Re: open source alternatives to Quicken

["Doug-71" <user=43@nabble.blu.org>]

 Hello: 

GnuCash rocks.  I have it installed on both a Linux machine and on a 
Mac.  I had been using Quicken back in 1995.  Around 2000, I gave 
GnuCash a try by taking exporting from Quicken to GnuCash a QIF file. 
It set up the accounts straight away.  Entering data, the strength of 
"Qick"-en, was not as good, and I was reluctant to move over.  We are 
all conservative when it comes to our own money :-) 

I had a few issues with Quicken however.  Underneath it all, Quicken 
was _not_ a dual entry accounting system.  The system developed by 
those monks so many centuries ago was skipped as "too complicated". 
It does take a while to understand, but dual entry accounting is the 
way all businesses work, and I think should be the foundation of any 
accounting software.  Quicken made up its own darn lingo with 
categories and all, claiming it is more "user-friendly", and because 
they have the money, can get other people to parrot their marketing 
words. 

I did some online banking, and those folks forced me to upgrade to 
Quicken,2000, or maybe it was Quicken2001, or maybe it would be 
Quicken.June.2002.  They could force me to change software whenever 
they needed more revenue.  Even worse, the underlying data had to be 
converted.  I could not stand that "feature" of quicken. 

In middle of 2000, my hard drive crashed.  I had not done a good 
backup of my windows partition in a while, but I did have the data 
from 6 months ago in GnuCash.  They had a new version, so I installed 
it.  I was _so_ impressed with the amount of progress that they had 
made in that small time frame.  It was clear that data entry was just 
as quick, if not quicker, for GnuCash as for Quicken.  Type things in 
partially, it fills in the rest, depending on the last thing typed in. 
 At the end of the month, I make a cash flow statement.  That is about 
all I need. 

Setting up a GnuCash ledger from a QIF file should be straightforward. 
 With computers, there are always changes for complications.  I 
vaguely recall having a problem with a data file on on GnuCash 
upgrade, writing their newsgroup, and being told to open up the data 
file, and make a specific change to a pair of tags.  This kind of 
tweak happened only one in 8 years, but was neat that I could get it 
done. 

GnuCash really feels like solid software - not crashing, doing backups 
every 10 munites (my preference), making data entry fast.  The 
community is alive, and is international, so development will 
continue.  Yet if I want to keep on using an old one, I can. 

Doug 

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