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I just sent a quick note to Intuit begging for a Linux port.
Please contact them at "http://www.intuit.com/company/contact_us/index.ht ml" and give them every reason you can think of.
I've been a MS money user since version 1.0 (it came free and I've been paying for upgrades since), and use quickbooks for business, but I can't stand having to reboot to windows to do it.
The past few days I've been attempting to move to gnucash, it has a LONG way to go, it can't even print 3-to-a-page checks easily!
I know Intuit is far from open source, but the unavailability of a good money management package is one more reason why people don't use Linux.

Intuit: War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.

Sing to the tune of "who's afraid of the big bad wolf..."

In-tuit is a piece-of-shit
A piece-of-shit
A piece-of-shit
In-tuit is a piece-of-shit
La la la la la

In my opinion, Intuit is doing the wrong thing by introducing this garbage into their software. I used to use that shit but I bought from their competitor instead, this year. Below, I'll include a letter I wrote to them and the response I received:

I wrote:

"Please remove DRM (digital rights management) from TurboTax software. I do not steal software. I am NOT a CRIMINAL. Please do not treat me like a CRIMINAL. I have used TurboTax for a number of years, but because of Intuit's inclusion of DRM in TurboTax for tax year 2002, I have already purchased your competitor's product and will no longer purchase software (any software) from Intuit. Thanks but no thanks."

"Don Support" (Don_Support@intuit.com) replied with the following email, which I quote in full here...

Hello,

Thank you for sharing your concerns about Product Activation. On behalf of Intuit, I apologize for any inconvenience that product activation has caused you and want to thank you for taking time to contact us directly about it. Feedback from customers like you is the best way for us to know exactly what you're experiencing so we can provide you with accurate information and the best solution.

In response to your comments about "I am NOT a CRIMINAL", that is certainly not the intention at Intuit. To me, it's like saying, "I treat my trusted neighbor like a criminal because I lock my front door." No, I lock my front door to protect my family not from my neighbor, but from those who don't have good intentions. Furthermore, with file sharing technology on the web today, it takes only one person to make our software available to millions of pirates. Based on last year, this was a significant issue. In fact, we believe that for each copy of TurboTax sold, two other copies are pirated.

In closing, we have learned a lot from feedback from customers like you. While we believe that protecting our intellectual property remains paramount, the manner in which we protect it will be reevaluated going forward.

If I missed responding to any of your issues or if you have additional comments or if you have any suggestions, please let me know via email.

Don

Executive Response Team

Intuit, Inc.

In other words, Mr. Support is saying, "Please bend over while I stick the business end of a gun into your asshole, kind of like the way Adam Sandler was telling some guy to 'take that out of my ass' in one of his movies, where he was trying to escape from a bathroom window in a motel and some cop or whatever had a gun to his ass, but when he said this, the motel manager, who was walking outside and overheard this portion of the conversation, thought there was all kinds of weird sex going on inside the motel room, which happened to be the honeymoon suite, since there were no more normal rooms available, but I don't remember what this movie is called." That's ok, Mr. Support... I don't know what the hell you're talking about. DRM is a piece of shit, just like Intuit, Microsoft, the RIAA, the MPAA, the DMCA, the SSSCA, and whatever else I missed...

To close, I'd like to add the following:

This post is very intellectual. As such, it is VALUABLE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. By reading this post, you have agreed to be bound by the conditions of the following agreement: You agree that this post is intellectual. You agree that this post is intellectually stimulating. You agree that having read this valuable intellectual property has caused a copy of said property to be placed in your head. Since the aforementioned copy has been placed in your cabeza without the prior written consent of rice_burners_suck, as none has been given here, you have violated rice_burners_suck's intellectual property rights and the God-given right to eternal perpetually increasing profits. The aforementioned eternal perpetually increasing profits must be enjoyed by rice_burners_suck because rice_burners_suck has put a great deal of effort into creating the aforementioned valuable intellectual property and for this, rice_burners_suck must become the richest person in the world and should be able to live like a king over the investment placed into producing the valuable intellectual property. Since you HAVE AGREED to this agreement, you have agreed to send $100.00 once a week for the rest of your life to Rice Burners Suck, 80923 Sunny Venison Road, Kansas City, MO 32238. You have furthermore agreed that you have waived your rights to any kind of court action, including the right to a trial by jury should you be charged with any crime, now known or later developed, including but not limited to: stealing a loaf of bread and/or the serial murder of 900 ants by spraying with Raid. Oh yeah, and YOU HAVE AGREED TO BECOME THE SLAVE OF RICE BURNERS SUCK, because for all intents and purposes, RICE BURNERS SUCK is a greedy multinational corporation with infinity dollars in the bank, which gives it the right to own slaves.

