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[linas@linas.org]

It's been rumoured that Paul Lussier said:
> 
> Er, what kind of database?  

Gosh, I really have to watch my language.

> Do you mean a flat file type of thing that gets 
> parsed, 

from now-until-forever, gnucash will support a flat-file format, 
thus allowing simple install and maintainability by the naivest of users.
We are focused on keeping usability/maintenance as simple as we can.

> or am I going to need to fire up a MySQL/PostreSQL server just to do 
> my finances?  Will transactions also move into the DB as well?

Not for your personal finances. But I envision a multi-user (i.e. small
business) version which would require this.  I've been working on 
prototype code for this, and its starting to feel good.

> If so, that then begs the question of how soon will there be a web-based front 
> end to all this thereby requiring an apache server with SSL?

Not for a single-user system.  But I've also done prototype code for
a network-attached, multi-user system.  A gnucash ASP service.  Think
of some future gnucash as a 'financial browser for the web', or a 
'Nautilus for financial info'.

if yuo happen to have the latest cvs tree compiled, to 'help', scroll to
bottom, click on 'url test', click on 'www.gnucash.org', and click
on the little link 'test' at the bottom of the gnucash home page.

You can also do this with netscape, but the graph won't be interactive
...

> While these ideas do hold a certain attraction, I think it's a little 
> unrealistic to expect the average user who just want's a Quicken clone on 
> Linux to then need a DBMS, web server and SSL running on their system.  

This will never be required for the single-user, personal system
(whih is what gnucash is today.)



> Not to 
> mention that you'll then get those clueless induhviduals who will attempt to 
> do their finances over the web, and then wonder why their credit cards are 
> being used by someone in some other country!

Right!  The folks at amazon.com should really tighten security.  Oh, 
and by the way, if you are good with windows debuggers, you should really
really look at what quicken2000 is sending over the net back home to
intuit.com ... what you don't know (about what your proprietary app is
doing) *can* kill you.  Open source==auditable code.

--linas