Programs wont open?

Not sure if anyone really bothered to read my other thread, but here's a summary:

Bought my mac mini last week, had problems the second day. Basically couldnt use it.

Took it in to a MacStation for diagnostics, they had it for 5 days, ran tests, absolutely no hardware problems. They told me if anything, its a software issue.

So I took it home yesterday, used it with no problems, this morning booted it up with no problems again.

Now one thing I did notice, is that I downloaded and installed GIMP. However when I try to open it, the icon shows in the dock for about a second then disappears, and nothing happens.

Could this be related to my "software issues", or could it be that I didnt download the right version?
(I'll have to double check, but I think I'm running 10.4.7 Leopard)

Ok, my guess is that you havnt installed X11. I'm probably wrong but i think X11 needs to be installed for GIMP to work. This is where your OS comes into it. You said you are running 10.4.7 Leopard... Leopard is 10.5, Tiger is 10.4. Now, Tiger doesnt come with X11 pre-installed, but Leopard does. Click on the apple logo in the top left of your screen and go to "About This Mac", it will tell you whether you are running 10.4 or 10.5. If you are running 10.4 then use the OS X discs that came with your mac to install X11. Then re-install The GIMP.

I may be completely wrong, im just going on a vauge memory i have of when i was using Tiger and installed GIMP.

If you are running Leopard then i'm all out. All i can suggest is uninstalling and then re-installing GIMP.

lol thanks for the reply, im as noob as they get when it comes to MACs

I'm currently at work but I'm PRETTY sure I'm running Leopard, but I'll have to double check when I get home.

If worse comes to worse, I'll just re-install my OS and hope for the best

You can reinstall OS-X if you want, but GIMP needs X11. You have to install it to run GIMP.

Ok so if it turns out that I am in fact running leopard, what does that mean?

Luke says that Leopard comes pre-installed with X11

Leopard did install X11 unless you did a custom install install, or perhaps upgraded from Tiger? Have a look at this link:-

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071028135730303

Ok Im running tiger
My os x version is 10.4.7, which means I'll have to install X11 to get GIMP working

Thanks guys!

no problem. run software update. "Apple logo > software update", because there are at least 3 major updates for Tiger that have been released. i think the most recent (and final) tiger version is 10.4.10, so run software update and get them downloaded too