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And of course any subpoena, court order, or National Security Letter presented to Intuit has full access to all your data, including aggregation (database "join" on SSN, phone, address, etc.) with various data brokers who market their services aggressively to Department of Homeland Security, etc. With the IRS itself you have some protection; with the e-file cabal you nave none.

Even though Windows 2000 will continue to get security updates and paid support until July 2010, I think the installed base is getting too small to be worth supporting (for many developers). That's a shame (for me) because I enjoy using my Windows 2000/Kubuntu desktop more than my Windows XP notebook.

Screw 'em. I like Opera better than Internet Explorer 7. Foobar2000 over Media Player/iTunes. COMODO Firewall Pro over Windows Firewall. TrueCrypt over BitLocker. AVG/Spybot over Norton/McAfee/Symantec. 7-Zip, IrfanView, Picassa, VLC, Media Player Classic, Quicktime Alternative, QuickPar, ImgBurn, VirtualDubMod, BitComet, Skype, Google Desktop Search, ... and that's just some free (beer) stuff available for Windows 2000.

• The impacted product is Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions, which is the top-tier QB product. This is the next step above Quickbooks and Quickbooks Pro.
  
• The cost for 5 users is $3,000, 10 users $4,500, 20 users $7,500.
  
• This version uses the Sybase iAnywhere SQL-compliant database as the back end. There is no additional charge for the DB.
  
• The only components that run on Linux are the DB and a daemon that apparently manages connections.
  
• According to QB support, the linux components won't be available until June 25th, and will be free to download.
  
• The linux documentation says is only tested (and thus supported) on Fedora FC6 and OpenSuse 10.2.
  
• While not confirmed, it appears that the DB can be accessed via ODBC or possibly even FreeTDS, so that other applications can see the QB data.
  
• This does not work with the Terminal Services version of Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions. It only works when the fat client is installed on the user's desktop.
  
• SAMBA must be enabled and mapped to the client PCs.
  
• A thirty-day trial version of QB Enterprise Solutions can be obtained by calling the number at this site, although I haven't confirmed it will work with Linux. I called yesterday afternoon, and received a tracking number this morning. We are a paying customer, so your mileage may vary.
  

Ask your computer using (non-techie) Mother/sister/brother what's important:
1) No hassle
2) Use **exactly** the same apps as everyone else, pre-installed
3) Cost - under $200 every 3 years
4) Quicken!!!! (the current version, not a 5 yro version)
5) Ms-Office (Open Office doesn't support all the XLS macros)
6) All the apps I want aren't pre-installed.

Seriously, users don't want to be bothered with loading apps and hunting for an app that is the same as what everyone else uses. I guess wine is a good step, but even I with 20+ years C/C++, networking, and architecture - find having Windows is just **easier**. My laptop is windows. My desktops are not.

Notice that security wasn't in the list? Virus, spyware, firewalls aren't mentioned. Picture their face - "why does it have to be so hard?" they ask.

My list of apps mandatory apps: Quicken http://quicken.intuit.com/, Visio http://office.microsoft.com/visio, XLS http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/FX10048762 1033.aspx, and Toolkit 5.x http://www.iclub.com/products/tk5.asp

Besides firefox, thunderbird, VLC http://www.videolan.org/vlc/, videoredo http://www.videoredo.com/, MovieManager http://freshmeat.net/projects/xmm/, Putty http://freshmeat.net/projects/putty/

$60 is a bit of a ripoff.

Incidentally, though it flies in the face of the license for the software, it is possible to install TurboTax on any number of machines, including those which you do not own, and use it concurrently on all of them. Clearly, they intended people to use this "feature" for multiple filings or data transfer in the same household, but doesn't this seem like a ridiculously pirate-able situation?

Intuit's support says:

Update, 6:30am, April 18: Outstanding issues with our servers have been resolved and we are currently processing all customers' returns and requests for status checks at a normal rate. As we mentioned earlier, we are working with the IRS this morning to ensure that returns will be considered as timely filed even if transmitted to us past midnight.

We encourage customers to continue trying to e-file; if you have been unable to successfully transmit, please try again.

If you have transmitted your return more than once and you use our desktop version of TurboTax, rest assured that you will be charged for electronic filing fees only once. Fees are charged only once per primary social security number. Also, if you are paying your taxes via direct debit or via credit card, your taxes will be withdrawn from your account only once despite multiple transmissions.