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. REPORT TO ROOM 101.

In Canada MYOB software was sold to Intuit.
They now no longer support any payroll tax table updates and a bunch of other things that basically make the software useless. However, even with these horrendous omissions, they are as of today, still selling the software at full retail in stores across the country.
Lucky customers purchasing this software and want full functionality now have the option of .... well buying different software. This helpful advice came strait from a support call.
This is FRUAD and these clowns should be charged criminally. I will never by an Intuit product for as long as I live.

Seems pretty nice. The best part is, you don't have to pay a dime until you get to the printing/filing part, so you can try it out and see if it suits you. No DRM/platform hassles that I can see; it works in Safari, Chimera and Internet Explorer on my Mac OS X box. The basic version is only $20 (+ $15 for your state forms), which seems to be worth the hassle of puzziling over the IRS's forms and all the different classifications you could possibly fall under (I'm in a slightly odd situation though, so the 1040EZ may wind up being a cheaper choice if there's nothing funky you have to do...) Here's the link if people are interested: http://www.turbotax.intuit.com/welcome/perm/banner 11/welcome.htm.

My wife received one of these "special offers" for TurboTax Premier for Windows. We installed it, activated it online, and started our return.

Two weeks later, I wanted to continue where I left off. This time, the software would not start - but instead asked her to purchase the software again. There was a 1-800 number to call if we had previously paid, but we did not receive any useful feedback from there.

The only thing that had changed on her machine in the mean time was that I had replaced an older 6x CD-Writer with a newer 40x one. She is only running Windows 2000 on her machine, so the LILO boot sector issue does not apply.

End of story is that we got a refund for her copy, and instead I bought TurboTax for my Mac (OS X).

After reading this, next year we will be using different software - maybe H&R TaxCut or an online service.

Thank you for contacting Intuit Inc.

We received your e-mail concerning TurboTax(R) Product Activation. Product Activation is designed to help reduce unlicensed use of TurboTax software. It ties a single copy (a license is tied to a pc, not a copy of the software) of TurboTax to a single PC. Product Activation is completely anonymous; no personal data is collected or transmitted to Intuit. Product activation does not prevent TurboTax customers from preparing tax returns for themselves and their family members or from giving the CD to someone else who can then purchase their own product license. TurboTax customers can prepare their return from more than one computer but will only be able to activate, print or e-file their tax return from a single PC.

However, you may install the trial version on other computer and work on your returns but you can Efile and print from the computer where you have first installed the program.

Product activation helps to ensure TurboTax customers use the product in accordance with the license agreement. The key terms of the License Agreement have been the same for the past several years. It restricts the licensed use of TurboTax software to a single computer. With product activation your privacy is safe. We do not transmit any personally identifiable information about you or your computer.

Product activation transfers nothing but a Product Key and Request Code. The code and key are matched together and a confirmation is sent to Intuit which enables TurboTax to be activated on your computer. Product activation does not monitor any activities on your computer such as what Web sites you visit, etc. It will not prevent you from using your CD-R or CD-RW drives.

You can still prepare multiple returns from your computer and prepare your return using multiple computers at no additional cost. You can remove/delete Macrovision SafeCast (C-Dilla) folders and components associated with TurboTax.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you. We hope new arrangements will not affect our business relationship in any way but will continue to grow. We have forwarded your comments to the TurboTax Management and Development Teams for consideration. Although we cannot guarantee that your feedback will result in a change to our guidelines, we assure you that we take all advice seriously because it contributes to the improvement of our products and services, and we appreciate your honesty.

