Crossover Gets Quicken 252
Jeremy White writes: "involved with the Wine project 4 years ago, a major personal goal
for me was to switch my wife's computer to Linux. But there was
a simple caveat: "No Quicken, No Linux." As of today,
CrossOver Office now supports Quicken (and my wife was
beta tester #1 *grin*). The new version, 1.2.0, also supports
Visio and fixes a raft of bugs. The press release is
at Codeweavers
and a review can be found
here.
" I've got a similar situation - been running Quicken for the last ten years, and have only one data section lost, so this is pretty darn cool. And it freakin' works.
Standard Wine? (Score:2, Interesting)
I know Codeweavers have been good about feeding fixes back into the mainline project (unlike WineX), and I hope they keep it up.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Standard Wine? (Score:3, Informative)
Transgaming are evil. When a Debian developer wanted to package Winex (as he was entitled to under the license), Transgaming informed him that they would change the license to specifically change the license.
You can argue that Winex is good for your gaming needs on Linux, but don't EVER say that Transgaimng is good for the community.
Re:Standard Wine? (Score:3, Informative)
This manoeuvre, carried out well over a year ago, effectively killed Vanilla Wine's ability to run games and left Transgaming in the position where they could extort their $60 a year.
There are plenty of examples of how to make money with Linux, without having to sabotage other projects in order to do so.
Slightly OT: GnuCash (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Slightly OT: GnuCash (Score:4, Insightful)
For example, in Money I can put in a schedule of all my paychecks, bills, etc., as well estimates of my monthly budget (how much I spend on gas, dining out, etc.). Money can them show me a pretty line graph of a day by day estimate of what my balance is going to look like for the next month, three months, year, whatever. This lets me locate possible trouble points well ahead of time and plan around them, instead of risking overdrafting my account.
You can also put in all your loans, credit cards, etc. with their interest rates, and put in how much you want to pay per month. Money can split up that money and tell you the best way to pay things off while minimizing your interest payments.
GNUcash may have these features now, if so please tell us!
Re:Slightly OT: MS Money (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Slightly OT: GnuCash (Score:5, Informative)
The more forward-looking stuff I hope to add for 2.0, which is quite a ways off. If you're interested in jumping in and getting something basic [like a report which would contain some of the functionality] done for 1.8, please do so.
Gnucash development continues (Score:2)
Re:Slightly OT: GnuCash (Score:3, Informative)
Like I said, GnuCash has the cleared balance neatly displayed at the top of the register at all times. It makes keeping your bank register and your finance software in sync much easier. But hey, I (and my wife) may just be unable to use Quicken properly. Which I must admit is odd, considering how easy GnuCash is for me to use on a daily basis. Plus, the learning curve was basically nil. I was up and running full time in less than 4 hours, and I have almost no experience tracking my finances this closely. (I used to just make sure I had a few thousand bucks in my account at all times, and then I could be pretty sure I wasn't going to over withdraw it.)
Kudos to the GnuCash team. My only complaint is that I can't download generic precompiled binaries off their website that will run on nearly all linux distros. But then again, that's not entirely their fault, considering how fucked up Linux gets in the cross distro compatibility area...
Anyhow, long story short.
By my vote: GnuCash == good. Quicken == garbage.
Re:Slightly OT: GnuCash (Score:2, Informative)
Sorry, I must butt in here. I've been using quicken for about 4 years now, and has work rather well for me.
Yes, you hit my one nerve: no quick way to see the cleared balance via the register page. HOWEVER, if you use an online service linked to quicken (I have the quicken option for Wells Fargo), you can see your cleared balance in the Online Center screen. The point is moot for me, though, because I basically treat each payment as if it were collected immediately. That cash is GONE from my checking account the moment I write that check. The result is I never go into the red, and don't have to worry about it.
Which brings me to the next item: bank integration. I don't forsee an open standard for online banking transactions anytime in the near future. It sucks, but it's the truth for now. In the mean time, quicken's integration with my bank for checking and saving (and investing once Wells Fargo gets off its ass) is a godsend. Makes personal finance about a million times easier when you have automatic reconciliation against the online register. Well worth the $7/mo.
Also, bill pay. Yes, I know every web site under the sun offers bill pay these days, but it's so convienent to automatically send the request to pay Capital One the balance of whatever's in my Capital One account this month, on a certain date. And the fact that it's all in one place is convienent.
