Gnucash on OSX -- how computer novice friendly?

[Don Quixote de la Mancha]

Hi,

On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 12:32 PM, David Bicking <dbickin at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Since she just bought it, am I correct that she likely would have gotten a machine with an Intel processor with OSX 10.5? (I have never even seen a live Mac, so know next to nothing about them.)

If she bought the Mac brand-new, without a doubt it has an Intel
processor.  Apple hasn't sold any PowerPC Macs since 2006 or so.

Apple also always sells new hardware with the very latest operating
system release.  She might not have absolutely the latest version, if
her unit spent some time sitting in a warehouse before she purchased
it, but Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6.x) has been out long enough that
she probably has one of the 10.6.x releases.

Microsoft Windows and Linux will generally run on a very broad range
of x86 PC hardware.  That is generally not the case with Mac OS X, nor
was it the case with the Classic Mac OS.  Because Apple controls both
the hardware and the software, Apple's engineers have a lot more
freedom with the design of their hardware than do x86 PC hardware
designers.

Most of the "point" releases of Mac system software are issued in
large part to add support for the latest models of Macintosh.  For
example, when I worked at Apple back in the mid-90s, I helped to debug
Mac OS System version 7.5.2.  System 7.5.2 was released mainly to
support the first PowerPC Macs that had PCI buses.  Such Macs were
completely unable to run System 7.5.1.

Hope That Helps,

Don Quixote
-- 
Don Quixote de la Mancha
quixote at dulcineatech.com
http://www.dulcineatech.com

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