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Gnucash v1.4.0 Released
Ur@eus writes: "The Gnucash team has released the 1.4.0 version of their wonderful
Quicken-like personal finance manager. This is the first stable release since the move from Motif to GNOME.
You find Gnucash 1.4.0 at Gnucash.org" This plugs a major gaping hole in Linux software: I've been using gnucash for a year now, and it's made great leaps in terms of features and stability. It isn't quicken, but its close enough for most of us. If you're having problems with the main link, try this mirror.
"it's" doesn't have to be short for "it is"
No. This is wrong. "It's" is always short for "it is". To show possession, the correct pronoun to use is "its".
For more correct apostrophe usage, see Bob's Guide to the Apostrophe, You Idiots (yes, that's the real title).
every time you correct a grammatical error a hamster dies.
Ha ha ha ha! Die, hamsters, die!!!
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The real meaning of the GNU GPL:
The real meaning of the GNU GPL:
"The Source will be with you... Always."
The G is supposed to be pronounced. Check out the explanation from the GNU Manifesto:
I assume that the main confusion that is supposed to be avoided is with the word "new", not with the animal. ("Have you heard of the new project?")
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-- Slashdot sucks.
A lot of banks will accept checks written on the back of an envelope with magic marker, even, as long as all the requisite information is there.
Now, that being said, if it looks like an OCR-capable check, but it doesn't work in the OCR equipment, I don't know how they'd deal with that.
DNA just wants to be free...
The gnome version of GnuCash started out as "GnoCash" I believe... let's just say "GnuCash" is a step in the right direction. :)
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Most people tend to then "if Quicken doesn't run thouse wine, then it won't run". That's not the case. Executor has been running Quicken for MacOS for many moons.
ARDI has beed selling their Linux version for $75 that INCLUDES the MacOS version of Quicken, and says if has full compatbility, with the execption of the online banking options.
No, I don't work for ARDI, or to tell the truth, own Executor. But if GNUCash doesn't quite float your boat, and are stuck in Windows for the sole fact of Quicken, this wouldn't be a bad program to try. And at only $75 including Quicken, not a bad deal. I just don't want to see people not use linux, because they don't know that Quicken will run in linux, and that's the only program that's keeping them in Windows.
Also on a site note, I do use GNUCash. It's served me well in managing what little money a lowly student can make =) I'd give GNUCash a try before you fork over the $75 to run Quicken though Executor.
Back when I was working my way through College as a retail clerk, I was told that the MICR #s used a special ink which made the numbers more visible to automated readers (i.e. the little box we fed the checks through for validation).
:)
How accurate is this? Is the ink really magnetic/metalized for this purpose? If so, it may be a significant problem to home users. If, OTOH the recognition is purely optical, nevermind.
In any case, thanks for your efforts. I hope the right people take notice and include it in Gnu$$.
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
You don't know what those machines are doing. They could be idle for weeks or months. The only way to judge and OS is to run one and know exactly what it is doing.
Linux O Muerte!
Z'okay that it's not a clone of Quicken, because (--Open Source Zealot Mode On--) GNUCash comes with source code. Has the eyes of the world to search out bugs, suggest features, etc. Forkable at will. And the best reason to use it and help with the development process? The completed product(s) can't be closed and taken proprietary, so I can count on being able to have/fix the latest and greatest version(s) without the chains to corporate America.
So I would expect that in a few years, Intuit will be saying, "Well, it's not GNU Cash, but it's still pretty good, and if you buy it, we make money because we're such nice people..."
...Open Source isn't the only answer -- but it's almost always a better value than the alternatives...
http://www.swig.org
/pub/g-wrap directory on the gnucash ftp server.
Also, you will need a program called "g-wrap". You can find it in the
Don't throw your computer out the window, throw the Windows out of your computer!
I have been using GnuCash for about nine months and am quite pleased with it. It works very well and gets better with each release. Its documentation has been written with the aid of real accountants; I have actually gotten a good feel for my financial situation, something wh. IMHO Quicken does a rather poor job of, for some reason. I really enjoy using GnuCash. Now if only they would get it to start up faster...
I'd do it but I haven't the time.
