[plug] Linux Accounting Packages

[Craig Ringer]

On Thu, Sep 08, 2005 at 11:19:07AM +0800, Randal Adamson wrote:

> Why MYOB doesn't make a linux version is beyond me, they've made a Mac
> version - surely it's not much more to port it. Perhaps the mirriad of
> distro's is the stumbling point?

If you've used MYOB, you've probably noticed how much custom weirdness
it does. It's also hooked pretty deep into Windows in places, and
provides things like its own ODBC driver (not, alas, to make it talk to
a proper database, but rather to provide access to its internal tables
over ODBC). I'm under the strong impression that it's really rather
non-portable.

The Mac version is not a straight port, it's actually a somewhat
different product. I wouldn't be surprised if it cost them a bunch to
maintain.

If you write portable software it's easy enough to port to a less-used
platform. If your software is tangled and very platform dependent to the
core (*cough*QuarkXPress*cough*) then a port to a new platform is a much
bigger, more expensive and thus less appealing undertaking.

Speaking of MYOB, what I find really frustrating about MYOB is that it
doesn't support the use of an SQL back-end. You can't tell it "use my
postgresql/oracle/DB2 DB over ODBC" ... it only works with its own
embedded DB. If you want multiple users, you have to put the db on a
network file system (!!!). If you want more than three or four users,
you pretty much have to put MYOB on a win2k3 termserv and export it to
clients, since the network filesystem approach bogs down fast. Then,
of course, you have CALs to worry about. It's really not attractive.

I'm currently looking for cross-platform accounting software, or
preferably accounting software with a good network server or SQL
back-end. I need to use an accounting package as a base for some
software at the POST, you see. It's been proving really hard to find
anybody who can even imagine that a business with less than a few
hundred employees might want to integrate some of their in-house
software with their accounting system (*sigh*).

If anyone knows of an accounting system that:
  - is localised to Australia; and
  - provides a decent client; and
  - is extensible; OR (and preferably) is designed to let other apps
    talk to its DB backend, providing views and stored procedures to
    hide private parts of the DB; OR provides a network server for
    two-way communication with the accounting system

... then I'm really interested in hearing about it.

-- 
Craig Ringer.