There is a post on the TurboTax site (http://turbotax.intuit.com/tax_products/turbotax_ advantages/secure.jhtml;jsessionid=FQK0HSUDKCVCMCQ IAURRYUQKBACREF4K) disclosing and providing more facts on this issue. The issue does NOT affect the TurboTax Online application. Bob Meighan VP, TurboTax

http://turbotax.intuit.com/tax_products/turbotax_a dvantages/guaranteed_accurate_online_tax_prep.jhtm l

But, you could input false info and get in trouble for tax fraud, although TurboTax says it will flag anything that will get you a audit.

The system requirements pages for Adobe Premiere and Intuit's Quicken Deluxe don't mention Vista. If either application doesn't work quite right under Vista, dag gummit, it must be a plot to RUIN MICROSOFT!... and not just the ordinary course of development for supporting new OS releases.

Why run the windows version when they sell a native mac version?

...You're paying someone a little to do that setup for you.

Incorrect. Intuit documents the permissions needed. I will grant that Intuit should be setting these permissions properly during the install process, and it is a pain to make the changes. But it's not that hard to do. And, Intuit's bumble shouldn't be considered an MS issue.

NTFS ACLs actually provide a very robust permissioning system. Too bad the Windows installer creates users as Administrators by default, and fails to tell the user this is being done. That's the root of this issue, not 'flawed access rights and permissions' as you suggest.

1.) Import my existing Quickbooks data from the last 2-3 years.

hopeless. That's the only reason I maintain my stupid winxp dualboot setup -- for access to 4 years of business transactions that are forever locked up in quickbooks. bleh.

This site: http://www.reed-electronics.com/electronicnews/art icle/CA6338353.html seems to have a pretty good sized list of companies and news on this topic. My company http://www.intuit.com/ is also one of them and had a press release today http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8II3 R980.htm?sub=apn_tech_down&chan=tc saying that they have now been issued a subpoena after starting their own internal investigation over a month ago.

I do IT work for a small to medium distribution buisness and we are updating out ERP/CRM application. So far we are looking at the folowing solutions:

VAI
Net Suite
Intuit Eclipse
Tech Sys
Infor
Activant

With regards to tax software, Turbo Tax works quite well on Mac OS X. I've used it for both my state and federal taxes this year and last year. Although it is a valid point that the Windows world generally has the 3d games first, and there are games that are not ported to Mac OS.

So until Quicken or MYOB support something other that MS software

So there's nothing in that regard keeping small businesses on Windows, unless they happen to like the extra mainenance.

On the other hand I strongly recommend to people to use OOo at home and with the ever increaseing compatability that OOo has with MS formats, this is not a bad option.

OpenDocument is definitely the way to go, especially for spreadsheets. Being a zipped XML file means that you can massage large data sets alternately with a comfortable gui or with home grown perl/python/ruby/whatever scripts.

I think you missed one, but I can't remember which...

Pretty soon we'll need to compile Windows apps from source to get them to install:
c:\> wget http://ftp.intuit.com/pub/sources/quickbooks-9.0.1 .1.tar.gz
c:\> tar -zxvf quickbooks-9.0.1.1.tar.gz
c:\> cd quickbooks-9.0.1.1
c:\> configure --with-db=mysql
c:\> make
c:\> make install
c:\> man quickbooks

I can dream... ;-)

Is there a reason why Quicken for Mac won't work???

Quickbooks is the sole reason I have any sort of windows install whatsoever to run my business and it's run via VMware on my laptop which is running Gentoo as it's sole OS

Taking it a step further, Mac-on-Linux should allow you to have both Quickbooks and Linux at the same time ... today.

My killer app for Windows is Quicken. I've been using it since version 1, back before Linux's kernel hit 1.0 and before GNUcash development was started. My file is something like 12 MB in size. Whenever the topic of "how do I migrate from Quicken for Windows to GNUcash?" comes up, the solution involves a very tedious and lossy export/import of QIF files, usually with some childish jabs as to why I would ever use such a closed platform.

I bought a Windows PC specifically to run Quicken after seeing how unbelievably awful Quicken for Mac is: the migration process from Quicken/Windows to Quicken/Mac is nearly as bad as the one from Quicken/Windows to GNUcash.

Show me a program that can import my whole Quicken for Windows file into a Free Libre Software program format, and I'll go down on you.

...has been taking lessons from someone else who produces badly-conceived products.

Lest you think I'm trolling, I have a legitimate question: Why must there be so much stratification?

