Please note that Lion is the Vista of Mac Operating Systems - you might want to consider upgrading (as it is a huge step up, despite being older) to Snow Leopard if your planning on using your mac with any hardware or software not made by Apple.
Just a quick question…I am a bit unfamiliar with Apple Operating Systems, but trying to help a friend. You mentioned in your post to consider upgrading from Lion to Snow Leopard, but didn’t Snow Leopard come before Lion?
Lion came later, but it’s considered the “vista” of Apple OS’s. Just like people “Upgraded” back to XP after Vista came out, they are doing the same with Lion/Snow Leopard.