Haven't had much time to explore, but…

First things first.
I created three partitions on new iMac.
One for Snow Leopard, one for storage, and one for Lion. I use 2 externals for Time Machine and various backup and junk. The clean install was flawless on the empty Lion partition, took about an hour and a half to download and install.

2. MobileMe imported most of the preferences and contacts and sync. I'm really going to miss that.

3. Created Lion Boot DVD from Lion download (search if you want to know how). It took forever to boot from. 30 min.?

4. Aside from basic contacts, calendar, etc. I'm reinstalling everything old from scratch, not migrating.

5. I think I'm already used to the "backwards" scrolling.

Wanna get the basic backup and functions out of the way first, the fun is yet to come.

6. Safari is pretty snappy.

My favorite so far are full screen apps, Mail's favorites mailboxes and opening Word documents in Preview.

One thing I've noticed is the new operating system (and especially Safari) doesn't seem to hog memory as much as 10.5 or 10.6. Of course, one of the first things I do with a new system is delete unwanted languages with Monolingual and delete foreign fonts I'll never use. This helps keep memory usage down also. There are plenty of little gripes with Lion. Should we list them also?

If it's part of your experience, sure. Maybe someone else has a work around or what.

Biggest gripe with me is the most used item....Safari. I do love having full screen browsing built in the system instead of having to use the app PresentYourApps to make it full screen but, Safari always shows the toolbar. I can right click the blank space of the toolbar and select Hide Toolbar but I haven't seen a way to get it back. Why couldn't Apple make this like Google Chrome, who did it the right way and still use Command L to type in a location when it's not listed in our bookmarks? Google Chrome gives a total full screen and when you move your cursor to the top, the toolbar and favorites bar drop down.

Second gripe I have is not being able to flip list view when arranged by name in the Finder. It lists from z at the top to a at the bottom. Has anybody figured out how to flip it with a at the top?

Ok, just happened to stumble on the list view problem. Under the Arrange button, I have to select none instead of name, then I can select my view by clicking the views above the list like all previous systems.

Not sure if you noticed, but right click on the desktop. You won't see Arrange By, instead you see Sort By


Now, open up a finder window &. Right click there. Guess what? Arrange By is there!

Oh, and wasn't there a Feebback option under the Apple menu in SL?

I looked at Launchpad and kinda like it, but it does seem to be somewhat of a Dock alternative. I still have my most used apps in the Dock, but easy access to my other apps is nice.

I have the most recent iLife suite which works just fine. I also have iWork 08 and those apps are functioning for me (not full screen capable, though).