My car loan. It's nice to see a chart of my car's equity from the loan payments vs. current value. Also I can see exactly how much out of my monthly $400 payment goes toward interest (at that point I break down and cry, maybe it's not such a good feature).
Basically, it fits my needs. I like it, A LOT. You may not, great. Continue to use GnuCash. Each person has different needs.
EOF
GnuCash DOES have OFX support in cvs now (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Slightly OT: GnuCash (Score:2)
Cleared balance in Quicken (Score:2)
I must admit that I enter all my transactions by hand--I don't know how screwed up things are when you try online. I avoid online because when I tried it, it seemed like the online features worked best if you depended on the online service to tell you all your transactions. Well, I am too paranoid that some fraudulent transactions will get entered as real ones, so I enter everything by hand, then check against the online statements manually.
Except for trying to reconcile to online banking, I can't really see a use for seeing a cleared balance. I tend to be conservative, and like seeing what would happen if everything cleared today. I.e. do I have even a slight chance of being overdrawn.
Re:Slightly OT: GnuCash (Score:2)
That's not what he means. By "cleared" he means that when he writes the cheque is different to when the cheque is cashed. Quicken assumes that the cash is gone as soon as you write the cheque. GNUcash uses double-entry accounting so you can make it clear that there's a time-delay between writing a cheque and the recipient cashing the cheque.
I find GNUcash is an excellent double-entry ledger but I find it lacking for forecasts and graphing. GNUcash also has many interface bugs and uglies.
Re:Slightly OT: GnuCash (Score:2)
I believe the parent to your post is correct. If you sort the register by the "cleared" column, then the cleared balance will appear with the entry that contains the last cleared transaction. All balances shown after that will be based on uncleared transactions, eg. checks that have not been cashed.
Re:Slightly OT: GnuCash (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Slightly OT: GnuCash (Score:2)
Re:Slightly OT: GnuCash (Score:2)
Re:Slightly OT: GnuCash (Score:3, Informative)
Almost noone can install it without spending nights fighting with it's need for bleeding edge libs. The developers are not interested in anyone using their software that is not a programmer... Otherwise they would offer a statically linked version for download that eliminates the needs for bizzare and pre-pre alpha libs.
I reccomend to all my newbie-linux users and anyone else to stay away from GnuCash until the developers start desiring that people use it by releasing something that is installable (again statically linked) This has been asked in their mailing lists before and they basically flamed the people hard that asked.
GnuCash is a nice project that hopefully someday will actually become useable to the regular user.. until then... stay away from it.
Re:Slightly OT: GnuCash (Score:2)
So instead:
Red Hat -> up2date
Mandrake -> Mandrake update (or URPMI
SuSE -> yast2? I think that's right, but this might just be a package manager.
Libra -> apt-get (It may have some graphics front end, but I don't know it.)
This is an area where the distributions don't seem to have yet come to an agreement as to just how to proceed. They all have tools for the job, but the tools differ from distribution to distribution. And they have different limitations, e.g., the Red Hat up2date doesn't seem to work unless you have a current subscription to the Red Hat network. And it limits the number of machines that you can use it on. (This is probably why they aren't supportive of the work to get apt-get working on their distribution.)
Broken Link (Score:2, Informative)
What? (Score:2, Funny)
http://www/about/press_releases/?id=20020807
I guess I need Mozilla 2.0 to use it.
The correct link (Score:2, Informative)
CodeWeavers.com [codeweavers.com]
"Use the Preview Button! Check those URLs! Don't forget the http://!"
Links (Score:2, Informative)
Codeweavers Press Release [codeweavers.com]
Don't know about the rest though.
Re:Links (Score:2, Informative)
The review [desktoplinux.com] link also didnt load for me, maybe it was slashdotted after a couple seconds, but I found this because I wanted to see how well it worked
Looks neat.
How well does Internet Explorer work? (Score:2)
I've tried earlier versions of CrossOver (to get QuickTime support), and while it does "work", the startup time is terrible and it does not work well with multiple desktops. (The QuickTime window is present on ALL desktops and does not behave well with the window manager (Sawfish)).
