I lost my little instruction book that had all that; I just got it from a reseller. Just today got a usb Gateway keyboard that works with the Mac. I think the screen said 9.1. When I was looking at the forums, one I read said Unix was touchy and NOT to get into the files, etc., and I guess the person who my son had look at it did because now when I clicked on Apple Menu or such I got: there has been an error opening apple preferences file, apple menu options cannot launch. It's kind of funny because the first post I read the guy replied that best to keep 8.6 as it was stable and had only two 'no touch' files', preferences and one other. Ha, ha. Really want to update to what the forum member said to 10.3 or such. Don't know if my little all-in-one can do that. I do remember that the book said I could install two more sticks of memory (the right kind) to bring it up to 256. Tell me more, I'm all ears, katesisco

If it is running 9.1, there is no Unix. Apple OS's before OS X were not built on Unix/Linux. If your machine is a iMac, it will run 10.3 no problem. I have an original iMac running 10.3.9. The original iMacs can be equipped with up to 384 or 512 MB RAM depending on revision number of the machine. Later versions can handle 512 or more depending on the model. Before installing OS X you need to check if your machine needs a firmware update, the list of those can be found here... http://docs.info.apple.com/article.... As for messing with OS X files, you can play around some. Just don't mess with any files in any folder marked "System" or "Library" unless you are sure of what you are doing.

"If it is running 9.1, there is no Unix. Apple OS's before OS X were not built on Unix/Linux." Totally wrong, though you do not have a Kernel and GUI as in OSX, OS9 and prior were all based on a branch of Unix, but the Kernel and GUI were intregrated

It looks like you need to erase the hard drive and reinstall everything, assuming you don't know what file(s) are involved with the problem. Reinstall everything and then try again. Naughty but Nice

"I lost my little instruction book that had all that; I just got it from a reseller." First step, please make comprehendable sense. =) I'd recommend reinstalling the OS. There's no telling what's going on, without being in front of that machine. Might take it to an Apple store. They're good about helping, even with older machines.

OS9 and prior were all based on a branch of Unix No, they weren't.