Difference between revisions of "Talk:MacOS Installation"

Revision as of 06:29, 20 September 2010

Add parallels?

I don't know enough about installing gnucash under parallels to add this section myself (PPCs?, Intel Macs?, OS version required?), but I've seen a mac user using GnuCash under parallels, so it might be worth mentioning on the site. Perhaps a new section:
Parallels
It is also possible to install and run GnuCash under mac parallels.

--Beth

Add VirtualBox Linux as an alternative?

Not intentionally trying to troll, but the performance of recent builds of GnuCash has been abysmal.

Quoth myself on the wishlist (how annoying, eh?):

My GnuCash 2.2.9 on OSX (Intel iMac, 64-bit OSX 10.6) has an achingly slow UI as well (eg. scrolling account registers scroll at ~5 transactions per second, 2+ seconds for "split transaction" to respond, similarly latent confirmation dialogs). I can confirm it is *not* my GnuCash file (~3k transactions over 3 years): I just installed VirtualBox on my Intel iMac (Ubuntu 10.4 64-bit guest), the virtualized GnuCash running in Ubuntu is very fast on the same GnuCash file. Perhaps the recent Mac OS versions of GnuCash were compiled with the wrong flags or something else trivial. I have tried several versions of GnuCash on my machine, and have even purged GnuCash and done a fresh install, all to no avail. Until something changes, I will just have to use virtualized Linux GnuCash for the (ironic) speed win.

Advantages of *not* using the OSX version of GnuCash and using virtualized Linux GnuCash instead:

• Clipboard access works reliably in all builds of GnuCash
• OFX file import "just works" in all builds of GnuCash
• Virtualized Linux GnuCash is at least an order of magnitude faster than the OSX build
• The GnuCash UI is consistent with the host OS paradigm
• No weird window resizing bugs that cause GnuCash to freak out while dynamically resizing a window (ie. by grabbing the lower right corner)
• Installation is simple and doesn't have weird side effects. MacOS X apps really shouldn't have "magic" linked resources in /opt/ and so forth. The app should be self-contained in the GnuCash.app dir (and be fully portable as a result). Furthermore, it shouldn't require admin privileges to install a userland app (of course, this is a side effect of the "magic" linked resources).
• A general sense that Linux is regarded as a "first class" platform by the GnuCash maintainers and therefore more likely to have bugs/issues addressed quickly.

I would love to ditch this hack approach to using GnuCash, but GnuCash is a critical app for me and I cannot afford to gamble with using the OSX version until these issues are addressed. Naturally, I also want to say thank you to the maintainers/packagers for their efforts with the OSX version of GnuCash—I realize this is largely a thankless effort on their part.

--Symbiote 06:29, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

Should this page be split?

Seems as though this page has gotten too large and unwieldy, especially with my addition of the quartz compilation instructions. Should it be split? Should some of the older information be removed? I'm happy to pitch in if there's consensus about how pruning/splitting should be approache. GlenWhitney 03:27, 6 May 2007 (EDT)

Yes, it should be split. I'd suggest you start by moving the largest 1-2 sections (i.e. your new section and the one before that) to a separate page each. Just pick whatever name comes to your mind; if anyone doesn't like that name, we can still move the new page to a different name. I'd probably suggest MacOSX/Quartz et al., but other names would work as well. Just go ahead and do this :-) --Cstim 16:34, 6 May 2007 (EDT)

OK, gave it a stab. I think this is roughly what you had in mind. If you think I've mangled it, let me know how to improve matters. GlenWhitney 02:12, 7 May 2007 (EDT)

Looks great, thanks a lot. You could also add an introductory sentence at MacOSX if you like. If an admin should add more links on the main page GnuCash, just add your suggestion on its Talk page and I'll add it to the main page. --Cstim 07:42, 7 May 2007 (EDT)

Broken Link

The link for the installation instructions for gnucash-2.0 on Intel Macs (http://www.captnswing.net/2006/07/gnucash20-on-intel-macs.html) is broken, and I think it should be updated. As of now, I don't know what to do besides installing a VM with Linux on it and running gnucash from there. Jerr 15:52, 29 March 2008 (EDT)