Re: [GNC] GnuCash preferred OS - Windows or Linux
On 7/27/23 11:55 AM, Adrien Monteleone wrote: GnuCash won't let you make 'double entry errors'. Well - I think I used the wrong term... When i say "double entry" - I'm meaning having to manually enter transactions from banking statements into accounting software. I'd like to avoid that if possible just to avoid the mistakes. Maybe it ultimately won't matter. Haven't decided yet. Cheers, -Ben -- Ben Kamen - O.D.T., S.P. -- Email: ben AT benkamen DOT net http://www.benkamen.net Cell: 224.619.9006http://www.linkedin.com/in/benkamen -- NOTICE: All legal disclaimers sent to benkamen.net or any of its affiliated domains are rendered null and void on receipt of communications and will be handled/considered as such. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] GnuCash preferred OS - Windows or Linux
On 7/27/23 2:11 PM, R Losey wrote: On Thu, Jul 27, 2023 at 2:59 AM Ben Kamen mailto:b...@benkamen.net>> wrote: On 7/25/23 9:31 PM, R Losey wrote: I'm not afraid of compiling stuff (I design FPGAs and regularly have to write the Linux Kernel drivers for my FPGA device designs and then the userland software to drive it. Oy!) but I do like to run my financial stuff in a dedicated thin install of windows in a VM on my main Linux server which I can get to from everywhere via VPN tunnel back to my server with VNC. So there is that. Noted. While I have built some apps under Linux, I attempted to build GnuCash once upon a time (before I knew about this list), and it failed... it failed badly enough that it corrupted my existing Linux install, and I could not run GnuCash at all. With this list available, I may try again sometime to do the build... I will need to set aside the time. So far, on my laptop, the version is close (5.3 something) - so that's cool. If you can get GnuCash running on Linux, it's nice that Linux already has perl, so one doesn't have to install a perl environment (should you care about online quotes). I started tinkering with it on my laptop which is Mint (with a Windows VM via VBox) -- but really dug in deep with the install on the aforementioned windows VM on my network's central Linux Server. I don't know if you'll use the stock quotes, but on Windows, you have to install a Windows-based perl environment (Strawberry Perl, I think). Even then, it didn't seem to work well for me. I may have just given up too easily. But if you don't need this feature, windows will work great. For the last several years of using Quicken, I ran it on a Virtualbox VM running Windows. Yea - mostly I do consulting and want to be able to enter invoices to sent to customers, track payments and other income or expenses. Yea, running a windows VM with bare essentials is what I'm doing. I gave up trying to get GnuCash to talk to various financial institutions; I enter everything manually and routinely balance my accounts. It works for me. OK - that's good to know. A major reason I'm ticked at QB/Intuit is their mucking with the sync stuff (when they don't have to) and the choice there is, "If I'm going to manually enter transactions, then is moving to something else even worth it. The whole point is to avoid the double entry errors if possible.) I used sync under Quicken, but only to check that I hadn't missed anything. From what I've read, it can be a bit of an issue in GnuCash, so I'm fine with entering things manually and reconciling accounts on a regular basis. Thanks for the info though... I'm gonna keep tinkering for now. You're welcome... Enjoy tinkering!! Thanks for the comments/insight. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] GnuCash preferred OS - Windows or Linux
On 7/26/23 7:55 AM, Mark at Lorimark wrote: I am a staunch Linux user, and came from the Quickbooks world as well. I am running a very small database, but have it in the sqlite, since that (for me) is very easy to work inside of if i need to poke around in the database (which I do). Which version of Linux? And are you compiling or running flatpak or distro supplied versions? I much prefer the 'double entry' approach to things rather than the bubble wrapped QB environment I always worry about missing something somewhere. and yes QB is getting expensive! It's irritating as the pricing jump is so obviously designed to push users to their web product and it's just gobsmacking that anyone at a financial software company would think it's a good idea to put one's financial life onto cloud services. (whether personal or company/business) And then there's Intuit. Go figure. Insane. I can't imagine any functional difference between any of the platforms as it pertains to GnuCash. Yea, I just have to keep plugging at it to figure out how to make everything work for me. Thanks, -Ben ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] GnuCash preferred OS - Windows or Linux
On 7/26/23 7:37 AM, Kalpesh Patel wrote: Welcome to GNC. I am on Windows 11 platform where I seem to find it that I get into less of troubles when it comes to getting it installed and, up and running. I have been versed in all three platforms (Windows, Linux and Mac) but I find it easier to work with it in Windows. There are some manual one time install intervention needed (installing Perl for example; figuring out Linux equivalent paths for customization and backups) but it is not that earth shattering as I believe lots of kinks has been worked out, documented here and there, there is user contributed work around if need to resort to it and this user group which is active. At the end of the day, don't let GNC dictate which platform you want as more of let your utility of the platform dictate what platform to run it on. All three platforms are supported so you are in IMHO good hands, albeit different platform may exhibit different bugs or un-published features per release. I do now and then flip the platform between Linux and Windows as a convenience but stay mostly on Windows. Got it. I use XML as the backend for storage which works well even considering that it is medium to large size book. It provides easiest ways to recover, share, fix and rollback (take a checkpoint or copy before "experimenting") should there be a problem. That's good to know too. Thanks! I am covert from Quicken so I have learned great deal of lessons from conversion especially getting to learn double entry system - start with zero and end with zero . As a convert, I did lose a lot of automated download via direct connect or Quicken Web Express but since most financial institution allows download of transactions in OFX/QFX or CSV format, I simply just download it in OFX/QFX format and import to bring transactions up to date or I'll put together something crude in shell script to convert CSV to QIF format and import it as QIF format. That's a good item as well. My bank allows CSV, QFX and QBO formats while my credit cards allow CSV and QFX. If I have to do the downloads manually (as long as I avoid double entry of every transaction), that would work out fine too. Thanks for the info, -Ben ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] GnuCash preferred OS - Windows or Linux
