A Radical Step

Okay, back to reality. The previous post was a flight of idealism and Zionist yearning. I don't now follow any diet, although I wish I did, but in all honesty the focus of such things is personal purity, which isn't really the emphasis of Barbarianism. So here is a real step:

I jetted Quicken.

That's right, folks. Eugene Fairfield no longer keeps his accounts in Quicken. Instead, I'm using Gnucash, an accounting program released under a Creative Commons license. Which is to say, it is a program created to be shared and used, not to make money.

In all honesty, it's clunky. It takes some getting used to. It doesn't do everything I want it to do (for instance, it doesn't give totals when I run a budget report). It certainly does look as pretty as Quicken. But there is one thing it doesn't do: stop working after three years.

If you read my flame on Windows Vista, you recall that I was forced to replace a perfectly functional Quicken 2001 with Quicken 2005 last year, since Intuit (the maker of Quicken) did not provide updates for 2001. This made me grumpy, but grumpy at Windows for its intolerant OS. It seemed perfectly reasonable for Quicken to stop making updates for its older software at some point.

The other day I went to my bank and tried to download my credit card statement. I got an error message, with the note that Intuit no longer "supported" downloads for "older" versions of Quicken. This is different. This isn't a case of someone needing a patch written for an outdated piece of software, this is Intuit designing their file download system so it will cease working unless you send them money.

How they managed this is an interesting part of the tale. Some time ago they ceased "supporting" downloads for QIF format files, which is how they used to get this information. A questionable switch, since it placed a burden on banks to switch their online systems, which caused some small banks and credit unions to be incompatible. The new "Web Connect" system, Intuit assured us, would work much better and be more reliable than the old QIF format, which was "never intended for downloading personal financial information," Intuit said. A plausible argument. Never had trouble with it myself, but, could be. Of course, QIF, Wikipedia tells me, is an Intuit-designed file format that is an acronym for "Quicken Internet Format."

Maybe the problem with QIF is that it didn't contain any mechanism to shut off and extort money.

I'm quite happy, now, downloading in QIF. Not entirely happy with Gnucash, but I am SO happy that I was able to thumb my nose at Intuit, and turn their attempt to extort money into an opportunity to further the cause of Barbarianism!