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Crossover 4.2 Runs Quickbooks on Linux

Posted by timothy on from the whittling-away dept.

Memorize writes "What's keeping you from switching your desktop to Linux? Linux has been able to run MS Office under Wine for a while now, but Codeweavers just announced Crossover 4.2 with support for Intuit Quicken and Quickbooks. I know that lack of a good bookkeeping app (other than Gnucash) has been keeping a lot of people from switching. It supports iTunes, too. What else do you need?"

59 comments

  1. I need... by DeathPenguin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >>What else do you need?

    Games. Though I suppose a lot of people are content with Cedega. Still, that's an awful lot of versions of Wine to have just for compatibility.

    1. Re:I need... by NemoX · · Score: 1

      Ditto...If it weren't for games my desktop would be linux which would make connecting it to my four linux servers a lot easier.

    2. Re:I need... by FidelCatsro · · Score: 1

      ;) i dont know if 3 counts as alot , seriously cedega works well however it will never be a replacment for native games (and some better drivers from certain GPU makers) .This is what is required for compatability right now though and the more apps like Quickbooks that work the easier transition becomes and the more linux users there are , when there are more users then we will have more native ports.
      which will mean more users and games will come to the platform at a faster rate.
      I own crossover and cedega and can highly recomend them for crossplatform support , as i said it is not as ideal as native ports but its a good start

      --
      The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
    3. Re:I need... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      uhm.. and what about

      - 3d studio max
      - Autocad
      - Photoshop

      ?

    4. Re:I need... by trixy_1086 · · Score: 1

      I had a really negative experience with Cedega. I marched out my parade of DirectX 6 and 7 era games, and I would say that about 90% of them didn't work (Age of Empires, Madden 2002, just to name 2 examples). They almost invariabely worked on plain ol' Wine, though. I'm an advocate for CrossOver, so I got it for free, and I paid for Cedega. I really felt ripped off after using Cedega.

      --
      College Humor at it's best
    5. Re:I need... by FidelCatsro · · Score: 1

      Cedega does have a full list of games known to work with it ,, which perhaps goes a little underadvertisedbut it is invaluable for knowing if its worth the money ..
      btw i thihnk loki did a version of AOE for native linux(not sure though,perhaps im confusing it with alpha centauri)

      --
      The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
    6. Re:I need... by hhlost · · Score: 1

      GIMP

    7. Re:I need... by trixy_1086 · · Score: 1

      well, I checked out that that list and it said that most of them worked. However, upon reading the forums and studying that list a little more, it only takes one person to submit to that list to get a game added, and it doesn't have to run on un-tweaked Cedega. I mean, I'm not the sharpest guy when it comes to using Linux, but I've been around it enough to know what's going on, and I couldn't get them working in Cedega half as well as they worked in regular wine. Loki did a native port of Alpha Centauri, but good luck finding it now. A while back I was really trying hard to switch to FC2 from Windows (although FC3 was out at this point), and I was trying to buy games and the like to keep going with it, and all of the places that had even had most of those Loki games were out of stock, save for a few that had made friends with supply and demand and were now outrageously priced.

      --
      College Humor at it's best
  2. Mainly just painless installation by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Probably the main thing stopping me from switching is the same thing stopping me from trying out XP. I don't want to format my hard drive, and I've only got one partition, which is NTFS. In theory I should still be able to install linux into a file in the NTFS filesystem, but I haven't had the time to bother with this.

    1. Re:Mainly just painless installation by MarkRose · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It shouldn't be difficult to restore your needed documents from backup. You do make backups of everything you care about, don't you?

      --
      Be relentless!
    2. Re:Mainly just painless installation by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1

      Not really. That's one of the reasons I want to reinstall everything. I mean, I've got a backup of my documents folder, but there's so much that's stored elsewhere. It wouldn't be devestating to lose that extra stuff, but I'd rather not lose it. Even then, I'm not sure how I'd go about backing up everything. It's my laptop, so I can't easily add another drive. Any backup would have to go over the network to another computer.