On 7/25/23 10:03 PM, Adrien Monteleone wrote: In addition to what R Losey mentioned, I'll add that while GnuCash can use MySQL, Postgres, or SQLite as an optional backend, it is not yet a true db application. For now, that is just a storage mechanism. Everything is loaded into RAM and edited from there. The advantage to the SQL backends (other than outside queries if you so desire) is instant saves, where the default XML backend either needs to be saved manually, or at set intervals. (the default) One other caveat - writing to the db store is not currently supported. It isn't that you can't at all, but you are warned and on your own if you corrupt your data. Some folks may report success here, but don't just jump in and start editing data via SQL willy-nilly. (reading is fine) Yea. Still playing. And did read the parts about the DB connections being full of important warnings/caveats/Stuff-I-Should-Know. You can check out the Roadmap on the wiki to see the progress done on the code transformation that will enable a proper db-based app. Will do. As for the banking connection - sorry I can't help, but plenty of folks on this list do, so they can hopefully jump in and offer some guidance. (if I understand it correctly, you will not be able to 'initiate' a transaction directly from GnuCash to your bank, you will only be able to download transactions, and there are other options than a direct connection.) Yea - that's all I ever did with QB anyway - except initiating transfers which I can do manually via bank's web login anyway. I saw the notes about unidirection transaction download only -- and I'm ok with that. As for OS, I use Mac daily, but occasionally test on Linux. (Ubuntu) I used to do that via builds if needed, and I've had a few hiccups, but those were mostly resolved. I've since resorted to testing flatpak builds (on Mint) without any major issues. Your mileage may vary. Also a Mint user on my laptop. (two thumbs up) Thanks, -Ben ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] GnuCash preferred OS - Windows or Linux
On 7/25/23 9:31 PM, R Losey wrote: Ben, welcome! Thanks! I have macOS, Linux (Ubuntu 22.04LTS), and Windows 10. I love the fact that GnuCash runs on all these platforms; I have my data stored on a mirrored external drive, so all computers can see it. As an OS, I like Linux the best. However, unless one is willing to do one's own builds, you're rather stuck with the distribution's version, which falls behind over time. I think Ubuntu 22.04LTS comes with GnuCash 4.8, and it's up to 5.3. I'm always a little worried about file compatibility between major versions, so I tend to avoid running on Linux. One can use flatpack (flatpak?) to get the latest version on Linux or, as I wrote, you can build GnuCash. I ran into trouble doing this under a previous version of Ubuntu, and it left GnuCash in in unusable state. I'm not afraid of compiling stuff (I design FPGAs and regularly have to write the Linux Kernel drivers for my FPGA device designs and then the userland software to drive it. Oy!) but I do like to run my financial stuff in a dedicated thin install of windows in a VM on my main Linux server which I can get to from everywhere via VPN tunnel back to my server with VNC. So there is that. Thus, I rarely run GnuCash on Linux - it's usually WIndows or macOS. Gotcha. And I can live with that. If you can get GnuCash running on Linux, it's nice that Linux already has perl, so one doesn't have to install a perl environment (should you care about online quotes). I started tinkering with it on my laptop which is Mint (with a Windows VM via VBox) -- but really dug in deep with the install on the aforementioned windows VM on my network's central Linux Server. I gave up trying to get GnuCash to talk to various financial institutions; I enter everything manually and routinely balance my accounts. It works for me. OK - that's good to know. A major reason I'm ticked at QB/Intuit is their mucking with the sync stuff (when they don't have to) and the choice there is, "If I'm going to manually enter transactions, then is moving to something else even worth it. The whole point is to avoid the double entry errors if possible.) Thanks for the info though... I'm gonna keep tinkering for now. Cheers, -Ben ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
[GNC] GnuCash preferred OS - Windows or Linux
Hey all, Noob user here just getting started with GnuCash (as QuickBooks Desktop has gone from about $66/yr to almost $600 in Intuits efforts to push users to SaaS online and I refused to put my financial info on "the cloud" -- file under "Equifax protects credit info with login -> Admin:Admin"). So -- That being said, I have Linux systems. I have Windows system. I have Windows systems running Linux VMs and Linux systems running Windows VMs. I really dig the idea that GnuCash can use MySQL and might set that up once I get used to GnuCash. But first, am I better off running it in Linux or Windows (It looks like the answer is Linux from what I've see of the Wiki). And while I have a super basic setup configured, the first thing I'd like to test out is my banking connection. I think there's a dead link in the wiki: https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/OFX_Direct_Connect_Bank_Settings#U.S._Bank says: U.S. Bank Fee $3.95/month for home user, $9.95-12.95/month for business (See Bank With Quicken). Which points to a 404 page. It *looks* like more useful information might be found here: https://www.quicken.com/support/important-notice-quicken-users-us-bank-accounts-avoid-mistakenly-migrating-direct-connect but I might be wrong. Anyway - as mentioned, I'd be coming off Quickbooks not Quicken... but in Quickbooks, USbank lists as PFM-DirectConnect. Not sure if that's the same. SO -- to setup/test/troubleshoot my US Bank connections, should I be emailing the AqBanking list or is that something to discuss here as well? (it also seems like the AqBanking list of banks when doing the setup yields no results typing in the search bar - I'm assuming that's due to lacking the list... but LIke -> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/OFX_Direct_Connect_Bank_Settings lists my bank. Is that all I need? There's also -> wget http://www.jongsma.org/gc/bankinfo/getfidata.sh.gz which seems broken. It resolved, but there's nothing running on port:80 - So perhaps a note to the Wiki is recommended? Thanks a bunch, -Ben ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
