get a 2011 17" vs a retina 15"

I'm really struggling here (I know, I know "first world problem")...

My old 17" has been great, really no complaints, but I'm also staring at the small stack of batteries that have slowly "exploded" and been replaced over the years. So it's a little scary to me that the retina's battery can't be replaced...

I'm also a bit daunted that if I get the retina I'll be going to 10.7. Worried about losing tons of time getting all my apps working again - anyone have any words of wisdom going to 10.7? MS Office 2008? Adobe products (Acrobat Pro, InDesign, Illustrator...)? Virtual Box?...

Also, anyone know of a website that compares benchmarks over the years?

I had no problems with apps at all going to 10.7, including Office for Mac:2011, and the Adobe Web Premium CS 5 suite of apps (Photoshop, Illustrator, Bridge, etc).

Don't use VirtualBox (use Parallels) so can't speak to that.

I don't use any of the MS Office, stay with Libre Office, etc.

All of the Adobe stuff I use (Lightroom, camera raw, etc) work perfectly on Lion.

I find my 15" great, altho its a 2011 model. When I want a big screen, I just plug one in. I tried a 17" and it was too big to haul around, IMHO.