Re:How well does Internet Explorer work? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How well does Internet Explorer work? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How well does Internet Explorer work? (Score:4, Informative)
- IE would not always start under Linux, whereas all the other office programs always worked fine (with a few minor bugs). I never figured out why IE would sometimes just refuse to run.
- IE doesn't come with all the neccessary components and I could never work out how to install them afterwards. This means, if your web page requires Asian fonts or non-standard plugins, then there really isn't too much you can do.
Apart from these restrictions (which might very well be fixed with the new release of CrossOver), I have successfully tested my web pages using IE on Linux.I never had the need to run multiple instances of IE at the same time, but you can do so pretty easily under Linux. If I had to do this, I'd probably just use multiple instances of User Mode Linux, because it gives full guaranteed isolation and it is pretty straight forward to set up for this purpose. If you don't quite need this much isolation, then there probably is some way you can make CrossOver run multiple instances of Wine (possibly by using some "chroot()" tricks).
Re:How well does Internet Explorer work? (Score:2)
Sure, VMWare would work, but at $300 a pop I might as well throw together a multi-boot system specifically for testing.
I know how deep IE gets its roots inside windows, so I can't imagine multiple versions running off one install of Codeweaver or Wine. But what if I installed each as a different user, can I separate out the Wine/Codeweaver installations per user to create a different IE install for each user?
The possibility of Macromedia stuff on Linux sounds rather nice, Dreamweaver MX provides a pointy clicky interface to PHP/MySQL, if the authoring programs and the app server can all live on the same machine that might prove attractive to those that don't want the pointy clicky web designers screwing with the live server.
Why not support the native Linux alternative? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Why not support the native Linux alternative? (Score:2)
Re:Why not support the native Linux alternative? (Score:2)
"The expected final release date of Kapital 1.0 is in June 2002"
Hmm...
Cheers,
Ian
Focus on Linux apps (Score:4, Interesting)
Many Windows Apps are better (Score:4, Insightful)
Face it; Linux has a piddly market penetration, so bad that it's well nigh impossible to make money supporting it all. A small company (or just a well-run, tight margins, efficient company) that only has the time to develop for one platform will choose windows; unless they're serious hardware or a custom solution, they'd be foolish not to.
By letting Linux run windows apps, Linux makes all those developers that are windows only potential allies, instead of the definite enemies that are now. If your reveune model depends on windows being on the desktop, you're not going to take kindly to efforts to replace it with something else that won't run your program. If this something else *will* run your program, as well as windows will and on the same hardware, then you've nothing to worry about.
Re:Many Windows Apps are better (Score:2)
I don't see how it does that. If I developed a program that was Windows-only, and someone else took the inititative to get it working in linux, I would say "Good, now I don't have to deal with that mess." If anything, I would think this would cause Windows developers to be less prone to make something that works in linux, because "someone else will port it eventually."
Re:Many Windows Apps are better (Score:2)
I really think that the "Windows only, because it is popular" arguments are pretty weak now-a-days, because cross-platform development is getting easier all the time. Sure, someone can grab at that first 80 or 90% initially, but why not also tap into that remaining customer base? This also has the nice side-effect of protecting your company from Microsoft's future (whatever that will be) by betting on Microsoft, Apple, and Linux/UNIX simultaneously.
Another added benefit of keeping several platforms in mind at one time, is that Microsoft's proprietary development tools take a proper place among everything else. For example, Visual Studio is simply a modular part of the work flow (compiler & linker only; no binary "makefiles"). This can really help when some tools need to be changed out for others without crippling the project.
Cross-platform need not be gut-wrenchingly hard, either. I work on a UNIX application that's been under development for over a decade. However, it is modular enough and uses APIs wisely enough, that a Windows version isn't out of reach. This could be true, also, of well-planned Windows applications.
I think most of the current arguments for Windows-only applications stem from either short-sightedness, arrogance, or stubbornness. Historically, this wasn't the case, but today things are just different.
Re:Focus on Linux apps (Score:2, Interesting)
I think this is especially useful when it comes time to expand. When an office suddenly needs two PCs, the logical step is a network. Maybe even a server. That's where sticker shock for a Win2k network kicks in, and where the free (beer) side of Linux can be a huge blessing. Without Quickbooks, moving away from Windows will be painful (espcially since the last time I checked, you can't export your data from Quickbooks).
