Mountain Lion is here. Priced at $19.99, the latest OS upgrade to come out from Apple’s cart is certainly easy on your pocket. Now, the question is at such a reasonable price is this Mountain Lion worth taming by Mac Book users or should they sit this one out. Let’s find out:

It is far better than Lion

Apple has turned the corner with Mountain Lion. It is faster, smoother and a sheer delight to use; it is everything which Lion—released by Apple last year—was not. This new OSX is first of a kind which meets your everyday computing needs akin to an iPad or iPhone. Mountain Lion comes with a ‘Share’ button which lets you share links, photos, videos and other data. So, the next time you come across a link which is worth a share—instead of relying on clunky bookmarks, you can post it to Facebook straight from your Mountain Lion browser.

The integrating entrant to Apple devices

Though Lion has come about with a few iCloud features, Mountain Lion has gone all out. As soon as you upgrade to this OS, you’ll have your notification centre slide outs to present you with calendar reminders, news alerts and updates. The iMessage service, borrowed from iPhone, iPad and iPod lets you exchange conversations and photos in a jiffy. Facebook will be incorporated in the browser this fall which will break the tedium involved in cutting and pasting links. Mountain lion will take care of your all your Facebook needs—it will sync Facebook contacts with your Mac address book, add your current location and let you choose who sees your post.

Zero downside in upgrading

Lion was a big shift from Snow Leopard but Mountain Lion works on the philosophy of Lion. Apple has made sure that Lion features are incorporated in the new OS so that your apps do not lose their compatibility. Spaces are still spayed by Mission Control, as is Exposé which leaves no space for hitch in the Mountain Lion upgrade.

It won’t infest Mac with bugs

Every upgrade comes with a few bugs at least within first couple of days of its launch. However, Mountain Lion is one hell of an OS. It’s an exciting offering from Apple as compared to Snow Leopard and Lion which gave you diminished battery life or Wifi connectivity issues. Still, it’s better to fully backup your Mac before you jump for a Mountain Lion upgrade.

You have a old Mac but smitten by Mountain Lion

Before you go gaga about the features of Mountain Lion and hit the upgrade button, check your requirement. If your Mac is running on the recent OS versions, Lion and Snow Leopard then voila! You can be a proud owner of Mountain Lion and those of you who picked up there droolworthy Mac on or after June 11 can upgrade for free.

It will not eat into your RAM space

If you are one of those who get irked by the OS that steals most of your RAM space, then it’s time to celebrate with Mountain Lion as it is does not demand much memory.

Windows 8 still has a long way to go

Though Metro Apps is an appealing feature of Windows 8 but this Microsoft OS still needs to catch up with the raging Mountain Lion. The iCloud feature of Mountain Lion is stupefying. A bagful of applications come together with Mountain Lion, which makes sharing data and services a cake walk. iCloud has a user base of 125 million and now, coupled with Mountain Lion, it has become more compelling. You download music or movies or pictures or any form data from the Mountain Lion and it will automatically figure on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. If you have a tab open in the Safari browser on your iPad, you can open Safari in Mountain Lion and the same tab will be available right where you left off. At $19.99, with features to die for, this Mountain Lion is ready to devour its competition.