Q: If my apple has os.x 10.5.8 what do I have to upgrade to go to cloud

Yes, maybe, depends on your RAM & free space, & particular MB.

If you only need eMail syncing you can do it in 10.5.8 easy enough...

Do not delete the old account yet.

I understand .mac mail will still come through. Do not delete the old account yet.

You cannot use .mac or MobileMe as type of Account, you have to choose IMAP when setting up, otherwise Mail is hard coded to change imap.mail.me.com to mail.me.com & smtp.mail.me.com to smtp.me.com, no matter what you try to enter.

iCloud Mail setup, do not choose .mac or MobileMe as type, but choose IMAP...

On second step where it asks "Description", it has to be a unique name, but you can still use your email address.

IMAP (Incoming Mail Server) information:

• Server name: imap.mail.me.com

• SSL Required: Yes

• Port: 993

• Username: example@me.com (use your @me.com address from your iCloud account)

• Password: Your iCloud password

SMTP (outgoing mail server) information:

• Server name: smtp.mail.me.com

• SSL Required: Yes

• Port: 587

• SMTP Authentication Required: Yes

• Username: example@me.com (use your @me.com address from your iCloud account)

• Password: Your iCloud password

Lion:

We need more info about your Mac to see if it will even be capable,

So we know more about it...

At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac, then click on More Info, then click on Hardware> and report this upto but not including the Serial#...

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: iMac

Model Identifier: iMac7,1

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Number Of Processors: 1

Total Number Of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 4 MB

Memory: 6 GB

Bus Speed: 800 MHz

Boot ROM Version: IM71.007A.B03

SMC Version (system): 1.21f4