Guy Kawasaki was fond of using the analogy of sailors and passengers aboard a ship: "A passenger gets on a ship, plays shuffleboard, and eats at the captain's table. A sailor weighs the anchor, goes into the engine room, and gets grease under his fingernails." He said that a product that was deep, indulgent, complete, and elegant could appeal to both kinds of users.

What we have here isn't any of these things. Instead, it's what a marketer sees as a way to "add value" and provide "choice" and ultimately increase revenues, but what it will really produce is confusion, because no one is going to be really sure which of Microsoft's offerings will suit them best.

Coincidentally, Eclipse is also the name of a wholesale distribution system. Intuit purchased that Eclipse in 2002, so it's now called Intuit Eclipse.

Their website is at: http://eclipse.intuit.com/

I guess it's not unreasonable to think the word "eclipse" would be used repeatedly in the computer world. I used to play on an old text-based MUD named Eclipse too.

Have you tried Quicken? It really is a nice finance manager, and I hear they have a native mac version...

Intuit's privacy statement.

Yes, it's FUD, but worse than that, by criticizing companies twice or thrice removed from the IRS and the Fed, it's indirectly legitimizing the latter two agencies. None of this crap existed before a bunch of old men went duck hunting on Jekyll Island. Then it kept branching out: H & R Block. Intuit. Every step designed to take another bite out of your paycheck. But this old-boy network has been around for a while; have you taken a Tour or a Taxi lately?

Quick and easy:

Can I run my tax software on it?:
Intuit Turbo Tax
Tax Cut
Quicken

Can I run my tax software on it?
Windows 2004 for Mac OS X (includes Excel, Word, PPT, Entourage, Messenger)

Can play a few commercial video games
Way too many to list.
Apple.com/games/

Will I be able to VPN to the office and back again
Remote Desktop Connection

Quick and easy:

Can I run my tax software on it?:
Intuit Turbo Tax
Tax Cut
Quicken

Can I run my tax software on it?
Windows 2004 for Mac OS X (includes Excel, Word, PPT, Entourage, Messenger)

Can play a few commercial video games
Way too many to list.
Apple.com/games/

Will I be able to VPN to the office and back again
Remote Desktop Connection

"But this situation is not covered by a contract, it's covered by a license"

If I understand things correctly, this is a contract question. You see, the software as installed on your computer will not cease to function. It will continue working fine. What will change is software on Intuit's servers that offers additional features ("Online Services"). You'll have a hard time claiming Intuit promised to make these additional features backwards-compatible in perpetuity. There's another rub to this:

They never promised to keep providing updates to the software you bought in 2000, say, to reflect changes made to the tax law in 2005. Your software will keep working as it did in 2000, and if you want the new version you have to pay for it. It's the same with anti-virus software.

However, they do seem to have promised updates for a limit time. If you read their sunset policy, before buying the software you will know exactly how many years of updates you are paying for and can decide whether it's worth the money.

http://www.intuit.com/international/

Discontinued Software

Intuit has discontinued software and technical support in the countries below. However, you can still register your software. Click a country for more information.

• Argentina
• Brazil
• Chile
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Denmark
• Ecuador
• France
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Uruguay
• Venezuela

I smell law suits. After all, how likely is it that the product packaging said "Expires April 2005"?

Here is a the link, (from the article quoted in the Michael's story), to the Intuit statement:

http://www.intuit.com/support/quicken/sunset/

where Intuit states (amidst the spin doctoring):

"As of April 19th, 2005, in accordance with the Quicken sunset policy, Online Services1 and Live Technical Support2 will no longer be available for Quicken 2001 and 2002 users. These services include online bill pay; downloading financial data from your bank, credit union, credit card, brokerage, 401(k) or mutual fund accounts; downloading stock quotes, news headlines and other financial information into Quicken; uploading portfolio information from Quicken to Quicken.com; and access to the investing features on Quicken.com including portfolio tracking, any watch lists you have created, One-Click Scorecard(TM), Stock Evaluator and Mutual Fund Evaluator. To continue using these services and maintain access to live technical support from an Intuit representative, you will need to upgrade."

slashdot - inaccurate comments about anything modded insightful.

http://www.intuit.com/support/quicken/sunset/

dunno how boing boing makes up stuff that appears on intuits site...

I you'd RTFA, you would have found a link to the official line of Intuit.

There's a link to http://www.intuit.com/support/quicken/sunset/. You can see the official reason there.

Q: What will happen if I don't upgrade?

