my daughter needs microsoft access for her business classes, is it available for mac yet? if not, what else can she do, short of buying a windows pc?

thanks

She can purchase a copy of Windows and install it on the MacBook either by using Parallels (http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/)/VMware Fusion (http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/)/VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads), or by running it natively through Boot Camp (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/bootcamp.html) which is available in Mac OS X Leopard.

You will also need to purchase a copy of MS Access for Windows (if it's possible to purchase it separate from MS Office).

thanks for your help!
stupid question: Isn't the mac OS X already on her computer? so she shouldn't have to buy this, right? duh... just get the free update from mac if she needs it?

thanks again!!

Mac OS X is the operating system that came installed on her MacBook, yes.

Parallels, Fusion, and VirtualBox are not updates to Mac OS X -- they are 3rd party software that must be purchased and/or downloaded and installed on the MacBook.

BootCamp is a utility that comes with Mac OS X that will allow one to install Windows onto their Intel-based Macintosh computer (MacBooks are Intel-based). There are nice instructions on Apple's site (apple.com) that can be found with a simple search for "BootCamp."

I also use MS Office Access from time to time, does anyone know if there is any comparable database software available for OS X?