Re:Focus on Linux apps (Score:2)
Bingo, Quickbooks is non-negotiable (Score:2)
However, I need Quickbooks.
Quickbooks for Mac looks promising, but if it isn't feature complete, we'll keep a PC environment as well. That may just be a Quickbooks workstation on my desk, it may be VirtualPC, who knows. However, we will keep our accounting on Quickbooks.
We use Intuit's payroll service. Its over-priced, but its 3 mouse clicks to send out paychecks, that's really slick.
Alex
Re:Focus on Linux apps (Score:2)
It's not - not at all. (Score:2)
I think the beauty of this sort of thing is that it helps people cross over (pun intended.) to linux.
Not just end users, mind you, but also the companies that write software. If I was Quicken, I'd be talking to these people to help make sure that Quicken runs great on Linux. For them, it means not scrapping 10 years of development just to gain a 1% share of desktops.
If the CrossOver team can tell them 'Hey, try to avoid these system calls and this DLL and it will work way better,' They just might listen. (It's a lot better than telling them that they need to invest in a KDE development team, a Gnome/GTK development team and of course, a command-line client...) Maybe the managers and the marketing types wouldn't listen, but I bet at least a few of the developers would and code appropriately.
Of couse, I have no idea of the real issues between Windows apps and Crossover - I'm talking through my hat as usual - but I think the general gist of it is not far off.
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
Re:Focus on Linux apps (Score:2)
Linux is a pretty good OS, but if it were to be adopted as a primary OS for desktop PCs, then I think you would see it become a breath-taking OS, as far more people would work on it (compared with the hundereds/thousands) that already do.
That's why I would want to run Linux as opposed to Win2k (I am currently typing this on Win2k, by the way).
There are two main reasons why I would want Linux to run Windows apps:
- It would provide a "bridge" to Linux: I, and others would be able to cross over to Linux without having to replace every single piece of software all at once.
- I would far prefer an OS that can run both Linux and Windows apps, compared to an OS which can only run one environment's apps.
It's pretty simple... it's the same as what ms have done. You create things that offer the widest range of support, and then they get adopted.
Re:Focus on Linux apps (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, developing native apps is a good idea, too. But that only helps sometimes. Other times, there's some sort of lockin that puts a cost on switching apps, which can outweigh other concerns.
Oh, BTW... Windows 2000 won't be available/supported/bugfixed forever. It is doomed, and by Microsoft's own hand. And then there won't be any supported stable platform for running Windows apps, except WINE and related projects.
Re:Focus on Linux apps (Score:2)
This is very true. Even though Open Source software is often accused of volatility, it has an inherent stability as well, because the motives driving it are different. As projects like WINE mature, I would bet that whole consulting businesses develop around supporting Windows applications that, ironically, no longer work in Windows.
Re:Focus on Linux apps (Score:2)
Re:Focus on Linux apps (Score:5, Insightful)
Commodore introduced the C128 that could run Aplications in C128 mode or C64 mode. Allmost no aplications were developed for C128 mode because all the C128 users could run C64 Aplications in C64 mode.
IBM had OS/2 that could run Windows Aplications, and few venders bothered with writting OS/2 native aplications.
There is little chance that Wine will ever run Windows applications as good as they run on Windows. There is a chance that they will run good enough to give venders an excuse not to bother creating real Linux versions of their software.
Re:Focus on Linux apps (Score:2)
Alpha/NT suffered from the same problem. The emulator/translator worked well enough that it took the pressure off the software vendors to provide native ports. Actually we'll probably see this same behavior with Itanium on windows since 2K/XP includes "wow!32" which is an offshoot of the Alpha binary translator/emulator.
WINE is nice and it serves a purpose though in the long run I think it will hurt linux. Instead I think we would be better served by lobbying software vendors to switch their development environment to Borland C++ Builder 6/Kylix 3.0 so they can target both platforms with minimal porting effort. QT is nice but it's IDE is nowhere near as well designed and convenient as borland's.
As I continue this rant I'm disappointed at the lack of free apps written using kylix, A search on FM shows a lowly 15 projects... I know that cross arch portability is important though I'm an "Alpha guy" I accept that 99% of the commercial software available for Linux is x86 centric. Developers shouldn't be holding themselves back because of a minority like ours.