To obtain additional information about product activation, please visit us at http://www.turbotaxsupport.com/default.asp?platfor m=1&docid=815.

Further, Intuit respects and protects customer information. We integrate privacy in to everything we do. That is why privacy and security were key considerations when implementing the product activation technology in federal TurboTax for Windows desktop products for Tax Year 2002.

The Macrovision SAFECAST(R) product activation technology used by Intuit installs files on your computer when you install TurboTax. These files serve as your product license; in addition, they also manage and protect that license. These files interact only with TurboTax and with each other. Macrovision SAFECAST does not gather any personally identifiable information. It does not examine, modify, or gather information about your computer, your computer's contents, or your activities or behavior, nor does it transmit any such information to Intuit, Macrovision, or any other party.

C-Dilla is a company that was acquired by Macrovision in 1999. Some of the Macrovision SAFECAST technology used in TurboTax is derived from earlier C-Dilla products. "Spyware" is jargon for hidden programs that transmit user information to others (usually advertisers) without the user's knowledge. C-Dilla is not spyware.

If you have additional questions, please visit us at www.turbotaxsupport.com. We appreciate your interest and look forward to serving you in the future.

There is a new uninstaller for Macrovision Safecast/c-dilla. This requires that you first complete your taxes, uninstall TurboTax normally, and follow the process located here. http://www.turbotaxsupport.com/default.asp?platfor m=1&docid=836

If you need further assistance, or if there is any other way we may be of service, please contact us at http://www.intuit.com/service.

Respectfully,

Nidhi

Intuit Customer Service

You can make a product suggestion regarding this. Remember, keep it polite or they'll consider you a nut and ignore you.

Honestly, what is it with slashdot, square pegs and round holes?

In a past life, I managed a software product validation team. Nothing would have shipped past me with this in it. It's a bug. File a report. You do not need to be a registered user to file a bug report, it turns out.

Now that the IRS's e-file program is officially available, Intuit will have to radically change their business model for TurboTax. I completed my federal and MA state taxes online last night through TaxAct. It was quick, easy and without hassle.

There are several other IRS e-file Partners, many of which will allow you to file online for free. And if you don't qualify for free filing, you can file for as little as $4.95 for federal and $7.95 for state taxes, which is much less than the cost of TurboTax Basic Plus State, never mind the additional $9.95 cost of filing each return.
Web filing will beat out packaged tax software because it can be delivered more cheaply and is platform independent.

Returns & Guarantees

Intuit offers a 60-day money back guarantee, with the exception of QuickBooks Point of Sale. This product offers a 30-day money back guarantee. If you are not completely satisfied with your Intuit products, please return them for a full refund (excludes shipping and handling.) To return your product, simply fill out the back of the invoice with information about the return including name, address, phone number, reason for returning and (if an exchange) your desired replacement product. Then send the product to:

Intuit, Inc.
Attention: Returns Department
6060 Nancy Ridge Drive
Suite 100
San Diego, CA 92121-3290

Your return will be processed, and you will receive your refund in four to six weeks.

While I think complaining about the program may do a little bit of good, I'd think that returning it for a refund along with the reason why would do a lot more good. (Of course after you used it and printed your taxes.)

I wonder if Intuit will take longer than 60 days to process my refund (then they will have paid me $20 to use their software).

-Bingo

Turbo Tax's web-based product worked great for me last year. My favorite part was I could do it via Linux. A close second was that I don't have to re-enter all my address/ssn information from last year this year. Finally, it was kinda cool to watch the "tracking" information on their website (kinda like when you ship a package via UPS).

Intuity's Developer Network let's you download both the QuickBooks SDK, as well as their QuickBase API. Here it is:

http://developer.intuit.com/

The QuickBase API evidently supports VB, Perl, and Java, so you have a platform independent option available.

While I can't definately state that this will help you, in my own experience, I've been able to get at/do everything I need to in QuickBooks using these products.

Good luck!

