Comment by dugmartin | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dugmartin | Hacker News Reader

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I've been a Windows user since Windows 2 and I'm hoping I never have to run Windows 11. I've switched to Ubuntu on my work laptop and my (System 76 Meerkat) side-project/consulting work mini-PC. Desktop Linux is not great but is good enough, especially when running under alternative DEs like Regolith.

I used to be a diehard Windows user. I was even a contractor on Longhorn for Microsoft and I have a DLL I wrote that still ships in the System32 folder (it used to be two but I don't see that one in the System32 folder now in Windows 10). I used to be proud that I could walk up to any PC in a store and hit a key combo and tell me kids "I wrote that" when the Narrator window popped up.

I still run Windows 10 on my old personal laptop just to run Quicken/Quickbooks but my current side-project is an app to replace both of those with a single app. I'm looking forward to the day I can wipe Windows off that laptop and install Ubuntu (or maybe ElementaryOS as I've heard good things).

Goodbye Windows.

If you have a moment, can you say the primary drivers behind your move? Thanks!

The #1 I have to say is my current Windows 10 Pro version (which I paid $100 for) is throwing a huge modal up each time I reboot trying to get me to create a non-local Windows account.

The only options are to create an account or dismiss the modal - no option to not ask me again.

#2 is all the telemetry.

Have you looked into GNUCash (GnuCash.org)? It’s a venerable open source project that I believe was started to offer an alternative to Quicken and may be an acceptable alternative to QuickBooks at this point. I haven’t used it personally but if I could go back in time I would make a strong effort to make that work before using Quicken/QuickBooks.

I've tried it but it doesn't tick the boxes I want:

- runs in a browser so my wife and I can use it collaboratively for both personal finance and a dual member LLC we have for real estate

- allows me to see a rolled up balance sheet and income statement with our personal finance and the two LLCs (the dual member one mentioned above plus another I use(d) for consulting).

- supports the sort of unique daily budgeting system I've used via a spreadsheet for the last 10 years

- uses a plain-text format (like hledger, beancount, etc)

- lets me do another project in Elixir/Phoenix

Yeah, the runs-in-a-browser thing is huge, especially if you want to outsource your bookkeeping. The monthly cost for QB online is crazy, especially when they want you to pay per-company. Be sure to post a Show HN for whatever you come up with please!

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