Stan Beer
Sunday, 11 November 2007 11:56
Opinion and Analysis
Page 3 of 4
The following Intuit representative attempts to justify why the company has ignored the Linux desktop.
"Welcome to the Linux forum. You make some good points, and I'll pass
them along to the right people. There would be significant challenges
in porting the whole codebase over to Linux, and it would have to be
worth the effort. For now, the share of Linux on the desktop is still
small :
"However, that could change in the future. I'd
been asking here at Intuit about a Linux version for several years and
kept getting the answer that it wasn't worth the cost. Then, as the
Linux server market grew, it did became worth it on the server side,
and now we have the database server on Linux."
Another small business user cited sources that indicated that the
Linux
desktop market share is actually an order of magnitude greater than
source quoted by the Intuit rep.
OK Intuit, we get the message - it's all too much trouble to do a Linux
desktop port for Quicken and Quickbooks. You're happy to let someone
else get a foothold in the fast growing Linux desktop market, perhaps
believing that you can elbow your way in at a later date. So what's
available for Linux users that cant wait for you?
Looking first at Quicken, which is a personal financial manager that
targets consumers, the initial product that springs to mind is
Moneydance 2007 from Reilly Technologies. This is not a free product
but it only costs US$30 and it is available on Linux, as well as
Windows and Mac. Isn't it amazing that a small company can develop a
consumer product for all three platforms, while a comparative giant
like Intuit can't?
Moneydance 2007 has been described as very user friendly, providing
similar functionality to Quicken and capable of importing Quicken QIF
files. There are also plenty of good reviews of Moneydance 2007 running
on Linux distros, including my distro Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon. However, I
found my first attempts at downloading a trial version stymied by a
shell scripting error. Fortunately, plenty of others had the same issue
and I found a quick and easy answer on the Ubuntu Forum
here through
Google. It did involve typing two short lines in the Terminal and,
although I've already lost my fear of that, Reilly may well take note
that this should be fixed.
Anyway, upon loading the free trial version of Moneydance 2007, which
is restricted to 100 transactions, I found myself looking at a very
smooth and professional looking personal finances manager that is
simplicity itself to use. I've only just started looking through it but
from what I've seen, if you're looking for a Linux replacement
candidate for Quicken this could very well be it. It doesn't cost
anything to download a trial version and it takes about a minute to
install bearing in mind the minor problem outlined above.
So what other financial software goodies are there available for the Linux desktop user? As it turns out, plenty.
