[TriLUG] Vista

[Kevin Hunter]

At 1:23p -0400 on Thu, 10 Jul 2008, Ron Joffe wrote:
> On Thursday 10 July 2008 13:08, Christopher L Merrill wrote:
>> If _I_ was to start a software business right now, it might
>> be replacing those with either browser-based services or cross-
>> platform clients. Give users a good reason to switch and they
>> would - even if the purchase cost was the same, because support
>> from those companies is horrid.  Quickbooks is both indispensable
>> and a PITA for us on a weekly basis.
> 
> We have the same issues with quickbooks, ended up running it in a vm. The 
> online version was way too expensive.
> 
> We haven't found any linux based (open or commercial) which our accounting 
> firm can utilize, so we are stuck with quickbooks for the foreseeable future

The tough question: is there a market for a web based and open version
of quickbooks?

I know there are plenty of folks able to write something like this
(especially on this list), but there are lots of caveats for this kind
of thing.  The most prevalent for the crusading authors is money.  Then
there's constancy.  The basics of double-accounting likely won't change,
but the minutiae (e.g. tax laws) will likely change every year.  Without
monetary support, I can see authors quickly moving away from something
like this.

I'm making a (perhaps erroneous) assumption that the majority of folks
on this list would want this open source, and likely free, but that
doesn't bode well for the largely mundane work of keeping minute details
up to code.  That's a lot of research and constant upkeep for an open
source project.

Who will pay those folks for there arduous work keeping a project
up-to-date?

As a small business owner who both appreciates open source, and wants to
help the local community/economy, I know I'd be willing to pay annually,
or even monthly to support something like this.  Are there others on
this list who would be willing to show monetary support for this kind of
project?  Or are we stuck solutions that can't be changed?

Kevin