    3. Re:Mainly just painless installation by Stevyn · · Score: 1

      If you can find a good partition tool, it makes this process easy. With Partition Magic, you can split your NTFS into two partition and make one of them FAT32. Windows and Linux can both easily write and read FAT32. Now this means you can either move all your data to the new drive, replace the NTFS with a linux partition (ext, reiser, etc.) or if you have enough space, keep windows and linux and the data partition.

      This might be good to try out linux and see if you like it.

    4. Re:Mainly just painless installation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are aware of "external USB hard drives" right?

    5. Re:Mainly just painless installation by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1

      You are aware these "external USB hard drives" cost money, right?

  3. If you run a finance app under wine, you're a fool by Julian+Morrison · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A finacial app is no use if you can't trust it 100%. Since they tested it on Windows, run it on Windows. Anything else is asking for trouble.

    Your game glitches under Wine, it's a hassle. Your finance app glitches, it could get expensive.

  4. Re:If you run a finance app under wine, you're a f by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What finance app can you trust 100%? The answer, of course, is none. One of the reasons they have these things called backups, you know.

  5. Re:If you run a finance app under wine, you're a f by k4rm4_p0l7c3 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, lord knows those tricky floating point values are hard to get right when you translate them

    (give me a break..)

  6. What else do I need? by thephotoman · · Score: 1

    Well, iTunes burning support would be nice (though no longer entirely necessary, as there's pymusique now). But then, all I really need is the ability to go from AAC to MP3 these days, so perhaps the current version would be fine.

    --
    Haec merda tauri est. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
  7. Re:If you run a finance app under wine, you're a f by Spoing · · Score: 1
    1. A finacial app is no use if you can't trust it 100%.

    Are you sure about that?

    --
    A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
  8. Not a huge need for Quicken.. by SocialEngineer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My mother uses MoneyDance to do her accounting schtuff. She loves it. Plus, it's available for Linux, OSX, and Windows. She switched to it from Quicken's software a while back.

    --
    "Better to be vulgar than non-existent" -Bev Henson
    1. Re:Not a huge need for Quicken.. by ManxStef · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'll second that - been using it on Mac OS X for a good few months now and I'm very happy with it. Sean and the dev team are very helpful - you can mail them via support, or bring something up in the mailing list, and you'll get a direct response: bit of a difference to Quicken's attitude! (They've completely withdrawn from the UK.) It's targeted at personal finance management and not really suitable for business accounts, though, for that I'd suggest GNUCash (via Fink if you're on OS X - compile from source, don't use the binary as it's old and somewhat buggy. Yes, the dependencies are huge unfortunately!)

      There are some good finance apps for Linux as far as I'm aware, check out this (dated) review:
      http://www.unixreview.com/documents/s=8217/ur0305l /ur0305l.html

      MSMoney and Quicken are popular for a reason, though: they're actually fairly good, so don't be surprised if some of the features you're accustomed to don't behave the same or even aren't there at all. (For instance, MoneyDance doesn't do the equivalent of Quicken's Classes yet, though it will do very soon as it's near the top of the feature requests list.) Still, I think it's worth the short-term pain of switching to know that your software won't suddenly magically "expire", and that you're not locked into a platform because your accounts software only works on Windows. (Speaking of which, I'd *love* to see someone overcome GNUCash's evil dependencies and port it to Windows, it'd massively increase it's uptake & increase people's exposure to alternatives to the Big 2.)

      GNUCashToQIF may come in handy for some (such as those testing out MoneyDance):
      http://gnucashtoqif.sourceforge.net/

      And there's a pretty comprehensive thread on Mac finance apps here:
      http://www.timandkathy.co.uk/journal/2005/02/05/lo oking-for-mac-os-x-personal-finance-software/

      As well as a decent comparative review of Mac apps here (with a good overview of MoneyDance, so as to not be too off-topic!):
      http://www.theappleblog.com/2005/03/19/moneydance- get-your-groove-on/

    2. Re:Not a huge need for Quicken.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      I've been using Moneydance for about six months now, and I really haven't run into any shortcomings for my finances (checking, savings, mortgage, credit card, stocks, and a car loan). It's only $30, too.