A: As of April 19, 2005, in accordance with the Quicken sunset policy, Online Services1 and Live Technical Support2 will no longer be available for Quicken 2001 and 2002 users. This means that you will no longer be able to download financial data into older Quicken software. You will still be able to manually enter your data.

Attempts to use Online Services after April 19, 2005 will result in a variety of program error messages related to the feature or service you try to access.

Q: What will happen if I don't upgrade?

A: As of April 19, 2005, in accordance with the Quicken sunset policy, Online Services1 and Live Technical Support2 will no longer be available for Quicken 2001 and 2002 users. This means that you will no longer be able to download financial data into older Quicken software. You will still be able to manually enter your data.

Attempts to use Online Services after April 19, 2005 will result in a variety of program error messages related to the feature or service you try to access.

This is pretty simple to sum up in my mind. Although my desktop is still running windows at work, at home I rarely see it.

But when asked the question why I have moved to Open Office from Microsoft Office, and why I have moved to Linux from Windows, what is the answer?
It's mostly about rights and freedom. I'm not yet willing to admit that I am a full out FSF supporter, though I have been a supporter of the Open Source movement. Microsoft's licensing tactics (and not just theirs but the general tactics of many other folks have led me as far away from proprietary "treat-the-custer-as-a-theif" software as I can possibly get.
Linux is great, and it has been an incredible learning experience (I've honestly never felt so dumb sitting in front of a command prompt as I did during my first Gentoo installation).

I was never a *NIX user. I never had any desire to run anything other than Windows because I was happy with the product.

But they forced me to look elsewhere, and when I did I learned what I was missing.
So IMO, what lies ahead for linux is more users...and I don't believe that is limited to the server. From the desktop side, the strides that have been made in KDE and GNOME in the last couple of revisions have made them dramatically nicer to work with. From the server side...not having to have a GUI running on a server is quite a bit more efficient.

Back in the day I remeber Microsoft recommending you change the screen saver to the black screen instead of one of those OpenGL screen savers on your Windows NT SQL server because the screen saver would bury your processor. I couldn't help but think why do I have this huge GUI running on what is supposed to resemble a somewhat powerful database server?!!

"And worst, it has essentially no open interfaces so it traps your data within itself and refuses to allow itself to integrate with other applications."

I guess sounding knowledgeable is all it takes to be informative. I develop apps that integrate with Quickbooks. The sdk from is available here and have yet to have Quickbooks "refuse" to integrate.

• Segway -- Lots of hype for not a whole heck of a lot.
• Camera-phones -- Some people may love this invention. I think it's just plain silly.
• Smart ID WiFi Detector -- What use is this when it doesn't tell you if the AP is encrypted or not?
• TurboTax 2003 -- When Intuit decided to put key info. in an "unused" portion of the boot block area, causing all sorts of crashes for customers, many who have now sworn off TurboTax for good. Nice one.

You forgot the Quicken folks.

MySQL can't handle flash back transactions

MySQL BEGIN, COMMIT, ROLLBACK transaction syntax requires use of InnoDB, BerkleyDB (think .dbm files that have been round for years), or GeminiDB (If you want to pay money).

doesn't support load balancing, hot site, and paralell or clustered transactions

MySQL Replication can be configured for all of that. When it comes time to load balance MySQL, putting a hardware solutions such as a Cisco CSS 11000 series load balancer in front works without problems. Should you prefer a more Linux way, IPVS works. Or Should you like a generic method without a way to remove dead hosts, then you can you DNS round robbin.

That brings me to the question of why use Compiere at all on anything but oracle

You haven't priced Oracle lately have you?

is there a demand for an ERP system that doesn't use a commercially supported system

Think Fortune 5000 companies that are sick of paying $500,000 in "maintence" fees for JD Edwards running on an IBM AS/400 that they cannot find anyone to maintain for them. Think small businesses that using QuickBooks Enterprise doesn't scale to due to artifical limitations of the software such as 10 concurrent users, and greater than 30,000 products, vendors, and customers.

NO vendor in there right mind would want to support a product they didn't develop or that didn't have its own superb support channels to begin with

You pay me enough money, I will support it. I don't care if I have no access to the source code, I can find a way to make the application work. It may not be pretty, and it could get VERY expensive, but in the end it will work.

You have to remember that big business is alot different than hosting a small website or cddb database on your average linux pc

Your right, in that situation you have one boss, in big business you have 5000.

In response to customer feedback, we have removed the technology from TurboTax 2003 products. In addition, Intuit is changing its policy and updating the TurboTax software license agreement, enabling customers to use TurboTax software to install, prepare, file and print multiple returns for themselves and their family from multiple computers.