There's no reason why you have to use the QFX format for this. Most lending institutions will support the QIF format, which can be imported quite nicely into Quicken 2003 for Mac OS X. (I know, because I did it just last night. :) I don't know what the QFX format does, but I suspect that it allows Quicken to actually interact with your credit card, allowing payments to be made from within Quicken. QIF, on the other hand, merely provides a record of transaction that must be manually imported into Quicken each time.

Now, I can't speak for Quicken 2003, because I haven't tried it, and because Intuit's site doesn't go into details...but, Intuit does have a guide on how to get QFX files working on the Mac. Have you tried that?

-Waldo Jaquith

Quickbooks 2003!

Last time I checked, this company also makes a tidy profit.

The benefits can be seen in less obvious ways, too: MMPORGs seem to be making money for at least one company I can think of. Not to mention the impact had on software companies, who can now release beta software on a human-scale cycle, and trivially manage patching and upgrades for all their customers via the Internet.

I think the rule of thumb is that companies who use the Internet in support of (or as an extension of) a well-established business with a proven model are doing quite well, thank you very much.

http://www.intuit.com/support/quicken/2000/win/193 5.html

Crossover Office: $54.95

Total: $114.90

--or--

GNU Cash: $0.00

Total: FREE!

A company MUST PAY their employees enough to afford to buy their product or THEY WILL GO OUT OF BUSINESS. PERIOD. It's like gravity, fellas. Can't get around it no matter how many accountants and lawyers you hire.

This would appear to spell doom for Ferrari, Lamborghini, DeBeers, Moet et Chandon--and Freightliner, Terex, and Boeing. In fact, it would appear to spell doom for any company making a "luxury" good or any kind of capital equipment. It is simply not the case--an enormous number of companies produce goods that their employees can never hope to be able to afford. This does not mean that Pratt & Whitney is running a sweatshop--just that they make big-ticket capital items that are not sold at the mall.

Simple historical fact:
What is an historical fact is that over time any job with specialized technical knowledge will be automated to the point that less-expensive workers can do it. The classic economic case study is typesetting: from the time of Gutenberg until the early 1880s type was set by hand. It was a time-consuming process that required real skill--a capable, quick typesetter could make good money. When Ottmar Mergenthaler introduced his Linotype machine (which made it possible for anybody who could use a keyboard to set better type in a fraction of the time) approximately 90% of typesetters lost their jobs. More or less overnight.

Programming computers is a specialized task that requires expert knowledge. Guess what? The natural response of any businessman will be to try to find a cheaper solution. Some are looking overseas (such as Bangalore), others are importing workers on temp visas. The long-term trend will be to simpler and simpler computer systems that require less skilled talent--and talent with less skill. A good case in point is in small accounting systems: ten years ago there were a lot of people writing accounting systems for small companies. Nowadays those companies buy QuickBooks, or go upscale to buy Solomon or Best. The marketplace for single-user PC accounting software development is essentially gone.

Some people recognize this...
...and learn new skills. Nobody is looking for a programmer to write a G/L package in FoxPro anymore. But there are people looking for programmers to write GIS software; and people looking for programmers to write Palm OS or WinCE software; and people looking for programmers to write Web software; and so on. And the programmers who continue to focus on learning those skills, and learning to work in new markets, and learning to adapt to a changing marketplace will thrive.

Those who do not--who just expect the same skills in the same industry to last them a lifetime--will ultimately be left with nothing to do but whine to Congress about H1Bs taking their jobs.

However, I'd be hesitant about using an online version of Quicken. One of the biggies: I would feel like I no longer would have control of _my_ laboriously entered data. Add in shifting privacy statements, server availability, advertising overload, and simply different usage patterns for a personal finance package, and you get a less appealing online product.

I guess there is a reason one is free and the other is $20.00 a year.

On the other hand, if I had a business, and wanted to provide access to several people, an online accounting package might look attractive ...

Intuit (makers of Quicken) have a nice online tax filing system, but no support for linux browsers whatsoever. The site stops you with a list of supported browsers. They list Netscape 6.0 on Mac machines, so probably all they have to do is realize that they already support Mozilla/Galeon in Linux. You can file a complaint here.

