Is Power User Software Compatible For Macs
In my past couple articles (BeOS or NeXT: Did Apple make the wrong choice? and User Interface: Mac vs. BeOS), I’ve described parts of BeOS. It’s a technically impressive OS that lacks some of the finesse that the Mac OS has.
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All the advertising about Mac OS X may convince low-end Mac users that they want to have a modern operating system. It seems like it would be nice to have preemptive multitasking, protected memory, and symmetric multiprocessing.
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- Oct 18, 2019 6 user-friendly accounting software options for Mac. Rather than giving you a generic list of accounting software that works on Macs (which would basically just be our accounting software directory), I decided to determine which top factors users have for choosing Mac over PC and then find accounting software that best suits those users.
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Let’s make an important distinction. Just because BeOS has a better foundation for stability doesn’t mean that it will be more stable. Mac OS X also has a much better foundation than the traditional Mac OS, but many users today are experiencing crashes and kernel panics. When I tried BeOS on my main computer, I was able to crash programs and effectively crash the hardware where I would have to reset the computer with the hardware switch. But over time, modern systems like BeOS or Mac OS X should tend toward reliability.
Hibernate mode 0 is the default on desktop Macs, and it means that the system won’t write off the content of the RAM to the disk, meaning that data is lost if there is a loss of power. Hibernate mode 3 is the default on portable Macs, and it means the system will store a copy of the memory on the internal disk (see sleepimage files ).
Besides BeOS, your other option for a modern OS is GNU/Linux. LinuxPPC, for example, supports a wide variety of Macs and has a lot of power and good performance. But Linux is more difficult to administer. When things go wrong, it can take a lot of time to figure out how to fix it. It’s definitely more complex than the Mac OS or BeOS.
Let’s dispatch two common questions first.
Where do I download the PPC version of BeOS?
With version 5.0, Be created two versions of BeOS. The personal version is free for download, but it only works with x86-based computers. This version has some special software that allows it install without repartitioning a Windows PC’s hard drive. In a way, it’s like a Trojan horse virus. Once the file is installed, it can run BeOS on a Windows computer.
Be could have done the same thing on the PPC version but decided to focus its efforts on the x86 platform. To use BeOS on a Power Mac, you need to get the professional version. It’s called professional because it includes some additional licensed software (like RealPlayer G2) and codecs (like the one needed to encode MP3s). It’s available for about $35 from gobesoftware.
Will BeOS work with my Mac?
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I won’t repeat Be’s own compatibility page, but my general rule of thumb is that if your Mac is upgradeable to a G3 through it’s processor card or L2 slot, it’s probably compatible with BeOS. No 7200s, first generation NuBus Power Macs, and no PowerBooks are compatible.
BeOS doesn’t support Macs that shipped with a G3 or G4, like the iMac or G4 Cube. Lack of support is probably the all-time question. There’s a lot of history to it.
The short story is that Apple refused to provide information about the motherboards. Be decided that it was too risky to build a business by reverse engineering Apple’s motherboards, so they put their efforts behind porting BeOS to x86 processors. But BeOS can support the G3 processor. I used BeOS on a PowerCenter Pro/G3 and had no problems. And talk about fast!
BeOS Compatible Macs
These are the only 8 Mac models that are compatible with BeOS. Compatible models all have a PCI bus and a PowerPC 603/603e or 604/604e CPU. Macs not on this list are not supported by BeOS.
- Power Mac 8600 and 9600: Supported below 250 MHz, some 250 MHz models are compatible and some are not, 300 MHz and faster models are not compatible.
- Power Mac 9600 MP
- Power Mac 8500 and 9500, including 9500 MP
- Power Mac 7300 and 7600
- Power Mac 4400 (7220 in some markets)
All 603- and 604-based Power Computing models are supported. All Motorola StarMax models are supported. All Umax SuperMac models are supported. All DayStar Genesis MP models are supported, but some quad-processor models have a different logic board that is not supported.
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Installing and Using BeOS
If you are considering using BeOS on Macintosh hardware, you need to realize that software is not binary compatible. That means that software that works on the x86 platform doesn’t work on the PPC platform unless it was designed to be compatible. The reverse is true as well. Since BeOS was available on the PPC before x86, it used to mean that Mac users had more options.
Now the x86 platform has more momentum, because Be doesn’t support newer Macs. This can be a problem. For instance, the best BeOS browser, Opera, is only available for x86 processors. If you feel like Macs are treated like second class citizens, wait until you switch to BeOS – you might soon get the feeling of a fourth class citizen.
Installing BeOS is as simple as installing the Mac OS. The installation CD loads up quickly and gives you a few options of software to install. I can’t mention any of the problems of installation, because I’ve only done it three or four times – and every time I tried it, it worked flawlessly.
