I know, I know, it’s because I’ve been playing around with Windows for too long. I’m used to it’s warts and work-arounds, while Linux’s (Ubuntu’s) are new and stumpifying. It’s hard to research a problem for 2 hours to find the right answer for your configuration, and then spend 1 hour editing arcane files, all while trying to entertain a 10-month old.
- I can’t get my Treo to sync with Evolution. It does a partial synchronization and then fails. Based on the fact that sync-ing works with Windows, I’m betting the fault isn’t with the Treo.
- I can’t figure out how to delete the partial set / duplicate set of records that the failed sync leaves behind in Evolution. Ugh.
- Even if I figure out those last two problems, I still can’t figure out how to sync via BlueTooth. The HowTo’s on the web don’t seem to apply to my setup for some reason.
- Though it got better with Fiesty Fawn, volume control in fubar. The master volume somehow doesn’t control the MP3 playback volume or sound effects that emanate from gaim.
- The mouse sensitivity settings only affect the ‘stick’ mouse (between the g/h/b keys on my keyboard), not the ‘pad’. Since I predominantly use said pad, I’m frustrated that it takes 6 swipes to move the cursor completely across the screen.
- Stupid things like mapping Lock Workstation to Win-L doesn’t work reliably.
- Global keyboard shortcuts don’t work when the gnome menu is open.
- I can’t figure out how to get a keyboard shortcut for the shutdown dialog. Yeah, yeah, yeah, never need to reboot Linux. But since there are some things I can’t do in Linux yet (Treo Sync, Quicken-file compatible expense tracking, accessing my password safe) I frequently need to reboot into Windows.
- I have to get a VM running Windows up and running. But I’m not sure if I can use my existing windows install.
- Eye candy would be nice, but somehow, I get weird errors when I try to enable said eye candy (the stuff Ubuntu comes with, not even at the point of trying to install Beryl or Compiz on my own yet).
- The interface seems so stodgy. It’s boring enough that it makes specific commands (tool bar buttons) hard to locate. Though I’ve sync’d my firefox configuration files across Windows/Linux the fonts it uses in Linux ar stodgier / harder to read.
- At least both OSes can read the other’s file system. That helps.
Have you looked at using gnucash for expense tracking? It can read/write Quicken files. http://www.gnucash.org/
James: I looked at the web page, and they mention compatibility with QIF (Quicken Interchange Format) for downloading financial data, but not QDF (Quicken Data File/Format).
If all you want is to be able to track your expenses for yourself, you can export everything from Quicken in .qif files and then do everything in gnucash (which also works in Windows). If you need to be able to produce .qdf files for some other purpose, I think you have to use Quicken. There is also the .ofx format that Intuit and a few other companies agreed to, which is open and fully published and should allow things to move between systems.
James: The data file needs to be shared between someone willing to use a Linux-based solution and a non-techie who isn’t. :-|
Yeah, yeah, yeah, never need to reboot Linux.
I was shocked when the Gnome update-manager gave me a “You must restart” dialog after I upgraded to Feisty Fawn. Apparently they’re trying a little too hard to maintain the Windows look-and-feel. :(
My brother uses cygwin which allows you to run both windows and almost linux at the same time. Maybe that would ease your pain…
Emmanuelle