Intuit (makers of Quicken) have a nice online tax filing system, but no support for linux browsers whatsoever. The site stops you with a list of supported browsers. They list Netscape 6.0 on Mac machines, so probably all they have to do is realize that they already support Mozilla/Galeon in Linux. You can file a complaint here.

Personally, I use an OS to run apps. I don't choose apps because of my OS. Consequently, I rather take the other point of view. There are enough OS already, it needs more non-proprietary apps. There are some, but they do not yet cover enough areas.

Example? Nothing as good as Quicken yet, GnuCash not being there on the reporting side yet. Nothing up to the standards of Cubase yet. And despite the Gimp, there's still nothing of the quality of Photoshop yet.

OS writers will write OSes because that's what they enjoy. However, from a user point of view it's time to start concentrating on polishing up those apps.

Cheers,
Ian

They do. It's even free if your AGI was less than $25,000.

I do the books for our corporation and a few other businesses. We only use the basic features of QB (enter checks, make deposits, do payroll, print reports, reconcile accounts), and my largest DB has been around 40MB befre I got around to archiving and closing some old years.

- I have never had db corruption in the 4 years or so we've been using QB (we back up nightly though, just in case :).

- It is slow when it gets big. Its also slow in multiuser mode. I'd love to have the QB front end on a SQL database.

- I regularly (once a month) import 400+ checks from our custom commission payment system via IIF files using a short perl script to generate the import file. I too wish the IIF files were a bit more straightforward. It'd be nice if one could export transaction via IIF too, but at least one can squeak by with an excel report if you need to abandon QB

Intuit appears to have a SDK for an XML based API now. I dont know how good it is though.

Adobe's a member of the BSA.

The BSA has an interesting statement on the DMCA here. This is a response to a Library of Congress rule available here.

Members of the BSA include Adobe, Apple Computer, Autodesk, Bentley Systems, CNC Software/Mastercam, Compaq, Corel Corporation, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Lotus Development, Macromedia, Microsoft, Network Associates, Novell, Sybase, Symantec, and Walker Digital; i.e. most of /.'s favourite hate companies, plus some extras.

These are the guys to line up against. They've been around since the '80s. I suspect that Adobe's lawyers are all BSA stooges. Certainly Adobe's PR department doesn't seem to be toeing the BSA line.

Note that Intuit uses Castanet to update Quicken.

Jeff

"Geeks, Where would you be without them?"

It seems the real reason they only support the M$ and Mac OS's is the lack of financial software(Quicken or M$ Money) for other OS's .

Perhaps, after reviewing the Linux Advocacy HOWTO, a few friendly suggestions to INTUIT would help.

Something tells me M$ wouldn't be very interested.

"Geeks, Where would you be without them?"

My company has outgrown Quickbooks. In light of that, we have been investigating several Application Service Providers for potential financial service candidacy. The big debate has been to use an ASP for accounting services or purchase a reputable software package, a server to run it on and keep it in-house. The final verdict: the latter, and here's why:

Small to mid-size biz
Several of the ASP's I researched and spoke with advertise that they specialize in solutions for the small to mid-size biz. Dell defines a small to mid-size business as a company with = 10 concurrent users. For a biz that cannot afford a $20,000USD accounting package, I can hardly see how that same biz can swing the cost for an ASP (see below)

Cost
For a 15 install/user-base (their minimum requirement) Corio charges approximately $13,000USD per month for software, hardware, bandwidth and technical support for financial services. PeopleSoft is used as the backend and I do understand that PS isn't exactly $15 shareware from Tucows, but $13K is a lot of money, regardless.

I realize that the Application Service Provider market, as it is defined these days, is a relatively new field of service. However, the cost is excessive, the requirements haven't been as accurate as they appear and all of this causes the people that could benefit the most, to be shut out.

It's an excellent idea, but the market needs more competition. Lower the prices and scale to what you advertise.

"Geeks, Where would you be without them?"

"Geeks, Where would you be without them?"

I had the same problem with my PPC. I found that if I disabled it as a screensaver, moved the app out of the system folder, and just started it normally when I was ready to let the system idle, it counted time normally.

Here is a quicken suggestion and feedback page. For those who would really be interested in buying Quicken for Linux this would be a good way to let Intuit know.