In contrast, Linux has eluded me. I bought my first LinuxPPC in 1999, but I couldn’t get it to install from the CD, since I had a third party CD-RW that it couldn’t understand. Then I tried installing from the hard drive and could almost get things to work, but it wouldn’t actually install the files. I have used Unix before and probably could get it to work if I worked on it long enough. It just never seemed worth all the effort.
Using Mac Software with BeOS
If you are going to use BeOS on your Mac, Basilisk II is the most important piece of software you can have. Basilisk II is a Mac emulator that allows you to emulate up to a Quadra and run your Mac software within BeOS. (Another option is SheepShaver, but I think that’s been discontinued.) When I first tried Basilisk II, it wasn’t too reliable, but it is an open source program and has been steadily improving. When I last tried it on Windows 98, it was stable and useful.
Basilisk II has a lot of options that let you tune the performance to make the emulated Mac work well. It is not well suited for games, but it works fine with text-oriented programs like Quicken, WordPerfect, or a school grade keeping program. Because it is software that emulates a hardware Mac, it has different performance bottlenecks. Some things seem slow, but others are quite snappy. On a 200 MHz Pentium II, it performed about like a 20 MHz Centris 610. That’s a little slower than Apple gets with it’s 68k emulator, but it’s usable for a lot of software.
Worth Trying?
Should you try BeOS? For $35, BeOS offers a lot of things to try out and play with. Now that Mac OS X is out, you might want to play with that instead – it seems to have a much better chance at becoming a major desktop contender. If your one goal was to increase your productivity, BeOS would be a poor bet. Chances are that the time you spend on BeOS are not going to give you a big return on your investment.
But BeOS is only $35. If you have a compatible Mac that is just sitting around, this is $35 that will let you do some amazing things with the hardware. You could use the included routing software to make a BeOS router for less than the cost of IPNetRouter on the Mac. BeOS also has some cool audio software that could let you do things that would cost a lot on the Mac.
You might even want to try it just to give another point of reference for how things could work. The better informed we are, the more we can push Apple to realize the potential of Mac OS X.
Further Reading
- BeOS or NeXT: Did Apple Make the Wrong Choice?, 2001.04.16. Did Be really have the better operating system for the PowerPC?
- BeOS or NeXT: The Right Choice, David Puett, 2001.04.18. Another look at BeOS – and why Apple did right to choose NeXT instead.
- BeOS and BFS, 2001.04.20. “BeOS does things a bit differently than the Mac OS or some other OSes.”
- User Interface: Mac vs. BeOS, 2001.04.23. Be had the opportunity to make a better interface than Apple.
- NeXT: Apple’s Right Choice, 2001.05.07. Why choosing NeXT instead of Be was the right move for Apple.
- BeForever and BeNews, two BeOS Web sites.
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Just because you’re a Mac person doesn’t mean you have to settle for less with your accounting software. Check out these 6 great options.
A few years ago, we published an article on the best accounting software options for Mac users. This is an update of that article, but here’s the thing: There’s no such thing as “accounting software for Mac” anymore.
Sure, there’s plenty of accounting software that you can use on your MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, etc. But while there used to be Mac software and PC software, it’s now virtually all the same with the ever-increasing expansion of cloud-based software that works seamlessly in any browser.
In other words, you’d have a much harder time finding accounting software that doesn’t work on your Mac than a program that works only on Macs. In fact, with more than 100 million active Mac users, if you found an accounting program that somehow wasn’t compatible with Mac, that alone would be cause for alarm.
Cloud software is here to stay, and the market is only getting bigger. Gartner predicts that by 2022, 28% of enterprise IT spending will have shifted to cloud applications, up from 19% in 2018. (Full report available to Gartner clients.)
6 user-friendly accounting software options for Mac
Rather than giving you a generic list of accounting software that works on Macs (which would basically just be our accounting software directory), I decided to determine which top factors users have for choosing Mac over PC and then find accounting software that best suits those users.
- Macs are typically high-end machines with consistently strong reviews from users, so I included only accounting tools with an overall rating of 4.5/5 stars or higher in our directory (based on verified user ratings) and with at least 100 reviews.
- In general, Macs are considered easier to use than PCs, so I’m including only products with an ease-of-use rating on our site of 4.5/5 or higher.
- Finally, I included only products with a native iOS app with a user rating of 4/5 or better on the App Store, since Mac users typically use iPhones and iPads as well as their desktop or laptop computers.