Peter
Re:bad examples (Score:2)
Hmmm... Ignorant of the C128's existance, but qualified to speak about it? The problem was it was 100% compatable with a C64. Venders openly stated they had no plans to develop C128 software because the C64 software covered the market. The C128 had a larger market share than Linux Desktops have now but the market was ignored because the less capable C64 software covered it.
"Could it be that it was actually an unpopular OS that did not want to run on anything except expensive IBM hardware? "
OS/2 ran on any x86 platform and OS/2 Boxsets outsold Windows Box sets. Windows won because of the OEM preinstalls. OS/2 was also a more popular Desktop at the Time than Linux is today.
"10th grade thinking at work. Companies don't determine if they should port something using the number of excuses they can come up with. They determine that by looking at statistics, numbers, and projections. When you have 0 potential users on Linux, you don't get ports. When you have 10,000 users who are using the WINE version and who want a native one, companies will make one."
Companies decide ports on one thing, costs vs profits. If a Windows ap runs on Linux there is ZERO cost in supporting it on Linux with the Windows Application. Companies have a limited development budget and if the Windows Aplication covers the Linux market, the money will be spent on a Mac port or another Windows Aplication, not on a Linux port.
WINE is a repeat of the mistake that Commodore and IBM made.
Re:bad examples (Score:2)
Hmmm... Ignorant of the C128's existance, but qualified to speak about it? The problem was it was 100% compatable with a C64. Venders openly stated they had no plans to develop C128 software because the C64 software covered the market. The C128 had a larger market share than Linux Desktops have now but the market was ignored because the less capable C64 software covered it.
I heard that Playstation 2 is completely compatible with Playstation 1. It will run all the Playstation 1 games.
I wonder why games are being developed for Playstation 2 at all. ;-)
Re:bad examples (Score:2)
Indeed! (Score:2)
You hit the nail right on the head. It's too bad I can't mod you up.
Re:Focus on Linux apps (Score:2)
There is no point in that.
But you should be able to run legacy-apps.
You know, just like Win16 could run DOS apps and Win9x could run Win16 apps and WinXP can run Win9x apps.
Re:Focus on Linux apps (Score:2)
Having said that, Win2K is loosing its lustre. I use to consider it the closest thing to a shining example of a decent OS from Microsoft. But with SP3's EULA, its plain that Win2K is headed down the same road as WinXP and anything else that will come from Microsoft in the near future.
Its no suprise. We all knew Microsoft was going in that direction. Its one of the reasons I have made Linux my preferred platform. But its a shame that Win2K becomes less and less viable an option.
On a side note - I believe Moore's Law has turned to Linux's advantage. Theres only so much Windows can do with additional horsepower (bashing aside). But all those extra cycles can be put to excellent use by Linux as it crunches that extra compatability layer / emulation layer. Linux gains applications that, while they may not (although sometimes do) run as efficiently on Linux as they do on Windows, appear to run just as well to the end user.
Re:Focus on Linux apps (Score:2)
I have these issues with the licenses that MS has been foisting on people. I can pick and choose among applications, and only use those I really need (native will always have the potential to be superior to emulated, but won't always exist in a stable form). Then I can decide if I can stand their licenses.
Face it, Linux end-user applications are still far behind their Windows counterparts. The current GUI desktops haven't even existed in a stable form for more than two or three years (I'm not counting older ones like fvm, etc.). So the applications haven't had long to develop. If KWord can now generate useable indicies and tables of contents, it's a brand new feature. And those are, to my mind, basic parts of what it means to be a word processor. Klyx/Lyx has not been stable, and isn't directed at the end user. Etc. And you can generalize from word processors to all other aspects of the user interface. Browsers for Linux have only become comparable during this past year. Etc. I may prefer KMail, but that's me. Most end-users have a different expectation. Perhaps Nautilus is now ready. Mozilla is tremendoulsy improved over last year, but still has a few warts (it's my primary browser on windows now). The only way that Konqueror could obviously improve would be to avoid crashing when a window is closed. This doesn't happen ofter, and doesn't seem to cause any problems, but it is annoying -- Sorry, I just thought of another improvement, allow type size modifications by web site.
So I think that the major Linux applications are nearly ready for the unskilled users, which is almost as much as I can say for the windows variants (some days I work on in-house tech-support). But they've gotten to that state very recently, and still have a few rough edges to polish. (OTOH, how many rough edges are worth $200/year plus and invasive and controlling license?)