      Probably the best feature of Moneydance is that it is written in Java, so it works perfectly well on UNIX and Linux. You just unpack the tar file, and run the launcher script.

  9. Appgen Mybooks reads Quickbooks files by tzanger · · Score: 4, Informative

    And it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux natively. None of this WINE nonsense. Clicky.

    Not affiliated with them by any means, just a happy customer. I'm planning on eliminating AccPAC and MiSYS at my office for their Appgen Custom Suite since it too is multiplatform, modular and you can get a developer license without the hassles that AccPAC has.

  10. the reason alot of people don't switch by sfcat · · Score: 1, Informative

    Is the hassle or the fear. But remember that Win32 is just a "flavor" of the NT kernel. Is it possible to make a Win32 "flavor" of the Linux kernel? I guess alot of the code from codeweaver does this kinda. Then it would be easier to port 3rd party Windows apps to Linux and maybe verders would do it. Yes, I know Wine would still be necessary for MS Office. The toughest part would be the GUI interfaces. Then put all of this together into a both a real and CD distro so people can try it out. Then maybe we can get some switchage happening...

    --
    "Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
    1. Re:the reason alot of people don't switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      sigh...

      You, sir, are an idiot.

    2. Re:the reason alot of people don't switch by Knights+who+say+'INT · · Score: 1

      Actually, Win32 is an API.

  11. Quasar by GRW · · Score: 4, Informative

    For business accounting on Linux there is Quasar, which is a "full function, stand-alone business accounting package." It has both a GPL and commercial licenses.

    1. Re:Quasar by gregmac · · Score: 2

      For business accounting on Linux there is Quasar, which is a "full function, stand-alone business accounting package." It has both a GPL and commercial licenses.

      Which is probably great, if you're a new busines, and are running Linux.

      For existing businesses, this poses many many problems (and I say this out of experience, being in the process of switching from SimplyAccounting and much paper-based stuff to a fully-computerized system based on QuickBooks and ESC). Let me tell you, this is an incredibly huge project. We're a fairly small company (15 people, I'm the IT department, among other things), and to be honest I don't know if it would be better or worse if we were bigger.

      We have Windows desktops. Three biggest things holding us back: SimplyAccounting/Quickbooks, WordPerfect (though having played with OO.org 2 beta, it looks like we will finally be able to dump WP), and training.

      To switch to Quasar, we'd have to install linux on at least all desktops using it. Somehow, we need to migrate everything from QB to Quasar (this does NOT happen overnight), so this would probably mean running dual desktops for acccounting people (which means spending more on hardware or vmware). At the same time, I have to deal with supporting another desktop platform, and people have to not only learn a new accounting system, but do it in a new, unfamiliar desktop environment.

      We also somehow have to evaluate Quasar to be sure it'll even work for us, so there would have to be two systems for a while, which requires signifigantly more work than evaluating an accounting system that runs on our existing platform (install the software, decide if it works). Again, this means buying hardware or Vmware, and if we decide Quasar won't work, we've still spent this money.

      Don't get me wrong here, I'd love to get rid of Windows. Our network has been running on OpenLDAP and Samba for over a year, and on other FOSS software like Apache and BIND9 for even longer than that (which greatly helped when we finally did switch to samba/linux). Over the last couple years, I've been concentrating on getting cross-platform or web-based software, but it's a slow process. Everyone here uses Thunderbird for email, and Firefox as a browser. All the custom apps I've written for us are web-based.

      So switching to Quasar on linux? "Easier said than done". A good example of a reason cross-platform software is a good thing (I know there people who frown on making Windows ports because they thing it discourages people from moving to linux). If Quasar ran on Windows, it would at least be possible to evaluate it, and there would be a much better chance of using it. Eventually, once we were entirely running cross-platform applications, switching the actual OS wouldn't be a huge deal.

