I asked this in another thread, but it deserves its own, I think.

What do you Linux folks use to run your home financials? I'm still using Quicken 2010 because that was the last non-mobile version. That forces me to stay with Windows. (I've tried the crossover/bridge with Linux to run Quicken but it wasn't very good.)

I've looked at the cloud-based Mint (different program than Linux Mint) but I don't completely trust putting all my bank and credit card accounts and passwords online. They claim it's secure, but so did all the major companies that have been hacked and user data stolen.

Paper. Faster, easier and always online. But then I used to be an accountant. I'm not at Trump level. If I was I'd hire some weasly looking guy to handle my bimbo payments.

Mint is has been secure for me for a couple years. Only trouble is keeping it up to date with info to allow it to access your accounts. Seems like I'm always updating.

What OS are you running, urban?

It's been a while, but GNUCash seems to be OK. It runs on Linux or Windows.

I'm not a huge fan of Linux. I've had it on several machines and probably won't do it again unless I'm just going to load it and never change it. Resolving library dependencies is more than I care to screw with and seems much easier in Windows.

I don't want any "double entry" accountant-level headaches. I just want a Quicken-style program that tracks stuff and writes checks.

Keeping everything updated with Linux can be a pain, if you're not dedicated enough to it.

What kind of issues have you had? Other then Nvidia video cards being a PITA I've had no trouble with Linux Mint 18.3 and for the last couple of days 19.3 since I just updated it. I would say it definitely not quite as user friendly as Windows. I don't ask for much in a computer though either. Browse the internet, read E-mail and listen to music.

Golf pencil and a yellow legal pad

I thought with old people it was always “blah blah blah I’m on a fixt income”

Shouldn’t you already have it down pat what’s coming in vs what’s going out

Pornhub will now offer closed captioning for 10.95

Add that into your quicken

Along with GnuCash here are some other ones to look at.

https://opensource.com/life/17/10/personal-finance-tools-linux

Applications built for Enlightenment vs Gnome vs KDE, installing & upgrading apps in general. Damn, I think I even had library problems MySQL, Eclipse and Netbeans. It's always been a total PITA and it always seems like I spend more time reconciling libraries than I do actually using the machine.

The only thing I've had to do to a Windows machine lately (Win 7 & above) is install new versions of the C++ libraries and .Net. They even run with the old ones installed.

Rocky, I'm looking at the software manager on Mint, searched "personal finance". Here are the titles of programs, maybe you can search for info. It won't let me copy and paste the description.

Kmymoney- "operates similar to MS-Money and Quicken"
Grisbi
Skrooge
Wxbanker

Well, I may have made the issue moot. I downloaded Linux Mint 19.3 and installed it. I thought I set it up as a "dual boot" with Win 10 still on the drive. But when I reboot, I don't get the option as to which to boot to. If Win 10 is gone - and all of my photos and documents with it! -- I may have screwed the pooch.

Well not really rocky, if you restore win10 from a clean install ISO file you can probably get back to where you were off of your latest back up. That is if you made one.

Might also go into the bios and check the boot menu, maybe it will list Win 10

Before you do anything, see what partitions are on your disks. For instance, run `lsblk -f` Hopefully, your M$ partition is still separate and intact. It may be that your bootloader needs to be set up for dual boot.

Nope. Oh well, count me as a Linux user!

Fortunately, I had all my photos and documents saved to a removable drive. Imported them and nothing was lost (WHEW!) Firefox also loaded with ROBOFORM intact, so I didn't lose any of my many many complex passwords (WHEW AGAIN!)

I also went to MINT.com and set up an account there. All this took about three hours.

Rats!

To be clear, when I said M$ I'm dissing Microsoft, not telling you to look for 'M$' in the output. It would be 'msdos', 'vfat', or likely something else. I'd probably recognize it if I saw it. I'm not sure of your level of Linux experience so I wanted to follow up in case there's still a chance the data and OS are still intact.

Can't tell you anything about Mint. But, I quit using Linux years ago for the reasons I stated.

The mint I've been running for a while now 18.1? to the current 19.3 have a update manager that prompts you when you have updates available. Biggest PITA about it IMO is typing in the user password to update other than that it's been pretty much painless.

Agree. The need to type in your admin password to "Authenticate" most things is a pain. Have also found a couple programs that are Win or Mac only, another irritation. AND, no decent Solitaire or Mahjong games!

My Majong needs are basic I'm happy with the one you find in the software manager. I even found a chess program that works for my little bit of chess playing ability.

