It has been quiet... too quiet

Not much has been happening here. It is now almost tax time and there are no Linux versions of any tax preparation software for Canada so far. I broke down and picked up QuickTax and installed it on my Vista partition. To say that I am unhappy about this would be a slight understatement. I can understand in a way that companies will cater to the largest segment of the O/S market, but, figure out what has to be anchored to the O/S and what can be independent. If you do that you should be able to market to Linux, OS/X along with Windows and gain a slight competitive advantage by grabbing market share from those of us who use anything but Windows.

On the Linux Distro side I have been playing a bit with KUbuntu. I like the look and feel of it and the latest distro actually booted up on my Dell box. There will be a bit more playing around here to see if

• Runescape will play
• My graphic card can be used to its fullest
  
• TV tuner
• my Palm will work
• Scanner will work (XSANE)
• Web Camera
• Software to organize my photo library
  

KDE 4 looks nice and clean, but, I want more than eye-candy, I want all of my hardware to work to its fullest.

Another little thing and maybe someone out there can point me to the right place. A little while ago I was the photographer at my daughter in-law's baby shower and I took two videos. The camera stored it in AVI format. Linux does not have a problem showing me those, but, they are massive files and I cannot upload 200+ meg videos to facebook to share with the family. I looked quickly at the video editing software, but, I cannot see how I can redo AVI to MPG format and lower the size of the video. I don't want or need 640x480 to show family members some of the funny portions of the part, I just want to be able to share a small, easily downloaded video.

Now about one of my favorite topics, SPAM email. So far this year it has been a minor problem unlike other years (less than 30% spam rate now). However I have noticed the scams have been getting much better. Both for grammar and spelling. When you get a notice that purports to be from your Bank, Insurance Company, ISP wanting private information or to re-enter your security information... DON'T. Never click on any link supplied, but, use the one you type directly into a browser or saved previously in a bookmark. Keep your system up-to-date with all patches, run a virus scanner and have a firewall installed and running.

Linux and Tax software - 2009

The words 'Tax Software Linux' seems to be a fairly popular search topic. A large number of hits to this blog are people using the previous mentioned search words, or variants of those words. I also have started my search this year to see who has Linux versions of the tax software. My first site was Intuit and my searching there didn't find any mention of a Linux version. I followed this up by sending an email to the customer service email account. Within a day I received a reply from Intuit and to quote the email:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting Intuit Canada.

Unfortunately, QuickTax desktop software is not compatible with the Linux systems.

It would be greately appreciated if you can send a direct feedback at feedback@intuit.com.

This will enable us to re-think about desktop version for Linux computers.

Please feel free to contact us, If you require any further assistance.

Have a nice day!

Regards,
xxxxxxxxxxx (I blanked out the name of the person here)
Intuit Canada

The nice part is that if you notice in the reply is that they have provided an email address for feedback. I have sent them a note asking if/when they will be doing a Linux version. So far I have not received any reply, but, if you are interested I would suggest you use the feedback email id and send them a note.

Linux Canadian Income Tax - Update 2

I am on a roll going through sites for Canadian Individual Income Tax Software. The next site I tried is TaxFreeway and it was very easy (one click) to see what is supported. On the down-side it is only Windows and Mac, but, I don't have to waste time trying to find that out. It is also only one click to find out an email address to send any questions to. This is a much easier site to navigate and keeps to the KISS principle of design.

The third site is Taxtron and like TaxFreeway it is a joy to navigate. The first page allows for individual or professional. The next page right up allows you to pick either Windows or Mac. I selected windows and went to the tech support option. They have a nice and short web based option to allow you to ask a questions. Again, this is a easily navigated site and in a few clicks I can find the information I am looking for.

The fourth (and last) site I looked at is UFile. Right at the bottom of the page is a contact option. When I go there I am presented with a online web form that will allow me to ask questions. Again, fast and easy to find how to ask them questions. Unfortunately it appears that they are Windows only, but, I could find that quickly and easily. In their FAQ area they are upfront in that they support only Windows at this time. This information took me only one minute to find. On the upside they do have an online version that appears to support Linux (using Mozilla based browsers).

Linux Canadian Income Tax - Update 1

Today I started to look to see if some of the makers of tax software support linux. I have spent the last 20 minutes trying to go through Intuit's site to see what O/S is supported. So far I have found absolutely nothing on what is supported, all of my links lead me in a circle and when I try to figure out how to send them a note asking a question I go into the same loop. Come on people, make it easy for us to send you a note asking a question and step firmly on the necks of the marketing people who seem to make the site into one huge advertisement.

When you have a clickable link for a contact give the person an option to at least fill in a web form with their question and how the company can reply back. If anyone is reading this from Intuit keep this in mind,

I write programs and online systems for a living and your site makes it impossible for an computer expert to find how to contact you.

If I have a problem with the site how is an average computer user going to navigate your site?

I finally found their online forums after 25 minutes of going in circles. I did a search for 'Linux' and the only thing I could find is that there is a QuickTaxWeb and not a native Linux version.

2008 - Linux Income tax Software - NOT!

It is that time of year again where I search for a Linux version of Canadian income tax preparation software. This year it is even more pressing as no one now supports Windows 98 which is on our dual-boot machine. The machine itself is great for Linux, but, there is no way I will pay to 'upgrade' the O/S to XP and it definitely will not run Vista. I started my search in the stores reading the boxes of tax preparation software and noted that Win98 was not supported and when I went to the web sites it was confirmed again.

I figured I would go to the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) to see what they had for certified software and if any company had a Linux version. You can see what is certified at the CRA. At this time no one supports Linux.

When I get some time I will probably send a short note to a couple of companies asking about Linux versions. I understand that they are a business, but, a sizable population is not being served and that in my less than humble opinion is a ripe market that would love to be able to prepare their taxes in Linux.

I looked at web based companies, but, I am unsure how much I should trust them with my personal information. It is a complete unknown to me on how they secure that information and what their backup/restore procedures are and how secure that is. Unlesss something comes up soon I will have to do my forms by hand or buy a refurbished machine with XP on it and dedicate that computer to just old legacy programs that are Windows based.