Hi,

I am a 17 year old high-school student; my father runs his business out of my house, and I am fairly familiar with linux, mostly Fedora, Suse, and Slackware, and I have a couple questions, of which I have been not able to find answers to:

1: I've been trying to get my father to use Open Source programs for his workplace, as he seems to believe that all software for businesses has to deserve a large portion of his budget (some programs, like QuickBooks Pro, have a yearly subscription rate which I deem quite unnecessary ). He is not an avid linux user, and has no real experience with the terminal.

?: Are there any open source large, small business scale, money/budget managing applications, either cloning, or synthesizing, the use of QuickBooks Pro?

2: I live in the house, so I have no problem of doing minor (me=newbie) troubleshooting and configuration of his computer, seemingly endless with the endless problems associated with a heavily loaded XP computer left on 24/7.

?: What distro would you recommend for a business user which is rock-solid, set-and-forget, possibly coming with applications like those mentioned above? Does one exist?

You should give http://www.sql-ledger.org/ a try.

However I'm wondering what type of subscription your father has. If he does payroll through QuickBooks then you need a subscription to keep the constantly changing tax tables correct. If this is the case then I do not believe there is a "free" Linux solution.

You're correct, he uses the paid service for payroll. But, with QuickBooks, the user loses the ability to use that service after two years, making needed an upgrade. Great way for them to make money, but it get's expensive. Other than that, is there a distro or other program that would need the same needs, minus the payroll option? Is there some sort of port to linux?

I would like to suggest you visit http://www.linuxcanada.com/ and try their Quasar Accounting software. I've read a few reviews and they were all positive. You may have to pay for certain versions but the basic package is free. Their documentation is also excellent. The server is strictly Linux based but they have free clients for the Windows platform.
You can download the third issue of Tux Magazine, it contains an article about Quasar.
You owe it to yourself to check out this package. Good luck.
Kind regards,
CD2000

Vive Linux!

muchas gracias.

Any more ideas on a business/newbie/"old dog (who can't learn new tricks...)" distro? I was thinking Suse, but we have dialup!!! which sucks. any other wonderfully user friendly and stable ones out there, besides Fedora or Suse? I refuse to have to maintain a Mandrake box.

Hi.
I've been using SimplyMepis 3.3 for about 1 month now and I think it's really nice. It comes preloaded with a lot of commercial apps and plugins to ease your browsing experience, eg. Flash, Adobe Acrobat Reader and others. It's been really stable for me and I'm using a nvidia graphics card. System updates are available through the "Synaptic Pakage Manager" which is really easy to use and even easy to teach anyone. And it's Debian based, so there are a lot of available packages. It's available as an live ISO file. The install script is on the Desktop and you can try it before installing it.
Give it a try, it's been really stable for me.
Kind regards,
CD2000

P.S. I have been using Mandrake (now Mandriva) for a few years and I personally think that SimplyMepis is easier to use and much more user friendly.

Vive Linux!

hmm. I'll have to try that. thanks for the ideas, keep them coming!

I've found Ubuntu linux to be one of the best, easiest and stable distros I've tried to date.

For Gnome users: http://www.ubuntulinux.org
For KDE users: http://www.kubuntu.org

You can, of course, install any window manager you like. It's just that Ubuntu uses Gnome 2.10 by default and Kubuntu uses KDE 3.4.0 as the default. Otherwise they are identical.

Regards.

HI,

I have been looking for the same thing. I have used SUSE and Mandrake and think they are both great. I am still looking for the best desktop linux out there. They all are getting more user friendly. I have searched for a good replacement for Quickbooks that is open source or free (for windows and/of Linux) I haven't really found one yet. We need to find some fast programmers who can help make one.

Back on the issue of the tax tables changing every year..... For sure Intuit makes a ton of $$$$ on that deal. . . . . . My father in law once help write some accounting software for a big company .... on their payroll taxtables they wrote the software so you could just go in and type in the new taxtables off the Tax Flier that everyone gets. They are published in there and easy to type in.

So, We need to find some programmers that understand C++ and can help us write a very intelligent accounting software that is open for all Linux and windows.

i too was pointed to linuxcanada. after looking around it looks like it may just be a good replacement for my QB Pro issue, but after sending them a few e-mails asking about importing QB back up files i have still yet to receive a responce.

that does not boad well for their level of CSR.

Here are some Linux based accounting review sites

http://www.aaxnet.com/design/linuxacct.html

http://www.ezgoal.com/channels/linux/c.asp?cid=199238

and accpac is a heavy duty accounting package

http://www.accpac.com/products/finan...ccpaclinux.asp

although Gnucash is free

what you install the software on may depend on the requirements of the package you buy, so don't go making your mind up just yet

hope this helps
floppy

just to add a note about the CSR from linuxcanada. today I called them to ask the question about importing from QB. left a voice mail, and less then an hour later I had a call back.

the gentalman was very polite and answered my questions. i am getting ready to try my hands at installing from source. scarry, first time to try a source install. hope it goes well.

sooo, i'm going to try to revive this dead thread

did you migrate in the end?

now there is TURBOCASH, and it can import quick books.. still beta tho.