Yep, the solitaire games are pretty basic. It'll be interesting how you adapt to Mint in the future. There is a learning curve, things are called different, names of things are different, but it works and no MS. The only thing I haven't ironed out yet is getting my bore scope to work on it. Internet, photos, email, printer, etc has all worked well.

I'm going to have to use my wife's 'pooter to update my golf GPS, for one. Either that, or buy a cheap Windows tablet or laptop just for that. Hardly worth it.

For now, I think I'm going to be happy with this Linux Mint as well as the financial program Mint (no relation) but time will tell. I've played with Linux before, so the learning curve isn't all that steep.

I for damn sure am not going to erase my Win 10 Recovery thumb drive, or my Windows backups until I know absolutely I won't be going back.

Guys, I've been lurking here for a while. You suckered me in with a math problem a while back. My background is engineering and I've been running some variant of *nix for over thirty years. I was exited to see so many Linux user here. Woo-hoo! But then it's all: "Yeah, I use it to play games." Bummer!

Rocky, you mentioned dual boot. Have you considered, instead, something like VirtualBox? You can run Linux and Windows simultaneously.

And for those of you complaining about library management. Are you doing this manually with RPM? Your distribution should have a package manger like DNF that'll take care of all the dependencies for you automatically. I've been using Linux for a long time. I first got the kernel and a few bin-utils in the early 90s on a couple floppies. My, how things have changed!

As soon as I get enough hardware scrounged up I plan on doing a ground up Linux build. I checked out the Build From Scratch site and it looks like an interesting project.

I don't want to do it on this computer. It's set up and running good so I'll leave it alone except for playing with Wine and some audio programs.

I find Linux updates far quicker and easier than Win10, this being one of my reasons for switching.

I never had much luck with Wine but it's been decades since I tried to use it. It's probably miles ahead of what it was. I was using VMWare for quite a while, but they're not free and when they stopped supporting older hardware I switched to VirtualBox. It's free and supports older hardware. You don't have to re-install Linux to try VirtualBox. It's probably comes with most distributions. Install the package and all its dependencies, create a virtual machine and install Window on it. I was shocked at how much easier it was to use compared to VMWorkstation and free to boot. If you don't like it, just delete the virtual machine and VirtualBox and you're back where you started.

Back in the day, Wine was an emulator for the old windows operating system. I've had better luck with dosbox for use with my old games. That's right: Linux for the serious stuff and M$ (or the free equivalent) for the toys.

Here's a screenshot of Linux hosting Window 7 via VirtualBox and running a DOS game in dosbox. [Linked Image]

I don't really need Wine for anything. I'm just starting to mess with it to see what it can do.

I saw a VM in the software manager, but figured I'd do some reading before I messed around with it at all.

I have been using linux for lot of years currently manjaro it is a rolling release no reinstall always up to date.
6 yrs no problem it boots in 7.332 seconds.

systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 2.783s (firmware) + 24.047s (loader) + 2.297s (kernel) + 7.556s (userspace) = 36.685s
graphical.target reached after 7.322s in userspace

Give it a try then search for quicken equivalent for linux and try some.
charlee

Hurray!

I'm quite happy for you--think you'll find it worth the effort.

One problem so far...When I have a pull-down box, some of them cut off the command boxes at the bottom. I can see the tops of the boxes, but not the words inside. So I'm guessing about what I click on. Can't figure out how to increase the size of the menu box.

One day in, and here are my thoughts...

The things I miss from Windows: the ability to use ASCII characters; the ability to easily modify things on screen like drop down boxes; decent games; the ability to run certain programs I use a lot;

Things I like about Linux: the many programs included (Libre Office, Google Earth, Firefox, etc); the worry-free virus/malware environment; auto update of programs;

Things I don't like about Linux: the need to enter a password to do almost anything; the limited list of programs available; the fact that I'd have to be an IT geek to do many things;

That is a good idea, IMHO.

Okay, I loaded mint.com into Linux. It is an "assets monitoring" program that gives me up to the minute balances on all my accounts, credit score, plus home and vehicle values. Handy indeed, but it is not a personal finance because you can't write checks or do reports. I'll keep it, though.

Then loaded KMyMoney, which is very similar to Quicken. Haven't played with it much, but it seems to be what I'm looking for.

I was on the edge of going back to Win 10, but now may stick it out with Linux for a while. I still miss the ease with which I could do things in Windows but are more complicated in Linux. And the games in Linux really suck. Windows Jigsaw was one of my favorites - gone. And I had just spent $100 renewing some software packages for Windows, now money wasted.

