[Discuss] Finance software for Linux

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

Derek wonders:
> As a long-time GnuCash user and developer, I'm curious what exactly you
> mean by this.  What UI issues do you have/see in GnuCash?  And have you
> let the GnuCash team know about them?

I haven't used GnuCash, but I did download and take a look 2 years ago when I
opted for MoneyDance.  It's a big time investment, usually at least a couple
of days, to import enough data and seriously play around with these apps to
get a real feel for them--so the online comparisons of GnuCash, KMyMoney,
Quicken, et al aren't terribly reliable.

What I recall of GnuCash is that its screens and reports are each hard-coded
and lack the universal drill-down-on-anything capability that I got used to
with Quicken.  I also want to be able to export whatever I see on the screen
to a CSV or report file.  At the time, GnuCash didn't have a mobile app; as an
iPhone (rather than Android) user, it still lacks that capability that I've
gotten used to with MoneyDance.

Searching for reviews, I can't really find any that indicate these UI issues
have really been addressed. The app's ChangeLog file is presented in raw form
without summarization so it gives no hint as to the "real" changes of the past
2-5 years.  The overall impression I get is that it's a lot like MythTV: great
stuff circa 2006 but in need of a re-think and overhaul now that the era of
mobile computing is mature.

Exactly how to put that to the "GnuCash team" without mortally offending them,
I'm not quite sure.

My household systems are gradually getting weaned off Windows onto Macs (or
Linux) so I kinda like the java-native cross-platform approach taken by
MoneyDance: but it too has grown stale, in need of an overhaul.  Like so much
software I'm stuck with.

-rich