Re: [PLUG] Turbo Tax on Linux? (was re: Adding new drives to fstab)

[Art Alexion <art.alexion@verizon.net>]

On Thursday 20 December 2007 12:08:29 TuskenTower wrote:
> On Dec 19, 2007 6:18 PM, JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org> wrote:
> > IIRC there is a Mac version of Quicken?  Last time I looked into it my
> > research indicated that the Mac version of Quicken sucked, and even used
> > a different file format (whoever thought that was a good idea should be
> > shot).  I'm not sure if that's still the case.
> >
> > Anyway, the point is that they have at least a few people who can code
> > on the Mac, which aside from the GUI and all the Mac craziness is BSD as
> > we all know.  So how hard would it be to port the TT engine and fudge up
> > a GUI?  I know, apple to oranges comparison.  Let me dream.
>
> It's not that Turbo Tax on a Mac sucks so much as its Quicken as a
> company sucks.  They use their market power to screw financials into
> paying their tax everytime they upgrade their software.  So I have
> Quicken 2005 for Mac, but the support financials are not the same as
> Quicken 2005 for winDOwS.  If a financial caught enough heat from Mac
> users, they might pony up the money for Mac support.  Even then,
> Quicken will allow that added functionality to come the NEXT mac
> version because they control the list of approved financials.  Then
> they get to tought more supported institutions.  The effectively play
> the consumers off the providerds and vice versa getting each to
> upgrade.
>

Which is why open source software, like kmymoney2 should be supported.  There 
is a huge difference in market dynamics between financial software and tax 
software.  The former gets updated for stability and features, whereas the 
latter needs constant updating to adhere to the tax laws.

You can feasibly use an old version of financial software, but not an old 
version of tax software.

Now, if the IRS provided standardized, open source data, we could live with 
open source and commercial engines that used the IRS plugins.

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