I, and several of my friends, would like to see TurboTax ported to Linux. That one program, which is only used one time in a year, is the ONLY reason we dual-boot (Mint and Win 7). We would all like to get rid of Windows from our computers.

Songr
asap...

Really, why dual boot at all? Install Win 7 in a VirtualBox virtual machine and run whatever you need whenever you need it seamlessly right on your Linux desktop..

Exactly. About the only reason I still dual-boot is because of Poser, which needs direct access to the graphics card, which the driver in VBox simply can't quite emulate. Anything else - including even de-shake software for video only available for Windows - runs comfortably in VBoxed Win7, which I never go online with. Security updates? what for? Linux does the job so much better it's ridiculous.

Quickbooks can't be beat for SOHO accounting. Gnucash is great, and KDEMyMoney for personal, and other programs that are out there, but Quickbooks is the best all-around and also is the primary format accepted by accountants.

Where in the World is CarMan SanDiego ?

drivers, drivers, drivers

and poly file interfaces to drivers !

they are the most important and that's why microsoft hoards and is hot to keep them out of service. they will not tell you that they are important.

it's how microsoft cause USA electronics to be dis-used by USA consumers (bugs in drivers they altered that worked on USA products, like SCSI). they supported only chinese drivers: and those products sold because strong arm they were the only products with unbroken drivers.
that works)

drivers are even more crucial today because there are so many new devices and multimedia

it's a compatibility issue that's way to long been brushed under the rug as "well the rich control it, and they can't be sourced, and wont be sigle-release compatible for use on any given OS"

there's no such thing as a "driver interface" so that device maker can code 1x and leave. and if there was microsoft would attack it and NOT support it.

it's a problem for consumers.

1 members found this post helpful.

Supreme Commander

Andrew Tobias's 'Managing Your Money'

I have a Sony Digital Camcorder that can not upload pictures and videos into my OS which of course is Linux Ubuntu 14.04/15.04
It doesn't matter which OS I use they will not work with many MS programs.
I would like to see this program ported over because many of the Linux programs don't work for this camera either.
Please let me know when or if this can be done.
Thanks,
Joe

This is possible, the problem with such setups, even though developers deny that it exists is that those small programs take up resources. The best example of this is Open office an Libre Office. They both have a small program that starts and allows you to select which one of the suite choices you want to use. Hands down, Microsoft office programs start much faster than the two open source programs mentioned and part of the reason is that you do not run a start program to run any of the MS office suite programs. You run those programs directly.

I mentioned this to Open Office tech a few years back and the response I got was:

"Open office starts faster because we have a small program that is waiting to start one of the Suite programs."

Funny thing agout that, my experience is exactly opposite from their claim. When I start Open Office writer or calc, or Libre Office writer or calc; I am waiting for at least 1 minute before the program comes up, while with a MS office program, they start almost immediately.

Now I have never had the fastest system on the planet. And that is likely the problem. While Microsoft is still refining their code to insure it is responsive on the older platforms, the open source developers seem to be writing code for the latest greatest systems and do not bother to refine the code so that the program is responsive on older system.

This of course is not the case with certain Linux distros who in fact develop for older systems.

My ultimate point is: for doing desktop publishing and basic spread sheet work, a single core processor and 4 gigs of ram is plenty powerful enough to do the job. Developing such programs to need more than that is just arrogant.

While there are open source suites such as Open Office and Libre Office, my experience with the three suites is that Microsoft Office is more responsive than the open source guys.

MS office suite starts faster and there's no middle-ware program that must run before running one of the suite members. That also means it automatically uses less resources or is more efficient in using those resources.

Have you tried looking for a Sony Cameras community?

I know there is a Canon Cameras page on facebook, if there is one for Sony cameras, it would be a good place to ask if anyone has found a Linux program that works or a work around for your problem.

This is so true.

I have an Epson Workforce 610 that is supposed to be compatible with Windows 7 64 bit. However, the scanner software that Epson distributes for it will not run properly on 64 bit Windows. Install the 32 bit version of Windows 7 and it runs just like it does on XP 32 bit.

I'm of the opinion that it is a combination of the Scanner software and USB driver not working properly under the 64 bit windows 7. The scanner software will function if the machine is set up on the network, but it will not recognize the scanner when it is plugged into the USB port. No telling what the compatibility issue is with this.

They may have fixed it with more recent machines, but they would not fix it for that machine.

Running windows in VirtualBox will be slow unless you have a multi-core processor and ram in excess of 4 gig. I did that with XP Pro on my single core, 4 gig system and it was slow to start, and slow to respond.

Sometimes, running on actual hardware is the best way to go.