Updating software from Leopard

I did a little searching, but didn't come up with anything specific for my issue. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

My wife has a 15 inch Core 2 duo Macbook Pro from around 2008-2009. It is running Leopard. It came with 2gb of Ram that we upgraded to 4gb. The software has never been updated.

Lately, a lot of the things she wants to do are no longer supported. I would like to get it to the most recent or at least a more recent version of OSX. From research, I understand that we cant jump directly from Leopard to Mavericks, but wondering what path would be needed to get the software up to date.

Thanks again.

She'll need the retail copy of Snow Leopard which you can get direct from Apple for $20 incl'g shipping - here.

Once that's installed download and install the 10.6.8 combo update from here.

That will give her access to the Mac App store where she can upgrade to Mavericks if her Mac meets the minimum specs.

Prior to upgrading beyond 10.6, she will want to verify if any of her necessary apps are still using the old PPC code - they will not work beyond 10.6.x
For the moment, most things are still supported back to 10.6.8.

I have an iMac 20" with a Core Two Duo 2.0 GHz processor. It runs Snow Leopard OSX. That processor won't support the newer OSX versions. I don't think it can be upgraded to Lion or to Mountain Lion, since they require a later Intel processor. The Apple Support Site can tell you what upgrades it will support. You may need to contact them with a specific question.

Good Luck.

I am currently running Mavericks on a 2008 2.8 GHZ Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, The Core 2 Duo should meets the Mavericks minimum system requirements. I do have 8 GB of memory in the machine but have run Lion and Mountain Lion with as little as 4 GB. I think the one change I have made is to permanently set the machine to boot in 64 bit mode. It's an easy change but I would have to look it up.

From the Apple menu choose About This Mac>More Info>System Report. If the Machine Identifier reports 5.1 you have the same machine I do and Mavericks will work. If you are still using Power PC software stop at Snow Leopard as Bobtomay suggested.

Thanks for all of the great responses. I appreciate the link to the $20 Snow Leopard, its currently ordered and on the way. I'll start there and move onto the next update. Pretty satisfied with how well the computer has held up over the years.