      As it stands, we'll probably have to switch to Linux first (which we're a step closer to be able to doing with Crossover), then possibly switch to Quasar. I have to say though, since we only just went to QB, there would have to be a pretty huge incentive for me to switch away at this point.

      --
      Speak before you think
    2. Re:Quasar by warpSpeed · · Score: 1
      For business accounting on Linux there is Quasar, which is a "full function, stand-alone business accounting package."

      This sounds great, but what does your accountant run?

      I am stuck with quickbooks... for my accountants sake. :-/

    3. Re:Quasar by GRW · · Score: 1

      Being a home user of who doesn't use any accounting package, 'cause I have little money, I am not about to tell anyone which accounting program they "should " use. Certainly if a person or business is happy with whatever program they are using on Windows, they shouldn't change just because of what someone on Slashdot said they should. I was just pointing out an alternative that may meet the needs of some people, and wasn't mentioned by anyone else. For those businesses that have decided to make a wholesale switch to Linux or for new businesses starting out with Linux, they may decide that Quickbooks not being cross platform is a long term liability if there is a viable alternative that fits in with their Linux strategy.

    4. Re:Quasar by rsax · · Score: 1

      I'm curious about Quasar. Uptil now I thought SQL-Ledger was the main open source contender when it came to small business accounting needs.

      General question to anyone reading this comment: what has your experience been like with this software? Would you recommend it and are there any noticable faults with it?

  12. Not about backups by metalhed77 · · Score: 1

    I don't think he was referring to backups, but rather to incorrect calculations.

    I don't know much about how wine works however, is it really possible that running quicken under wine could cause your books to add up wrong? Could someone with more knowledge chime in?

    --
    Photos.
  13. Exactly by Julian+Morrison · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not just incorrect calculations, but incorrect saves, incorrect loads, parially implemented system functions that don't do what the coders expected, harmless dangling pointers in Windows that bite you in Wine, etc etc. Not that I know of any such, but you can't safely assume they don't exist.

    This is a generalization of: if you run a tested app on an untested configuration, it's no longer properly tested! That's just common sense.

    Do your finance in OO.o spreadsheet or in GnuCash, or boot across to Windows. Doing it under emulation (a known-incomplete emulation, even!) is just stupid.

    1. Re:Exactly by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1

      I dunno, it seems the most likely bugs are going to be obvious. I suppose it's possible that running on wine will cause some calculation to be incorrect in some subtle and nonobvious way. But it seems to me extremely unlikely. Yes, it's possible, but that can be said of any accounting software. If you're handling enough business that a mistake is that costly, maybe you should double-check your figures in a different program or by hand, or pay someone to audit your books. Trusting Windows software to get something correct 100% of the time is not the right solution.

    2. Re:Exactly by hey! · · Score: 1

      Well, that's the point of testing isn't it?

      Taking a bigger picture view of things, the whole theory of accounting is based on the premise of inaccurate calculation and error prone record keeping. The key question is this: is there a fault that can damage auditability? If so the problem is with the fundamental design of the software: it doesn't follow sound accounting principles. If the design is fundamentally sound in acconting terms, then any errors will be detected and flagged and correctable. If it is unsound, then it can't be trusted -- not only against WINE inompatibilities, but ordinary programming glitches.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    3. Re:Exactly by wskellenger · · Score: 1

      Good point.

      The last thing II used Windows for was MS-Money. I hate Windows and MS business practices, but I did love MS-Money (and I still love Excel).

      I moved to GNUCash and I've been pretty happy. Took a little getting used to, but now that scheduled transactions is there, it's got most of what I want.

      I was thinking the same as you about Quicken under Windows emulation... May not be the best idea, and if you make this jump, don't be surprised if you DO find a bug that takes months to get resolved.

      Keep regular backups. I've lost MS-Money files before, and I don't think GNUCash is immune. I've got a script that automatically GPGs the file and uploads it to my ISPs webspace. GNUCash automatically keeps running backups for you.