As I've been considering what it would take to make my parents move to linux, I've had to think of all the things they currently do with their desktop that they couldn't do with a linux system. One of the largest problems has always been Quicken. Wine has never been able to run it sufficiently. The last time I looked at gnucash it wasn't quite up to the job. I'm looking forward to seeing the new version.
Fortunately, I don't think many people rely on online-banking connections with Quicken but I suspect this will become more of a stumbling block as time goes on. It would be nice to have a linux app take care of this functionality as well.
Now... If I can only convince them that kmail (or something) is better than Eudora then I could administrate their machine from home rather than having to drive over there all the time.
The next site to slashdot will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and start slashdotting it early!
Will this work for window managers like Window Maker?
It should - I use GTK apps all the time in WindowMaker. You might want to waste the space and install the bare minimum GNOME packages anyway, just in cash the progs get huffy when you install them. However, I don't seem to have any GNOME packages on my system right now, and the GTK apps run fine.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
Try this some time:
Imagine you're basically lazy, not math-ooriented (English major), bad with money, and hate using MS Windows.
GnuCash changed my life.
I started keeping track of every single little thing I spent a few months ago with this software and finally, after 27 years of floundering and fearing my own finances, I have the money demon whipped. This is not merely good software, this is important software. Get it. Use it.
-- The Sage does nothing, and nothing is left undone. --Lao Tzu
I glanced at the web page, but couldn't see if they had these options.
George
I used to work for the CoreStates Bank PC banking department before they were bought by First Union. So I had to know both Quicken & Money from the inside-out. Unfortunately, that was over 2.5 years ago so I can't quite remember it all. But here are some basic similarities and differences:
Similarities:
Both of them let you create accounts, enter transactions, transfer funds and pay bills. Both of them let you set up various reports to track expenses and investments. Although the programs looked different, the functionality was pretty much the same and you could use either one comfortably given enough time.
Differences:
IMO Quicken is much easier to install and set up. Setting things up in Money (ie new accounts, internet connection) depends a lot upon using wizards even if you have enough experience to do something without them. Quicken uses some "step through" menus like wizards, but they're avoidable. Again, this is a personal preference.
The best thing about Quicken is that it doesn't delete your npclog, which is a text file that gets concatenated (by Quicken) with your upload/download data. If you understand the codes in the npclog (which aren't too tough to understand), you can see what payment/transfer instructions you sent out and what cleared check #'s and stuff you received. If there is a discrepancy between your records and the bank's records, the npclog can easily clear up who made the mistake. I once saved my mom $120 in erroneous overdraft charges by printing out the npclog and showing the local friendly banker how she transferred money before the cutoff time of 3pm even though the bank didn't recognize it in time.
Money (as of Money 98 anyway, but probably Money 2K, too) deletes your npclog after a short while. There is a trick to catch it before it gets deleted, but try explaining the procedure to "Joe AOL" to get him to send you a copy of it.
The only sucky thing about Quicken is that it prefers IE over Netscape for its internet functionality. It has something to do with using IE's DLLs. If it wasn't for Quicken, I wouldn't have IE installed.
So, to summarize....buy Quicken and fsck Micro$oft.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Anyway, suppose a commercially-funded competitor to Quicken formed today. Also suppose they had a team of software engineers as large as Quicken's, and they were working full time. The question is, how long would it take for them to produce a financial software package with stability, functionality, and usability mostly equivalent to Quicken's? Could they get their first version out within 6 months? A year? I'm not sure how long it would take, but I imagine that their first few product releases would be sub-par, and it would take time before they had a decent comparable product.
That said, we'll see how GNUcash and other free-software packages with direct closed-source commercial counterparts develop over time. It'll certainly be an interesting show.
make world, not war
The big question I have is how do you count how much money do you save by using OSS software instead of Microsoft software with Gnucash? ^_^
From http://www.gnucash.org/features.php3
"Intuit® Quicken® QIF files can be imported, and are automatically merged to eliminate duplicate transactions."
For those not familiar, QIF files are one of the choices for download of a month's worth of credit card transactions.
GNUCash is a great step for Linux in general. However, to call it 'Quicken Like' is like calling a moped 'Car Like'. Quicken is a fully matured program that manages many different function in financial tracking and planning. GNUCash is an account tracker.
Might be a problem, the name may trigger SPAM filters looking out for FreeCash offers.
