This thread will probably be of most interest to those of us who need to file U.S. Income Tax returns. However, the practice of creating the bottle first, before attempting to install the software, has gotten me past many balky installations on either Wine, or on CrossOver Linux, which uses Wine.

There are a dwindling number of programs frequently used on MS Windows for which there aren't Linux equivalent programs. And there are some programs written specifically for Windows which many of us prefer to the Linux alternatives.
CodeWeavers, using the wine program, have made huge gains in developing the wine programs for using these programs. Among the last to join the ranks of Windows-based programs which will really work on Wine or on CrossOver, are the tax preparation programs, notably Turbo Tax, by Intuit and TaxCut, by H&R Block. I abandoned Turbo Tax years ago in favor of TaxCut. TaxCut is less expensive, for one, and doesn't demand that I upgrade my installation of Quicken in order to import data from it.
Last year, I was able to finally get TaxCut 2008 to run on CrossOver, but it took quite a bit of work figuring out how to get it to install and work without freezing and locking up my entire system. But I got it.
This year, I took advantage of a buy-early promotion, and got this year's edition at a very reasonable price. The following is my installation experience with it;
My System is Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackelope) $ uname -r
2.6.28-16-generic
I'm using CrossOver Linux v 8.0.0 installed in my home directory, vs installing globally.
I first attempted to install H&R Block 2009 using the default instructions provided by CrossOver, letting the Install Software function create the default bottle for H&R Block 2009, and the installation seemed to go as expected, without any errors. However, when I launched the program, the fonts were broken and very difficult to read. The buttons on the program screen didn't work, but File > (whatever) did seem to work. The operative word is 'seem.'
I gave up on it, deleted the bottle created for it, and began a method I have developed over the years with balky installations on CrossOver. I first created a winxp bottle, and installed all the Windows fonts before attempting to install anything else. Next, I installed Internet Explorer 6. Then, I installed Quicken 2009 into the new winxp bottle. The reasons for this I'll explain later. Then, last, I installed the H&R Block 2009.
This time, the fonts were the typical easy to read Windows fonts, and all the buttons, i.e. 'Start a new return,' 'Next,' etc. worked. It successfully imported the necessary data from last years tax return, then it asked if I wanted to import data from a financial program such as Quicken, Money, et al. I selected Quicken and 2009, >next, and it asked where the quicken data was located if it didn't show up in the box. I clicked on 'browse,' and navigated to my qdata file, and hilighted it in the box, and clicked on 'Next.' Now comes the reason for installing Quicken onto the H&R Block 2009 bottle. Unless Quicken is installed on that bottle, it will fault without importing any data, and you won't be able to import it again.
Much easier to install Quicken first, and when you import the qdata file, it automatically extracts the pertinent data into your H&R Block 2009 tax file, just as it would running on a native Windows installation. So, I repeat. Even though you might already have Quicken, or any other financial software package installed on CrossOver, it will likely be in its own separate bottle, as that is how CrossOver handles things by default. In a separate bottle, your H&R Block 2009 program will not be able to extract the data from the qdata file you imported. With your financial software installed onto the same bottle, the data is successfully extracted.
Obviously, this early, I can't proceed any further till I get the W2's, and finish out my expenses for this year. But I did want to work out any bugs before the dreaded tax season was upon us. It's bad enough doing the annual tax thing in the first place, without the added frustration of trying to get the stupid tax program to work.
As time progresses, and the State programs become available, I will post back with any updates. But, for now, all is well.

owa

Thanks! I use this too, and my copy hasn't arrived yet.

To be honest, I usually run it in a Windows VM under Qemu.

I have Win4LinPro installed on my Ubuntu 9.04 box with a full blown Windows XP Home Edition installed. In years past, I would install Quicken and TaxCut on the WinPro Windows, and run it from there. I have found that Quicken and TaxCut, now H&R Block at Home, run significantly faster on CrossOver than on the WinPro Windows.
I would only fire up the Windows virtual box for the annual tax ritual. Now, with what seems to be a successful installation on CrossOver, I won't even have to do that.
The next great breakthrough will be if/when Intuit or H&R Block write and release a version of their products for Linux. ......Yeah, right! Like that's ever gonna happen!
Thanks for the reply.

owa

Thanks OWA for the post. I too have been moving away from the dreaded winthing for years and have been held back by the intuit problem.

Gonna set this up and try.

Good luck with your efforts. Post back with your results. I'd be happy to try to help if you have problems. I also posted a mini how-to on the Code Weavers Crossover Linux site under H&R 2009. http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibi...e/?app_id=6649
owa