With those factors in mind, here’s what I found, listed in order of rating and reviews from highest to lowest:
Jump to:
QuickBooks
FreshBooks
Accounting by Wave
Zoho Books
FreeAgent
Kashoo
1. QuickBooks
User rating: 4.5/5.0 Ease-of-use rating: 4.5/5.0 Reviews:14,700+ |
It’s no surprise that the big name in accounting software is available on Mac operating systems. QuickBooks has even had a desktop-only (not cloud-based) option available for Macs since at least the mid-1990s, making the company something of a pioneer for cross-platform functionality.
Now, any of QuickBooks’ cloud-based offerings will work fine on your Apple device, and Intuit even still offers a desktop version for Mac. The desktop version for Mac even has a few features designed specifically for Mac users:
- QuickBooks for Mac 2020 takes advantage of the Mojave OS Dark Mode.
- You can upload text searchable images with the iPhone scanner.
- Documents can be automatically shared through iCloud.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
QuickBooks is available on virtually every device, so whether your team has Macs, PCs, or smartphones, you know that everyone can use it together. | QuickBooks has very attractive entry-level pricing, but it doubles after three months. |
With hundreds of integrations, QuickBooks is highly customizable. | QuickBooks is an enormous company, and some reviewers find that the customer service isn’t as hands-on as they’d like. |
How much does QuickBooks cost? | |
QuickBooks Online starts at $25/month. QuickBooks Desktop for Mac is a one-time payment of $299. | |
What about the iOS app? | |
The QuickBooks iOS app has a 4.7/5 rating on more than 100,000 reviews. It allows users to create invoices, manage expenses, and view reports. |
The QuickBooks Online dashboard (Source)
2. FreshBooks
User rating: 4.5/5.0 Ease-of-use rating: 4.5/5.0 Reviews:3,000+ |
Designed specifically for small businesses and the self-employed, Toronto-based FreshBooks has been around for more than 15 years. FreshBooks also has Mac users in mind. They say that their easy-to-use accounting software works on any device—desktop, mobile, or tablet—and “plays nicely” with Mac.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Users rave over FreshBooks’ customer support, and the company stakes their reputation on it. | If your company is rapidly growing—for example, if you plan on going public—you may quickly outgrow FreshBooks. |
Even though it’s targeted at smaller companies, FreshBooks has all the important accounting features you would need, so it can handle much more than lemonade stands. | Freshbooks does a great job of keeping your books clean, but if you love forecasting and crunching numbers, it’s a little skimpy on the reporting side. |
How much does FreshBooks cost? | |
FreshBooks starts at $15 per month for five clients and goes up to $50 per month for 500 clients. *At the time of writing, FreshBooks has a fall sale of 60% off for six months on all plans. | |
What about the iOS app? | |
The FreshBooks app has a 4.8/5 rating on almost 8,000 reviews. It allows you to run invoices, record expenses, track time, and accept payments, all while you’re away from your computer. |
The Invoices dashboard in FreshBooks (Source)
3. Accounting by Wave
User rating: 4.5/5.0 Ease-of-use rating: 4.5/5.0 Reviews:800+ |
Accounting by Wave is one of the youngest tools on this list, having launched out of Toronto in 2010 before being acquired by H&R Block earlier this year. Its biggest differentiator is that it has a completely free version, as long as you don’t need to use it to accept payments or run payroll (those are optional, paid features).
So what makes Wave an attractive option specifically for Mac users? As mentioned, it’s free, so it’ll help you save for the next iPhone or MacBook upgrade. It also scores high for ease of use, making it fit in nicely with the intuitive Mac ecosystem.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
It’s free without limitations on users or transactions as long as you don’t need to accept payments or run payroll. | Wave is missing an audit trail feature, leaving it vulnerable to fraudulent employees. |
Wave offers above-average reporting features for a free tool. | The free version offers only email support, and even if you pay for payments or payroll you still only get access to chat support (no phone support). |
How much does Wave cost? | |
Wave is free. Payments are 2.9% + 30 cents per credit transaction, or 1% per bank transaction. Payroll starts at $20 per month plus $4 per employee. | |
What about the iOS app? | |
Invoice by Wave passes the user review test, clocking in at 4.6/5 with almost 2,000 reviews. It doesn’t completely replace the web version of Wave, but it does allow you to keep an eye on your business finances wherever you are. The biggest complaints that users have seem to be related to customer service, which is not unique to the app. |
Recent transactions in Accounting by Wave (Source)
Mac Compatible Scanners

4. Zoho Books
User rating: 4.5/5.0 Ease-of-use rating: 4.5/5.0 Reviews:380+ |
If you’re looking for the peace of mind of an established, international company offering Mac-friendly accounting software and you’re trying to avoid QuickBooks for whatever reason, Zoho Books might be for you. Zoho has been releasing business software since 1996, and Zoho Books is specifically tailored for Mac users, as it is designed to work with iMessage, Apple Maps, Siri, and 3D Touch. It even has an app for the Apple Watch.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Zoho Books is one of the most user-friendly options out there. In fact, it placed fourth—better than any other option on this list—on our Top 20 Most User-Friendly accounting software report earlier this year. | Zoho Books offers integrated payroll in California and Texas for now, but if you’re in any other state you’ll have to use a separate payroll app. |