Fight Spammers!
is that they know how to name their programs to make them attractive to the general public. For example, the name "Quicken" seems to imply that it will "Quicken" the process of balancing one's books--which it does, if you compare it to using a typewriter and a four-function calculator.
On the other hand, "Gnucash" has got to be one of the worst names, ever. When I saw the name, my first thought was "cash for Gnutella, because they're charging now," and I freaked out. Then I thought, "Well, maybe it's just a GNU thing that has something to do with making payments online." I had to actually read down to figure out that it was the GNU money-managing software--and I'm sure that anyone who saw it on the shelf (assuming it was packaged) would think "Cash for gnus?? Is this another stupid video game like 'Lemmings?'"
"Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he deems himself your master."
So true, and likewise, much of what goes into Linux isn't GNU either, it's bits and pieces of BSD that no one could create themselves. So whenever you look at your docs and see "(c) The regents of the university of california" remember, we were here first
-f
This seems to sum things up. For all the good that free software gives users, it so often falls short. Gnucash simply doesn't have all the features users are looking for. It does have many useful features, but before wide acceptance of software like this can occur, someone somewhere must have the proper motovation to make it "perfect". And this is where i believe it is nessary to have a "pay for play" segment in the software market. At this time, it appears that a pure freeware world simply can't work.
Kiss my shiny metal ass
Just what is it about everything that people whine about "bloat?" If you don't want one coherent set of desktop apps, run twm or leave Linux in console mode and play color-yahtzee. Windows 9x/nt, on the other hand, is pretty much useless/impossible in dos mode as it comes from Microsoft. I can see people calling Windows stuff "bloat" because it crawls even when you have a 500+ Mhz processor and 64+ MB of RAM. I have run KDE (1 and 2) in various environments from a 300 Mhz K6 to my current Athlon 550. Seeing as pretty much any modern computer has 64 or more MB of RAM, KDE (and I'm sure GNOME as well) run perfectly well. Sure, if you try running it on that 486/33 with 4MB RAM it will be slow. But for those with a computer that was new in the last five years, it's fairly sufficient to handle KDE/GNOME.
The beauty of Linux is you can shut things off, uninstall, etc to tailor it to how you wish. Windows, you must take it all (including those damn AOL/AT&T/Earthlink shortcuts). If you have specific things you wish to label bloat, say so. But remember you can just skip them altogether. If it's just because you don't like them or do not wish to run them, that's not a good enough reason to bitch about it.
Perhaps it relys on gnome-print...
Indeed, it uses gnome-print for check printing, and presumably printing other reports as well.
I've run older 1.3 versions of GnuCash under a bunch of different window managers, including enlightenment, icewm, windowmaker, and kwm. You need to have the gnome librarys installed, including the "development" libraries (headers, etc.) if you're compiling GnuCash from source. Other than that you really don't need gnome, although you may want to have some of the gnome utilities around if you're interested in playing around with themes (GnuCash will use gtk/gnome themes, which can improve the aesthetics over the default according to your taste).
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
You are absolutely right on this account. Perhaps "plugs a major gaping hole in GNU software..." would have been better way to put it. I personally use the Linux kernal myself, but if it can compile on one of the BSDs, then certainly it runs on more than just Linux.
I think that the reason why you see this Linux bias so often on Slashdot is pretty obvious and is actually understandable. GnuCash is, of course, GNU software and is governed by the GPL. Linux is also governed by the GPL. NetBSD is not, it is the BSD license. GNU is intended to be a *NIX replacement operating system/environment. Because of this, when a new piece of software or software version is released as part of the GNU project, it is going to be associated with a GNU operating system kernal (either Linux or HURD.)
I think you are going to have to get used to it... it's a Stallman thing.
Brought to you by Frobozz Magic Penguin Fodder.
I downloaded gnucash out of curiosity, and tried to compile. The configure script bombed out with a "Can't find Swig" error. I was thinking, "what the fsck is SWIG?!" I didn't notice anything on the Gnucash pages about needing this - it's something they should include.
I then went looking on Google, and found it. I thought I'd post a link for anyone who gets this error and, like me, had never heard of Swig before.
Further digging on the Gnucash site helped me find out that you don't really need Swig, and they might be changing the configure script so that it doesn't bomb if you don't have it.