I want a windows emulator that will run Encore Music composition software from Passport Designs. This program was abandoned, and the latest version runs on Win95, but not on Win98. I have seen no Linux software that does the same job (or Windows software, for that matter). Unfortunately, it saves it's files in a proprietary format. It can export MIDI files, but this causes a loss in quantization (this is primarily a score editing program which can also play music). So a *REALLY GOOD* emulation appears to be the only answer. Still, I feel that Transgaming is likely to come up with an answer to my needs before CodeWeavers do. But I doubt that either would tell me, or even know, if they had come up with the emulator that I needed.
Re:Focus on Linux apps (Score:2)
People want a computer that doesn't crash, that "does email" and lets them write a letter, etc.
A Linux PC can do that. Give them an icon that says "Internet / WWW", "EMail", and "Word Processor" and that's 90% of what they want to do. Linux can boot extremely quickly without all the general-use stuff running, and can be locked down very tight so the users can screw it up.
Hell, you know how Linux users say that "Virus can't wipe out the system, just the user files!", that's just begging for a cron job backing things up, saving the diffs. Got a virus (trojan really, or deleted something accidentally)? Just go into the wayback machine and grab an old copy.
Toss it on a journalling FS and you have something that'll survive being unplugged while running.
It's the intermediate users, those who have been taught to click "Outlook" for email, "IE" for web, and "MS Word" for word processing who are the hardest to convert. They know enough to do what they want and are desperately afraid of losing that ability, they need much convincing before being willing to switch, even if they acknowledge that crashes and email viruses lose data for them all the time.
You can make and sell a $350 computer that does what most people want, never crashes, is *very* reliable wrt losing data, and is remotely adminable without opening up huge security holes (ie, cheap support costs.) With DeCSS (and another $50 for a DVD player) you can even make it an entertainment center. Sell it for $400 and make a profit on it.
That's the use the "average" person has for Linux.
I've been running Quicken for a while under wine.. (Score:2)
Well, thats it (Score:2, Funny)
Visicalc (Score:2)
Games are fun and they are what keep MS-Windows around for a year or two more until more ports are made. However, as fun as they are you don't need games, but you do need to do your finances. That is if you like to live at home.
Quicken, GNUCash and others are of the same genre as Visicalc. They're not killer apps like Visicalc but they do address the modern need of managing financial data. If it comes to need vs want, needs generally win over time. So, yeah, this does pave the way for Linux on the home desktop.
Other "critical" applications? (Score:4, Interesting)
What other must-have "mission critical" applications does WINE fully support, or will support soon? Long-term Linux users sometimes avoid tasks or fileformats that are only served by certain applications. New adoptees need a transition plan that includes their favorite applications.
Here are a few I could think of, but I expect there are others.
(I know that there's Linux programs that are almost as nice, or even in some cases better. The Windows ports and additional tools that accompany the free "PanoTools" are far superior to the available Linux/GIMP integration at this point, for example. This is about transitioning people who are lost without some familiar applications.)
Re:Other "critical" applications? (Score:2, Informative)
In terms of panoramic photo stiching, I'm sure there's plenty of software, but I can't reccomend anything.
I've done a lot of digital video editing, and I'd say that AfterEffects isn't bad as a compositor, and Premiere is pretty damn good for video editing. Both are partially replaced by Cinerella [heroinewarrior.com]
Dreamweaver, Flash 5, and Illustrator seem to me to be the killer apps. Most people's pirate copies of photoshop see less use than PaintShopPro. The GIMP beats PSP. I just wish the GIMP had better support for print output -- like CMYK color. Development seems to be halted, with text output broken in the development version.
Re:Other "critical" applications? (Score:2)
Re:Other "critical" applications? (Score:2)
and if Crossover fails... (Score:4, Funny)
and if Crossover fails Jeremy can change wife
In other news... (Score:2)
I'm not sure what changed their minds; I just remember the announcement in 1997 that QB development on the Mac was being halted (I think it was already 2 years behind the PC version at that point). This in spite of the fact that one of the first things that Steve Jobs did was to put Intuit's CEO on the board of directors at Apple.
As a Mac user, I'm grateful, but I have to wonder what took so long...
