Hi Lee,

Like you I use a Mac Book Pro running Snow Leopard.  I can run 9 10 and 
11 on it with out issues.   According to FileMaker KB 9 should run,  8.5 
won't.  Here's a link to the  kb.  
http://www.filemaker.com/support/kb?answers/detail/a_id/7359

You could get the new iMac and run Leopard,  if you can find a copy of 
the upgrade (downgrade?) version.  Of course there is no guarantee that 
OSX 10.5 would run on the latest hardware.

Hope this helps.
Bruce Herbach
Herbach Consulting
FileMaker 9,10 Certified Developer

On 1/24/11 11:55 PM, Lee wrote:
> Hi,
> I have raised this issue before, however, I'm wondering if anyone out 
> there has 8.5 or 9 running on Snow Leopard. My Macbook Pro with Snow 
> Leopard will run these version without any issue but one of my clients 
> has a new iMac running Snow Leopard and versions 8.5 and 9 will not 
> even open on his iMac.
> I would like to upgrade my iMac but because I'm still using version 9, 
> and want to stay with it, I'm not prepared to buy a new iMac
>
> My iMac runs 10.5.8 and both versions 8.5 and 9 work with no problem.