You need a computer that runs Windows XP, Vista, or 7 with about 350 MB of free disk space. You can use a computer running Mac or Linux for GnuCash. However, for these computers you need to get the installation instructions from the GnuCash website. To do some of the tutorials that show how to export data from GnuCash and manipulate it in a spreadsheet, you need MS Excel or OpenOffice.org software. For Chapter 12, you need to download an ODBC driver and install it as per the instructions provided in the book.