More updates as I progress...

Rocky I don't really know what ASCII characters are, but the link might be help you out.

https://securitronlinux.com/bejiita...ubuntu-and-linux-mint-with-the-keyboard/

Not to highjack this thread, but with the many Teslong bore scopes out there now, anyone getting one to work on Mint? I can't get mine to show up on any program.

Here is my understanding.
The Teslong works on the Win10 default web cam drivers through the camera app. For Android and Mac they have download driver programs on the web page. So unless you can find the drivers compatible with Linux or an app that runs in Linux that has windows compatible drivers.

One frustration solved...

kMyMoney only comes with two check printing templates, neither of which fit my pre-printed checks. Online sources told me I'd have to either write my own template in HTML or edit either of the others. I am NOT a programmer and could not write a line of HTML code if my life depended on it. And it turns out there are no existing WYSIWYG (you can look it up) programs for Linux Mint to help non-geeks like me. I played with some online programs but couldn't figure out how to save the compiled code.

THEN, I happened to discover that LibreOffice Write can say a text file as HTML! So I diddled around with fonts and layout and after only about six tries managed to get a check template that not only runs on kMyMoney but actually fits my checks! It isn't perfect, but I don't think the bank will reject them.

I need a drink.

Libre Office has done everything, opened everything I've ever thrown at it.

Nicely done.

I use my checkbook

I'm possibly more of a troglodyte than you, hanco - I have a flip phone.

I am no 'pooter geek, but I'm also not afraid to tackle unknown things when I want to get something done. Hence my decision to switch to Linux and Chromebook in the first place. Neither is an insurmountable obstacle. So far, anyway.

Checks? I use only a few checks a month, for people who don't take credit cards - our maid, for example. Or to mail in tax payments. So I still need to write checks. Quicken did the job for upwards of 20 years for me but it does not run in Linux. MyMoney is pretty close to Quicken but its check formats are crap. I have now fixed that.

Pardon me while I sip a congratulatory martini while simultaneously patting myself on the back!

Absolutely. I had to apt-get install a certain program (can't remember right now) but it fired right up.

Rocky,

Regarding your dislike of Linux for requiring a password: This is honestly a security feature. Windows was/is sooooo easily breached specifically because installing malware in many cases did not require a password. Your system was cracked in the background without your knowledge, just by clicking on something that seemed innocuous. This, because either the user was running as Administrator, or because the user had opted to be automatically elevated to Administrator privileges.

The fact that UNIX was designed from the ground up to be a multi-user OS meant that there were always going to be different classes of users. And regular old users, which is what WE ALL ARE, don't use administrator/root level credentials. UNLESS they are performing administrative/root level tasks. Hence the need to enter passwords when prompted, and the use of sudo, or to su to root.

Please feel free to reach out to me via PM at any time if you hit any hurdles during your transition.
For instance, knowing that all you needed was an HTML template for your check printing - that's a 20 minute job to get you 90% of the way there. So while I don't run Linux Mint at present, I'm currently using Ubuntu, which is similar enough that a lot of knowledge transfers.



Regards,
Scott

Thank you, Scott. It gets easier and more familiar every day - just as it did with Win 10 or any other switch. Thanks for the offer of help. To make a terminal pun, I shall so do.

Running as an administrator is the easiest for most home users. But even as an admin if the UAC is set high enough it will still give a prompt and ask for verification to make changes to the system or software installation. If more than one user by enabling the lock screen and setting the screensaver to none it will enable the lock screen at set time and also the 5 min auto logout. This will force either an admin login or switch user/ password prompt. I even have the UAC set on admin to notify if any program is trying to make a change. For other users the admin can lock out program access, internet or whatever including download and install with password required. Parental control if you will.
Common sense is the key, but Rocky didn’t get hacked, he screwed up trying to set up a dual boot and erased Win10 wasn’t the OS, wasn’t a virus. Plain human error.

Yup, that's what happened. Clicked the wrong box during Install. Or didn't know that clicking a different box didn't UNcheck the other one.

Thank the Lord.

I have used Linux nigh on 20 years for home & work. Had ben Linux-free for a few years until I got a deal on 4 old-but-mint-condition Lenovo business class laptops for $150. Installed Mint with xfce environment and the kiddos are happy as clams.

Mint has ben the easiest OS to install & maintain, even including Windows XP, 7, and 10. Just no issues, other than my daughter sleeping on her laptop and busting the LCD display.