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Intuit Finally Offers Some Support For Linux
walterbyrd sends us to the ZDNet blog, where Dan Farber & Larry Dignan write: "Intuit said Wednesday it will allow QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions to operate on Linux servers. For Intuit, the move is a bit of a milestone — QuickBooks is the first of its products [to] work on open source software."
How many people really care about the server back-end when it comes to something like Quickbooks? Very, very few. The fact that neither Quickbooks nor Peachtree will run under Linux is a HUGE stepping stone for anyone who wants to use it for small business purposes, and this does very little to fix that.
Finally, a product that allows all the F/OSS zealots to keep track of all the $0.00 software expenditures that they've racked up...
This guy's the limit!
I know, I'm a bit paranoid. But I work with computers and accounting. Paranoia is part of the job.
We are the Borg...
You do your bit of supporting the community and see many more results like this in future.
Amen :-)
-- "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration" - TAE --
I'm just hoping this effect builds more momentum till the day when Adobe released a 100% compatible version of Photoshop and Premiere for Linux.
I taught there several times back in the 90's. I was told by several ppl that they had the client running on Linux. Problem was that the marketing ppl were fighting it being there (as well as on the mac). They felt that MS would treat them right and that they had to be ONLY on windows. Marketing ppl are so short-sighted.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I know it's a dream but heh ...
Not many business people are willing to work in Linux desktops. But at a site I manage, we can't back up QB from the server becuase it runs on one of the PCs and never seems to let go of its database files. Everything else runs on a Debian server machine where we can monitor it and back it up, but QB is always a thorn in our sides.
Okay, so it's a server, not a client. Have you forgotten all lessons taught by Microsoft? While we all like to decry the weakness of monocultures, we all also like them at least on some levels. The most important one, and the one that really brought Windows success as a server platform (hint: it wasn't that it was a better server) is familiarity. Operating Windows and Windows NT has always been similar, with slight lapses here and there (like NT4 trailing Windows 95) and this is precisely how they gained a share of the server market.
Linux has until recently been the only company gaining market share in the server market, by taking a little away from Windows and a lot from Legacy UNIX(tm). But Windows has [recently] been making headway of its own. This scares (or at least bothers) me, because I want to live in a future with less Microsoft in it, not more. But anything that gives Linux more of a boost as a server inevitably increases the chances of running Linux on the [corporate] desktop as well, which has positive ramifications for everyone but Microsoft.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
QuickBooks / Turbo Tax?
If not, why not?
However small, at least it's a step in Linux's direction, maybe it'll catch another company's eye and help them decide to support Linux. The more proprietary support Linux has the better and one day Linux will run anything you could want, which is what an OS should strive to do.
"we've got trenchcoats and bad attitudes" - John Constantine, HellBlazer
BULL.
Intuit is one of the major kill app vendors. They're one of the first companies to come up when someone wants to whine about some altOS not running some critical piece of Windows software.
Landscape designer and most of the other crap you see at CompUSA is much less relevant.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I'll agree with you there, but Intuit had better start getting more serious about cross-platform support. Right now, Microsoft seems like they're all over the place, but I would bet money that, if and when they get it back together, Intuit will be their next target. Unless they've ported their software to other platforms by then, they're pretty much done for.
Sit, Ubuntu, sit. Good dog.
Yes. Older versions of Quicken run okay if already installed (the installer doesn't work right).
WINE still needs lots of TLC before it will mature enough to run something that needs to run very reliably, like Quicken. Personally, I use Quicken under a Windows 2000 version running under QEMU on top of Ubuntu 7.04.
My blog
presales customer service.
I have a customer who is trying desperately to move all servers away from Windows (they currently run Sage 500), so I called up Quickbooks (the number the sales report said to call) for information as to when Linux server support would be available. They refused to answer any questions unless I had a support account. I suppose they are not interested in getting migrations to happen.
I suppose I cannot recommend such a product to my customer.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Ok, the title was probably a little more flamebait than intended. I generally agree that there is a mindset that you describe, but also that it tends to be short-lived in many or even most deployments (at least in terms of Linux).
My experience is that a lot of people start out going to Linux because they think they won't have to spend money, but once they realize what is possible, they start spending it and adopt much more of a UNIX mentality.
I have said many times that Linux is the only OS that can fit any budget. However, unlike Windows, the possibilities tend to be sufficiently open that budgets tend to grow to allow people to cut costs elsewhere. This means, eventually, purchasing real servers (such as Power 5/6-based servers), real storage (or building this in-house using lower-end but still real servers), and the like.
Flexibility has a financial price, but also a higher ROI.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
When I finally convinced my wife to let me manage the money, I moved over to GnuCash (she was using Quicken.)
The learning curve was steep, not because of the app itself (though a bit) but because I didn't truly understand the basics of accounting. This is something that Quicken does a good job of preventing people from realizing.
The help docs were *fantastic*, and I learned a great deal in a short time. Now that I use GnuCash, I have a much stronger understanding of where my money goes. Couldn't be happier.
I realize that's slightly off-topic, but it seemed a good time to mention it.
For Intuit, the move is a bit of a milestone -- QuickBooks is the first of its products [to] work on open source software."
Ok, Quicken IS NOT Quickbooks. But for a decent, simple-to-use checkbook manager, Quicken is hard to beat. It's incredibly user-friendly, and the ancient version I have, version 5.0 for DOS, works great on FreeDOS. I use it all the time, Quicken 5 on FreeDOS on Linux via SSH in Xterm. (no kidding!)
This lets me do my books anytime, anyplace where I can get an xterm or putty loaded. (pretty much EVERYWHERE) Since it's done everything I've ever needed for my personal checking accounts, why would I use anything else?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
I don't particularly care for QB, but it is the product I have to support at my company. If I can deploy the backend on an existing Linux box, that's one less Windows server to worry about. In fact, I'm down to just one Windows server now. Currently it's a PITA to get info into and out of QB, especially in a real-time fashion. Having an standard SQL interface should improve the situation dramatically, especially for my in-house LAMP apps.
On a related note, the company/org/individual that writes a QB knock-off (think OpenOffice compared to MS Office) will make a killing. SMBs can't justify the learning curve of replacing QB. Remove that barrier, and I think many companies would consider switching. In particular, we need a web-enabled product that looks/behaves like to QB.