Re:In other news... Reason Dev Was Halted (Score:2)
The long and short of it was I had a database go south on me and called Intuit and while on hold the voice mail machine announced to me that Intuit was a proud new member of the MS family.
My tech at Intuit was ecstatic cause of his options changing.
However, the acquisition was not allowed by the SEC because then MS would have had a monopoly on the personal finance software market.
The year was 1997. Maybe something to do with mac development.
Puto
QuickBooks or Peachtree? (Score:2)
I already use Gnucash at home... what I'd love is to switch the accounting at work to a Linux box.
Re:QuickBooks or Peachtree? (Score:2, Informative)
However, the odds are that an untested application like Peachtree will have enough bugs to not be useable in a production environment.
Of course, a great way to fix that is to buy a copy and then yell at us until we support it .
Cheers,
Jeremy
Re:QuickBooks or Peachtree? (Score:3, Informative)
In fact it works almost perfectly without crossover on CVS wine, the only problem is not being able to print, the print dialog won't come up (no small problem for this kind of sw). Crossover supplies the print dialog and the whole thing hangs together excellently.
Quicken is Spyware (Score:5, Interesting)
There is no obvious way to disable this. There is an option hidden away in the configuration to "disable background downloading", but you cannot select it! You have to use a "secret key combo" that Intuit's tech support gives out over the phone - "SHIFT-4-CLICK" - in order to select this option.
But here's the kicker - the next time you run Quicken it re-enables this "background downloading" again! If you remove this DLL from the Windows registry, Quicken adds it again the next time you run it.
Intuit says these DLLs are harmless programs that "keep your software up to date and bug free", but the fact that it is IMPOSSIBLE to remove, and so difficult to detect, makes me wonder what this is REALLY doing.. and I'm not being paranoid, just curious. It's my computer, not theirs!!
Because it's closed source, we'll never know what it's doing.
I have not seen much talk about this on usenet, etc. Adaware does not catch it.
Look here here [google.com] for some google hits on the topic. I have not found a thread where someone else has noticed that the SHIFT-4-CLICK method is only *temporary*, and that it comes back again later behind your back..
Anyway, just wanted to rant about this. I find it disturbing that my (former) financial software has such a great need to send stuff in the background without my permission!
Re:Quicken is Spyware (Score:3, Informative)
To blockquote the parent:
Don't remove the registry keys, change them to run from a drive that doesn't exist on your system, or change the extension to "c:\quickenw\foobar.dll.donotrun" or something.
You can also get something like the tiny little fireall, and block access based on PID information.
Re:Quicken is Spyware (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Quicken is Spyware (Score:2)
Firewalls are your friends. Chuck on something like ZA which can deny access based on a app/host/port combination and all your problems are over. I have that working now protecting me from all sorts of nasty little things just like this.
Re:Quicken is Spyware (Score:2)
Hell, maybe crossover office should automaticly set up a local null route to intuit.com or wherever the evil .dll contacts on install.
You are running an IP Masq between your fake-windows box and the real world, right? Who knows what services those windows programs are running.
Instructions to permanently disable (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Quicken is Spyware (Score:3, Interesting)
They worked with us to properly address this, and their development manager (who seemed to have a clue) was very adamant in making sure that no one in the security community would explode, such as putting information screens when you installed and upgraded the program.
We really pushed hard for them to include a "Never contact the Internet, ever!" select button, and they assured us that they would do it.
At some point, they just stopped sending us status reports. I figured that the development manager just left or was canned.
<SARCASM>It's nice to see that the development team was able to keep the marketroids at bay...</SARCASM>
Too bad for them. We were doing this on a volunteer basis.
Automatic Bank Downloads? (Score:2)
Submitter of the story also is CEO of Code Weavers (Score:2, Interesting)
No wonder why the post makes no references to free or open source software that may suit the more or less same needs.
In such cases, I think moderators should maybe not quote word for word the text submitted, but should put the story submitted into some perspective, and add some information.
Blast from the past (Score:2)
TWW
Quicken is buggy enough as it is (Score:2)
One can only hope that with the adoption of open, XML-based financial transaction protocols (OFX), open source programs will finally be able to perform on-line banking as well.
Kapital and GNU Cash, unfortunately, strive hard to emulate Quicken's monolithic and buggy design and share the biggest problem with Quicken: they are written in C/C++, so you just don't know whether they contain stray pointers and mess up your data. A collection of command line programs written in some safe language, together with a simple GUI, would likely be a more extensible and more robust design.
