I'm Trying To Quit... Commercial Software, Pt. 1

This experiment started out simply enough. It was 2007, and I got a new laptop. I had been running Quickbooks 2004 for our checking accounts, and Office 2003 for our meager office tools needs. I decided this software would stay on my old laptop (now my wife's), and I would try Free Open Source Software (FOSS) alternatives on the new one. I was bored with Office, and fed up with Quickbooks, anyway, so why not?

From there, the experiment broadened, and I decided to see if Linux/FOSS could keep me from ever having to boot into a proprietary system (Windows), or use proprietary software. I decided to keep notes, and now I seem to have enough material to start sharing the experience.

This is where it begins. I replace Quickbooks with GnuCash, and Microsoft Office with OpenOffice on my new laptop, which is running Windows XP.

GnuCash

Since I wasn't sure of anything, I didn't move our checking accounts out of Quickbooks. My wife and I were simply doing the laptop shuffle anyway, so it was just easier to leave everything where it was, and continue to maintain our registers on the old laptop.

However, we wanted to start a monthly budget, and I decided to let GnuCash step up and take a shot. Installing GnuCash was as easy as any other Windows application. Simply download the installer and run through the prompts. No sweat.

After doing a minimal amount of reading, and marginally more button punching and tab poking, I figured out that I would have to first create a register, and then apply a budget estimation to it.

So I setup a register called Monthly Budgeting. We decided on a monthly dollar amount, and I made this the initial deposit. Then, I began entering our receipts.

Here's what the register looks like:


So far, nothing surprising or mind-boggling. GnuCash felt a lot like Quicken. There's only so much variation a register is going to have, after all. This is good, because it means that the learning curve from one product to the next is minimal.

After finishing all my month's entries, I did some more poking around, and finally got the budget estimate working. Hint: Select the Budget tab, click "Options" to set your intervals etc, and then click "Estimate".

Here's our budget after a few months of keeping track. The budget outline for the Monthly Budgeting register is displayed horizontally, each month showing whether you are under budget (positive dollar amount), or over (negative) for that period.



The only problem I've had was with the backup. Quickbooks has an easy backup feature, and the backup is stored in a single file. I've been backing up GnuCash by copying all the files from its directory to a flash card.

This seems to work okay, but at one point GnuCash (or I, or both) got confused, and I had to restore from the backup directory, and in the end I lost about a month's worth of entries. The backup could be a little easier, I think.

GnuCash has worked out well. I've since added my business register to it, and it has all the standard features that you would at least find in Quicken. I'm not an accountant, so I can't really say whether GnuCash could replace Quickbooks for a business. I can say, however, that it seems like a pretty painless way to not pay for software for managing your personal check registers and budgets.

OpenOffice

This will be pretty short. I barely ever use MS Word for anything, but occasionally need Excel. My wife uses Word the most, but not in any way that OpenOffice (or even Wordpad) couldn't handle.

So far, Calc has been sufficient for my spreadsheet needs. There was barely a learning curve, and like I said, I don't make too many heavy demands on a spreadsheet. MS Access is another story, but for me that's more of something that I might use in development (say, of a .NET application, because it was convenient), so I'm not including it here.

Like GnuCash, I think OpenOffice ranks high enough in quality and design to work fine for a very large percentage of home users, and even for a lot of offices. As time progresses, whatever gaps there may be will only get narrower.

So...

As you might have figured out by now, this experiment is not a feature-by-feature scrutiny of competing products. I'm just using software the way I would normally, which is essentially, "I don't care about feature X, until I need feature X". I think most people work this way, unless they have a specific reason to become an expert. I'm not an accountant, doubt I will ever be an accountant, so I don't put a whole lot of time learning every arcane feature available in Quickbooks. I learn enough to do what I want, and won't go further until I need to.

In this experiment, FOSS is effectively graded on whether or not it can substitute all or most of my proprietary software needs, in the way in which I use software. It is highly subjective, and human nature, like laziness and apathy, is very much a part of it, as you will see.

(Next up: My old laptop dies, and we have to get another one. I decide to try Linux along with Vista, and see how little I actually have to use Vista.)