Starting at $9 per month, Zoho Books is one of the best values in accounting software this side of Wave, which is free. And unlike Wave, Zoho has almost universally praised customer service. | Zoho Books is optimized for use with Zoho’s customer relationship management system, Zoho CRM, so if you’re already using a different CRM, it won’t work as efficiently. |
How much does Zoho Books cost? | |
Zoho Books starts at $9 per month or $90 per year for 50 contacts and two users and goes up to $29 per month or $290 per year for unlimited contacts, 10 users, and more features. | |
What about the iOS app? | |
As mentioned above, the Zoho Books iOS app takes full advantage of iOS-specific features such as messaging and voice assistant, and users love it, giving it a 4.7/5 rating on almost 150 reviews. While some accounting software apps have minimal features, allowing you to basically just check balances and view transactions, Zoho Books allows you to create and send invoices, manage expenses, track time, view reports, and share numbers with your accountant. |
Managing invoices in Zoho Books (Source)
Is Power User Software Compatible For Macs 10
5. FreeAgent
User rating: 4.5/5.0 Ease-of-use rating: 4.5/5.0 Reviews:110+ |
FreeAgent accounting software is based in the U.K. and originally designed for British businesses, but they also have versions customized for U.S. and global businesses, and the software has full multicurrency support. Like any good cloud-based software, FreeAgent works like a breeze on the Mac platform, and its iOS app is a fan favorite.
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Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Users are quite pleased with FreeAgent’s recurring invoice and receipt scanning features, which help take repetitive tasks out of small business accounting. | FreeAgent is designed for small businesses, so if you’re growing fast, you could outgrow it relatively quickly. |
Users also have good things to say about FreeAgent’s customer service, which is available by email or phone. | FreeAgent is 50% off for your first six months, but after that it’s $24 per month, which is a little high compared to other options on this list. |
How much does FreeAgent cost? | |
FreeAgent has a flat-rate of $12 per month for everything (unlimited users and clients) for the first six months, then goes up to $24 per month after that. | |
What about the iOS app? | |
FreeAgent’s iOS app has an average rating of 4.7/5 on 20 reviews. It allows you to view your accounts, manage expenses by snapping pictures of receipts, create and send invoices, and track time. |
The main dashboard in FreeAgent accounting for iPad (Source)
6. Kashoo
User rating: 4.5/5.0 Ease-of-use rating: 4.5/5.0 Reviews:110+ |
Once you’ve stopped giggling about the name, you’ll see that Kashoo is a comprehensive accounting tool that is easy to use right from the start on any web-connected device, including Macs. One of Kashoo’s standout features is their customer support: You get free phone and web support with your subscription, which is much easier than standing in line at the Genius Bar.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
The free phone and web support is a real plus for those of us who like to have some expert guidance. | Kashoo integrates with Square for payments and Paychex for payroll in the U.S. (and PaymentEvolution in Canada, where it’s based) but beyond that, it doesn’t have much to offer as far as customization. |
Kashoo has a flat rate, so you get every feature in the basic plan. | Some users have reported issues syncing multiple bank accounts with Kashoo, so it’s a good thing they have easily accessible customer support. |
How much does Kashoo cost? | |
Kashoo is $19.95 per month, or $16.58 per month if you pay for an entire year up front ($199). | |
What about the iOS app? | |
Kashoo’s iOS app has a 4.3/5 rating on more than 50 reviews. It allows Kashoo users to view reports, manage and send invoices, accept payments, and scan receipts. |
The tax management interface in Kashoo (Source)
What’s your favorite accounting software for Mac?
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Are you an accountant (either accidental or professional) and a power Mac user? If so, what’s your weapon of choice, whether it’s listed above or something else? (There are plenty of other options out there with iOS apps, as you can see by filtering for iOS deployment in our accounting software directory.)
I’d love to hear what you use and why you use it so I can recommend it to others. Just let me know in the comments or connect with me on Twitter @AndrewJosConrad.
Note: Listed pros and cons are derived from features listed on the product website and product user reviews on Gartner Digital Markets domains (Capterra, GetApp, and Software Advice). They do not represent the views of, nor constitute an endorsement by, Capterra or its affiliates.
Note:The applications selected in this article are examples to show a feature in context and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations. They have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.
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Looking for Accounting software? Check out Capterra's list of the best Accounting software solutions.