Run as root? (Score:3, Interesting)
OK, so it runs. Does it require you to run it as root? Quicken on 2000 must be run as Administrator*; try to run it as a non-privileged user and it fails. I'm a sysadmin, and had to install Quicken for the department (bitch-)secretary(-from-hell), and it flat-out refused to run as anything less than a local admin. I called Intuit (not made easier by the fact that they hide their phone number, encouraging you to use their useless website instead), and finally found a tech with a clue (about the fourth person to whom I spoke). He confirmed for me that you do, in fact, have to run it as admin, and that there's no way around it.* I had to give the secretary (also an incredible dolt, and very protective of "her" machine) local admin, which she has used to install unauthorized software, disjoin herself from the domain (woo-hoo! I only support our domain--she's fucked, particularly for backups), etc. That one poorly-designed program has opened me up to all sorts of trouble. In any case, I swore that day that I'd never use an Intuit product for any purpose, and I'd make sure others are aware of their boneheaded design. Use it at your own risk.
*I'm told there's another method to get it running as a non-privileged user, that being to specifically grant write-access to all the directories that the program uses, but I haven't been able to try it, because of the aforementioned secretary's protective attitude (don't touch my computer!), and since she has disjoined, I don't care anymore anyway.
Re:That's nice. (Score:2, Interesting)
In my opinion, the features of Quicken far outweigh its shortcomings. With a bank and brokerage that support online updating, I can download and reconcile all transactions without having to do a cumbersome, and flakey, file import. I pay bills by entering them in the register, then clicking 'online update'. Its investment tracking tools are unsurpassed. It tracks everything from mortgage interest to capital gains to IRA contributions to tell me where I stand with the government at any moment. gnuCash is coming along, but it's closer to managing your finances with a spreadsheet than the features Quicken and Money have. With a little finagling, I've managed to turn off all the ads, and I've never given any information to Intuit's website.
And don't get me started on using Quicken and Turbo Tax in April.
Re:That's nice. (Score:2)
Re:That's nice. (Score:4, Interesting)
- Under the 'General' tab of quicken options, select "Hide advertisements in online financial center"
- Under the 'Startup' tab, select 'none'
- Customize the 'My Finances' page to remove the alerts box. This feature does nothing for me, anyway.
- Right-click the alert bar at the bottom and select the option that removes the alert bar.
- Remove all Quicken items from Windows' Start folder.
That's all I remember. Like I said, it took some doing, but I don't remember seeing an ad since January.Re:That's nice. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:That's nice. (Score:2)
er, shouldn't that be a little more underhanded and discreet?
Re:For those asking about rolling in changes to Wi (Score:5, Informative)
We only keep Wine patches out while we're stabilizing a version of CrossOver.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Re:Prices... (Score:5, Funny)
Time: Priceless
Quicken + Crossover Office
Adjusted Total: $114.90
GNU Cash
Adjusted Total: $->infinity
Re:Just Remember (Score:2)
Then Windows costs several thousand dollars per year for me, the single user.
My time isn't free, but I'll spend time learning about an OS that wants to be learned, not wrestling with an OS that doesn't.
You will miss out on all the abuse! (Score:2)
But, if you use Linux, you will miss out on all the abuse!
Here's some information I put together, and updated yesterday: Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going. [hevanet.com]
Thanks for the thanks,... (Score:2)
I made the change you suggested. (Score:2)
I made the change you suggested. You can see the new paragraphs at Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going. [hevanet.com] under the section "What is your name and address?" means "Can we invade your privacy?".
Everything is MUCH stronger now. (Score:2)
Thanks, but I eliminated that sentence. Everything is much stronger now.
I suggest you press "Reload" on your browser. You are apparently reading an old version in your browser cache.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Prices... (Score:2)
apt-get install gnucash
Easy enough for me.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:now if only (Score:2, Informative)
DirectX is a horrible API, especially to program for, and definitely for cross-platform, but it at least gets new technology "standardized" quicker. That being said, I code only OpenGL, I like the portability
Re:quickbooks (Score:2)
Re:Codeweavers and Transgaming (Score:2)
Yup. Works fine. I've got a couple boxes with both on them. They are happy as a clam together.