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Re: [PLUG] Quicken alternative?
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I use MoneyDance and have been for many years. The only issue I have
with it is, the intelligence to pre-populate an entry during a QIF
import is not to my personal liking. I'd prefer to be able to disable
this totally. I have printed some things such as reports but not
checks.
Support for MD is fantastic. I just lost my laptop drive and started
recovering apps and data. I wrote to the MoneyDance support address to
get the license key and got it within hours. I wound up exchanging
emails - on a Sunday no loss, to resolve a crashing problem while
importing QIFs. I found I should be using the Sun JAVA vice the open
source version (the default Java w/Ubuntu; this version crashed
consistently while MoneyDance worked just fine with the Sun version).
As for downloading, I had great support in the past. I presume you mean
downloading data from institutions. I download data from American
Express without any issue. BoA - did not work. I solved that - I don't
use my BoA credit card! My credit union also does not work. Both do,
however, export data into a QIF file ... which works. This is a bank
issue not MD's fault. I tried to talk with my credit union tech folks.
they don't understand the web connection details.
Your comment about it not being free is true but I wish to caveat that.
It "costs" US$15. What is missed is - Sean Reilly has provided free
upgrades for years - including major upgrades. This is not a
conglomerate ripping the users off! In fact, he donated money to the
Virginia Tech folks after the shooting. As my daughter was there
(thankfully ok), I will say that Sean, owner of Reilly Technologies,
deserved great recognition for giving back in non-traditional ways.
The fact MD is written in Java and runs on multiple platforms (I used in
Linux and tested in Windows) is a major asset. And they do not limit
the licensing to a single machine. So, while not open source and free,
I find MD to be a great app. Quicken does not compare to MD in my eyes.
Rich
NB: No - I don't work for Sean - only emailed with him.
On Fri, 2009-09-11 at 03:15 -0400, JP Vossen wrote:
> As I'm moving my wife over to Ubuntu, 2 of the problems are going to be
> Quicken and TurboTax. I'll keep a VM for TT, but Quicken is more of a
> day-to-day issue.
>
> I hate Quicken anyway, since they deliberately break stuff every few
> years to force you to buy an upgrade you don't need. I refuse to do
> that, so we're still using Quicken 2003. But my wife would like to be
> able to download transactions, which is one feature they break on
> purpose. I just noticed I had Quicken 2006 CD's laying around, but they
> just broke that in the middle of 2009. 3 years to EoL is not acceptable.
>
> For now, Quicken 2003 runs flawlessly under Wine on Hardy (using the
> updated PPA Wine).
>
> She wants to be able to download stuff, and we need something that can
> print checks, since we still do a lot of that. And I'd prefer
> cross-platform, just in case she has to go back to Windows (hope not,
> but...). I also want something that is not full of bugs and is actually
> maintained and supported.
>
> I've looked at GNUCash and I like it, except it can't print more than a
> single check at a time, which is a show stopper for us. (LONG-standing
> bug: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=328936)
>
> KMyMoney is useless since it can't download or print checks at all. Not
> sure I'd call it cross-platform either.
>
> Grisbi is a 0.x.x version, and does not look well maintained.
>
> That leaves MoneyDance, which is Java (yuck), and neither free nor open
> source (yuck^2). But it is cross-platform, supported, and supposedly
> does everything I need. I haven't gotten downloading to work yet, and I
> think the interface is a tad ugly (and to be uglier than a GNU GUI app
> like GNUCash is saying something). But it might work, though I'm
> slightly worried about getting on another upgrade treadmill.
>
> What is everyone else doing (besides not printing checks anymore, yeah,
> yeah, I know...)? Any other clues?
>
> Thanks,
> JP
> ----------------------------|:::======|-------------------------------
> JP Vossen, CISSP |:::======| http://bashcookbook.com/
> My Account, My Opinions |=========| http://www.jpsdomain.org/
> ----------------------------|=========|-------------------------------
> "Microsoft Tax" = the additional hardware & yearly fees for the add-on
> software required to protect Windows from its own poorly designed and
> implemented self, while the overhead incidentally flattens Moore's Law.
> ___________________________________________________________________________
> Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
> Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
> General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
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