BusinessSoftwareKwikis

Q: I need to be able to simply enter stuff, have different billing rates for different clients, and print polished looking invoices out of the application. Can anyone recommend any polished Linux projects that can do this?

A: There's a nice list here:

• http://cbbrowne.com/info/financefreesoft.html
• http://nola.noguska.com/main.html
• http://www.compiere.org/
• http://www.sql-ledger.org/
• A review for SQL Ledger:
• I liked sql-ledger. Admittedly, I'm still running QuickBooks, but only because I'm waiting for the end of the year to switch (on the assumption that I might have some time then, and to keep our books in only one place for the year).
• Being a Perl guy, SQL Ledger makes more sense to me though.
• Also looked at the compiere and nola packages noted above.

Q: If I don't like any of the choices I find in the Linux world, how can I run QuickBooks on Linux?

A: There are a couple of options:

• VMware Workstation. It's fairly expensive, and you need a copy of Windows.
• However, that has recently changed. There is a VMWare player that VMWare has released free of charge.
• It can be used to run virtual machines made with VMware Workstation, VMware GSX Server, and VMware ESX Server but it can't create them.
• And some enterprising folks have figured out how to create the VM configuration files....
• http://blog.lorenzoferrara.net/pivot/entry.php?id=73

• CodeWeavers. It allows you to run QuickBooks 'natively' under Linux (no need for a copy of Windows), and much cheaper than VMWare. Note that 100% of QuickBooks functions are not supported via CodeWeavers.