Can I install TurboTax for 2003 on multiple computers?

Yes. TurboTax for tax year 2003 can be used on multiple computers to prepare, print and file multiple returns for you and your family.

I still need to install my tax year 2002 product on multiple computers.

We've made it possible for customers to install and use their current 2002 version of TurboTax software on multiple computers. The anti-piracy technology is still included in the current software but the restrictions are not being enforced.

In response to customer feedback, we have removed the technology from TurboTax 2003 products. In addition, Intuit is changing its policy and updating the TurboTax software license agreement, enabling customers to use TurboTax software to install, prepare, file and print multiple returns for themselves and their family from multiple computers.

Can I install TurboTax for 2003 on multiple computers?

Yes. TurboTax for tax year 2003 can be used on multiple computers to prepare, print and file multiple returns for you and your family.

I still need to install my tax year 2002 product on multiple computers.

We've made it possible for customers to install and use their current 2002 version of TurboTax software on multiple computers. The anti-piracy technology is still included in the current software but the restrictions are not being enforced.

...or let them know you do accept it...here:

https://orderupdate.intuit.com/corporate.asp

The company that I work for uses this software called Track-IT. It can be organized into custom categories and subcategories. In addition, it allows for multiple people to modify a ticket. For instance, if there is a network connectivity problem, you are able to keep track of the ticket starting from the end user's rant down the line to a systems admin. Each person who adds to the ticket will be organized under their name or title or whatever. It can also produce reports based on categories that you specify including charts for technically impaired management. Other features that may come in handy would be inventory control for hardware, software, misc items, etc.

Why would you want to run Quicken 2002 in a Virtual PC Session when Quicken for Mac already exists?

Before fussing with importing QuickBooks accounting data into the Quicken personal checkbook product, I would buy a copy of QuickBooks for OS X (Click the "Products" tab and then "Pro 5.0 for Mac" on the left side).

As for importing mail, the best thing to do is use an IMAP (not POP) mail solution, like .Mac and then you can access the mail from any computer and where, via IMAP or the Website.

Buy Macs for the Karma

That's got to be some spin -- An anonymous reader points to Eric Hellweg's Tech Investor on CNN, which suggests that the backlash which triggered Intuit's copy-protection reversal may have cost the company $100 million.

Can I use my Go Phone there?
An anonymous reader writes ""In a follow-up to the Slashdot article 'CDMA vs GSM in Post-war Iraq,' The Reg has a story about how MCI has won the contract to rebuild the mobile phone system with GSM. This is a good thing for the people of Iraq that GSM is being used, GSM is the world standard and several U.S. companies (AT&T for one) are switching to GSM."

Adding Money to Insult.
Neophytus writes "Remember the 'Star Wars Kid' that waxy.org found a couple of weeks ago? Well after over a million downloads the guy has been found. His name is Ghyslain, a 15-year-old tenth grader living in Quebec. Jish contacted him and got a brief, but interesting, interview."

No unlimited copy privileges in jail.
the-dude-man writes "As reported here A 19-year-old pleaded guilty to costing DirectTV for leaking information about the secrets of DirectTV's most advanced anti-piracy technology to hacker websites. As part of the plea deal, Serebryany admitted to copying and distributing 800 megabytes of scanned documents from DirecTV, costing the company $68,000 in investigatory costs. Both sides stipulated to sentencing factors that carry six months to a year in prison under federal guidelines -- assuming no prior convictions. The sentencing court can depart from the guidelines only if the judge finds that the proposed sentence doesn't adequately reflect the facts of the case. According to court records affidavit, Serebryany's adventures began when he found himself with access to some of DirecTV's most coveted technological secrets while working for his uncle at a document imaging company at the office of a Los Angeles law firm, Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue. The firm was representing the satellite TV company in a lawsuit against NDS, the makers of the smart cards DirecTV uses to control access to its signal."

For every 11 discontented customers, there's one of these happy oddballs!
RedWingsSuck writes "A few weeks ago, I asked /. users what they thought about the

See for yourself:

New QuickTax Standard combines the best features of last year's QuickTax and QuickTax Deluxe, including:

* QuickTax is Family Friendly - Prepare up to 6 tax returns on one computer.

You must have printed out at least 6 copies by mistake.

Plus, you don't spend a penny unless you print or file.

TurboTax isn't a good substitute for a real tax person, but it's probably way better than you trying to fillout the paper forms yourself.