  14. Doesn't make sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know that lack of a good bookkeeping app (other than Gnucash) has been keeping a lot of people from switching.

    That sentence doesn't even make sense. If Gnucash is a good bookkeeping app, then there isn't a lack stopping people from switching. If it isn't a good bookkeeping app, then why mention it?

  15. Re: Accpac for Linux by cyber_rigger · · Score: 1

    I'm planning on eliminating AccPAC

    Accpac supposedly runs on Linux as well.

    URL:http://www.accpac.com/products/finance/accwin/ accpaclinux.asp

  16. As a someone that has programed under Windows. by LWATCDR · · Score: 3, Insightful

    " Not just incorrect calculations, but incorrect saves, incorrect loads, partially implemented system functions that don't do what the coders expected, harmless dangling pointers in Windows that bite you in Wine, etc etc. Not that I know of any such, but you can't safely assume they don't exist."
    And you would bet your life that none of those errors exists under Windows? I would not. Frankly the windows API in known to be incomplete as well:) MFC has many known issues and goodness knows how many unknown issues.
    A proper accounting system will have many checks that will also work under wine. While I would probably agree with you if we where talking about running a "life critical" system but for a simple accounting system like quick books or quicken? I wouldn't worry about it much more than I would worry about running it under Windows. BTW would you freak about running quickbooks under Longhorn when it is released? or a version that ran under 98 on 2000 or XP?

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  17. QuickBooks 2003 by xheliox · · Score: 1

    I use VMWare to run QuickBooks inside of Window 98. If this is true, it will be a big help in getting rid of Windows entirely.

    So far.. QuickBooks 2003 Pro did install, but gives me an out of memory error when I try to run it. Looks like it needs a little tweaking. :)

  18. Re:If you run a finance app under wine, you're a f by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    A finacial app is no use if you can't trust it 100%.
    Bullshit. I don't trust the financial apps that I use 100%, and yet they are still useful to me. You can't trust Peachtree or Quicken 100% on Windows, and yet people still use them.
  19. What else I need by masterOfTheObivous · · Score: 2, Interesting
    What else do you need?

    I'll tell you what else I need- support for Macromedia and Adobe's license authentication "features" present in Adobe Creative Suite and Macromedia Studio MX 2004. I have to resort to using VMWare in order to use these apps; I would love nothing more than to cut the tie with Windows completely. If CrossOver could do this, I'd buy a couple hundred copies for my company.

    Do you hear me, Codeweavers? The instant you get this, people will be shouting praise from the rooftops. Bravo on getting Quickbooks to work, but now's the time to focus on Adobe and Macromedia's products as well.

  20. FrameMaker by Wylfing · · Score: 1
    Although FrameMaker is listed as a supported CrossOver application, and it indeed runs without a problem, you can't do anything meaningful with it. There's no support for PostScript fonts and there's no way to generate a PDF worthy of going to press with. That pretty much guts the program of any usefulness, and support for these is in the "don't hold your breath" category.

    Since Adobe has axed FrameMaker for Mac, that means I am stuck on Windows for ever. And no, Scribus is not a replacement for FrameMaker, and neither is KWord. I wish they were, but they're not.

    --
    Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
    1. Re:FrameMaker by twistedcubic · · Score: 1

      I dare you to try Scribus 1.3. Anyway, if you are expected to use FrameMaker at work, how can you complain about any other program? You can't be doing all that "enterprise-class" stuff alone, and you know what will happen if you announce to your colleagues that you're using TeX or Scribus for document preparation. If you're not doing this at work, then please.

  21. Another Feature Request by nontrivial · · Score: 1

    ATAPI (native cd/dvd support) would be nice as well so that I could burn CD's. Yes, there is native support for that under Linux which I currently use, but I have one program that I can't live without that needs ATAPI support to access the optical drive.

