Gnucash on OSX -- how computer novice friendly?

[Robert Heller]

At Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:32:27 -0800 (PST) David Bicking <dbickin at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> I am trying to get the treasurer for a non-profit association I am
> with to give Gnucash a try. Her windows computer died, so she bought "a
> Mac". And that is as technical an answer on what version I can get from
> her. She knows accounting, not computers. I believe she was using
> Quickbooks before her old PC died.
> 
> 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 it new from, say, an Apple Store, yes.  If she bought an
old / used / refirbished unit from Geeks.com or E-Bay, who knows...  It
is unlikely a complete computer novice would buy an older machine,
unless they got it from some sort of local used computer dealer or
something like that.

> 
> It sounds like she would just need to download a DMG file.
> The wiki says
> 
> >Double-click the DMG file when it finishes downloading. Read the "Readme >OSX" document, then drag the GnuCash icon to your Applications folder. >That's it.
> 
> That "Readme OSX" sounds ominous; is there somewhere I can read what it says?  I don't have access to OSX to mount the dmg file directly.
> 
> What is the likelihood that she will have no trouble running gnucash once it is installed? I read horror stories on this mailing list, but are they a small minority of osx users?
> 
> Since we are not in the same location I wouldn't be able to directly
> support any osx related issues for her. (I can talk her through general
> usage of gnucash.) Is it worth while for me to send her the dmg file,
> or would I just be setting us both up for frustration and failure?

Get her to sign up to this list by clicking this link:

http://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user

There are several MacOSX / GnuCash users on this list who should be able
to talk her though getting things going.  One of them might even be able
to send you a copy of the "Readme OSX" file.

> 
> Any advice is appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> David
> 
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Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
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