to Mountain Lion was a breeze for me. It's much more like Snow Leopard than Lion. Much more stable IMO.