Anyhow, here is the link to Swig
Don't throw your computer out the window, throw the Windows out of your computer!
Sorry for the rant, I'm still pissed off about the whole Bungie/Microsoft thing...
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
This is important because check readers aren't actually doing any kind of OCR - when they started using MICR lines OCR was a dream even on a very primitive level. The numbers (and the 4 special characters) look that way because when you run them past a reader the waveforms / signals they produce are very identifiable. Think of them as being an early version of a magnetic stripe, but non-writable.
Position is also very important - individuals don't see it, but for any business printing its own checks in any significant quantity it's critical that the position of every character in the MICR line be correct. If the positioning isn't correct, the (often poorly adjusted) readers at the central processing banks will spit it out as a damaged check, and it gets special handling. Consumers never really see this, but for businesses their bank can actually be charged for the extra processing, and they're willing to pass that charge along to the business printing unscannable checks.
Any check printed by a consumer on a home PC is going to be spit out like this, but I'm not sure the banks are set up to deal with extra fees for those - they probably have the cost of a certain percentage of checks being "damaged" factored into their fees. This is also the reason that they prefer that you not fold checks - folded checks are both less likely to read and more likely to jam in the readers.
fencepost
just a little off
No flames here. But Gnucash is written in such a way that the transaction engine is independent of the front end. In this way, it would be a relatively straightforward task to write the front-end for KDE, Windows or a console. The flexibility is all there, just waiting for some someone to write it.
Man, that's what those old money people call us entrepreneurs. They look down on us and call us gnucash. What snobs!
Eh...
The only thing you need is gnome-libs installed. Don't think you have to install any other component of GNOME. As for bloat, gnome-libs provides functionalty that many apps need, it would be more bloat for each and every app to implement such things themeselves.
Gnucash can read Quicken .QIF files. I have downloaded .QIF (both Quicken 98 and 99) from my banks website and Gnucash recognized it outright :-). Check it out.
I believe that it does have check printing (experimental at this point, requires gnome-print) but that's only for printing date, payee, and amount on a check that's already been printed - just like Quicken does.
:) I guess I need to have it checked by a bank, too. :)
I'm working on an app to print checks under Linux like VersaCheck ('cause they pissed me off with their shoddy software, and their subsequent "tech support".) I did a cleanroom implementation of the MICR font, and I just finished up a Postscript program that will print the checks... I want to wrap a command line and a GUI app around all this so you can choose check formats, different accounts, etc. It's not done yet, but it's not vaporware, either - I promise.
Also, I let the GnuCash guys know about what I'm working on so that they could incorporate it into GnuCash - haven't heard much back from them yet.
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I enter my paper receipts into GnuCash by hand, and then reconcile the GnuCash record with the bank/CC statement every month. If you just download from your bank and import, you're taking their word for the transactions you made. Better to compare from two different sources to find any discrepancies.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
These words may be the sentiments of a heretic, but here goes...
The Gnucash program is good attempt to duplicate popular account management programs. But other than being free, what's the point? A more radical approach might has started by saying: most Linux users are connected to the network and like to be constantly plugged-in. Let's build a network friendly UI (say using Java), that users can connect from their Palm Pilots or via web browsers on the road. Let's build in data transfer from Nasdaq for stock and mutual fund tracking (there is development level support currently). And let's allow the program to periodically email reports. This said, I welcome the announcement of this version, and in particular the engine, as a good starting point.
The nice thing about open source is that it provides a road for us heretics to enter the mainstream. All it takes is a few late nights of hacking.
Given one hour to live, the student replied: "I'd spend it with professor FP who can make an hour seem like a lifetime."
As many have commented, the ability to over-the-net transactions is what keeps people using Quicken (tm) & Windoze. Quicken uses a protocol called OFX http://www.ofx.net . There may be some issues with incorporating this into GnuCash, They've been talking about it for a long time. BTW, it may already be in there, I've still got an old 1.3 version.
-- Rich
Free your mind and your Ass will follow -- George Clinton
No support for that, no sense in trying it out. I reordered my entire financial life around this feature. If it weren't for this, and for games, I'd be 100% non-Windows on my home PC.
Edith Keeler Must Die