    --
    http://james.nontrivial.org
  22. I've been waiting for this by doodleboy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My work computer is an nt4 server box which serves as the office PDC and which I also use to do Quickbooks related stuff. The PDC stuff is no problem thanks to Samba, but some of the other people I work with only know Quickbooks and are otherwise totally computer illiterate. There is no possibility of switching to some alternate accounting package.

    Also, Microsoft has killed support for nt server a couple of months ago to drive sales of new licenses. We're behind a firewall, I have every service turned off that I don't need, I never use IE or OE, but at some point I'm going to have to move off nt while still running Quickbooks. Normally that would mean a new version of windows, but by the time you factor in a license for w2k3 server plus client licenses and new hardware to run it on, it's expensive as hell.

    In addition to the high cost I just don't trust Windows' stability or security. I've used unix/linux for 15 years or so, so I can tweak it if something isn't working like I want. It's not perfect but I believe it's more stable and secure than windows.

    Quickbooks is a huge app in the small business sector, and right now thousands of small businesses are trying to figure out how to deal with the end of support for nt. Now that it supports Quickbooks, Crossover Office will probably enable a lot of migrations off nt for shops with access to linux expertise. Not to mention generate sales for the folks at Codeweavers. A smart move if you ask me.

  23. Crossover does NOT support all of Office. by Omni+Magnus · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Crossover office does not support Office 2003 or Access XP. This could be holding some people back.

  24. Use Moneydance, not Quicken/Quickbooks by dananderson · · Score: 2, Informative
    I run Moneydance. Its written in Java and runs on multiple platforms. I run it from Linux, MS Windows XP, and Solaris with 1 license (accessing the same data files). It costs money, but I like the platform independence and Quicken/Quickbooks-free proprietary formats. No, I never worked for Moneydance--just a happy customer.

    GnuCash is free, but does not run on MS Windows. It also uses the more-complex double entry system bookkeepers use. This may be ok for you though.

    The problem with Quicken (and perhaps Quickbooks) is Quicken charges a "tax" on banks for each transaction (check) written in Quicken and uploaded to the bank. They also discontinued support for the open QIF exchange format most banks use.

  25. Re:If you run a finance app under wine, you're a f by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And we all know how windows is a bastion of stability. Heck, the quickbooks timer used to blow out at least once a day on me under windows... I figure things can only get better.

  26. Other Linux accounting programs by GRW · · Score: 1
    A brief Google search found these lists of accounting software for Linux:

    Linux - Accounting Software

    Find Accounting Software as well as several sponsored links, so Linux doesn't seem lacking in this category.

  27. FileMaker by coyote4til7 · · Score: 1

    I've played with CrossOver office, but until FileMaker 6 and 7 run under it, it does me no good. Heck, the FMP 7 installer just barfed the last time I tried to run it under crossover office...

    --

    the clock on the wall says 4 til 7
  28. What do I need? by WeblionX · · Score: 1

    MS Paint! Well, actually the GIMP doesn't take 20 hours to load in Linux since there isn't 10 billion fonts to load, so I'd probably just use that. (In Windows, the load time is horrible. I should probably clean out the fonts directory, but I have no idea of what to keep).

    Milkshape3D is the biggest thing I'd want. Quake Video Maker? Not really necessary, but it's good to have. Q3map2Build would be nice, but that'd probably work in WINE as is.

    Comctrl.exe would be a major plus, as well as it working with XMMS. (It's a Winamp plugin that lets you control WA via the serial port with 15 buttons that have click/double click control for a total of 30 functions.)

    Easygen, Scanwizard 5, Pad2Pad, and I'm sure others.

    --
    (\(\
    (=_=) Bani!
    (")")
  29. News Flash by hhlost · · Score: 1

    GnuCash also runs on Linux.

  30. MyBooks Pro for Linux imports QuickBooks data by apgdev · · Score: 1

    MyBooks Pro from Appgen imports QuickBooks master file and transaction data, and comes in 1- and 2-user Linux versions. Completely portable to Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.... database is the same used for enterprise-level applications based on Appgen Custom Suite; it's all modifiable with their development system (Appgen 4GL)