[GNC] GnuCash preferred OS - Windows or Linux

[Kalpesh Patel]

Welcome to GNC.

I am on Windows 11 platform where I seem to find it that I get into less of troubles when it comes to getting it installed and, up and running. I have been versed in all three platforms (Windows, Linux and Mac) but I find it easier to work with it in Windows. There are some manual one time install intervention needed (installing Perl for example; figuring out Linux equivalent paths for customization and backups) but it is not that earth shattering as I believe lots of kinks has been worked out, documented here and there, there is user contributed work around if need to resort to it and this user group which is active.

At the end of the day, don't let GNC dictate which platform you want as more of let your utility of the platform dictate what platform to run it on. All three platforms are supported so you are in IMHO good hands, albeit different platform may exhibit different bugs or un-published features per release. I do now and then flip the platform between Linux and Windows as a convenience but stay mostly on Windows.

I use XML as the backend for storage which works well even considering that it is medium to large size book. It provides easiest ways to recover, share, fix and rollback (take a checkpoint or copy before "experimenting") should there be a problem.

I am covert from Quicken so I have learned great deal of lessons from conversion especially getting to learn double entry system - start with zero and end with zero 😊.

As a convert, I did lose a lot of automated download via direct connect or Quicken Web Express but since most financial institution allows download of transactions in OFX/QFX or CSV format, I simply just download it in OFX/QFX format and import to bring transactions up to date or I'll put together something crude in shell script to convert CSV to QIF format and import it as QIF format.
  


-----Original Message-----
From: Adrien Monteleone <adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net> 
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2023 11:03 PM
To: gnucash-user at lists.gnucash.org
Subject: Re: [GNC] GnuCash preferred OS - Windows or Linux

In addition to what R Losey mentioned, I'll add that while GnuCash can use MySQL, Postgres, or SQLite as an optional backend, it is not yet a true db application. For now, that is just a storage mechanism. 
Everything is loaded into RAM and edited from there.

The advantage to the SQL backends (other than outside queries if you so
desire) is instant saves, where the default XML backend either needs to be saved manually, or at set intervals. (the default)

One other caveat - writing to the db store is not currently supported. 
It isn't that you can't at all, but you are warned and on your own if you corrupt your data. Some folks may report success here, but don't just jump in and start editing data via SQL willy-nilly. (reading is fine)

You can check out the Roadmap on the wiki to see the progress done on the code transformation that will enable a proper db-based app.

As for the banking connection - sorry I can't help, but plenty of folks on this list do, so they can hopefully jump in and offer some guidance. 
(if I understand it correctly, you will not be able to 'initiate' a transaction directly from GnuCash to your bank, you will only be able to download transactions, and there are other options than a direct
connection.)

As for OS, I use Mac daily, but occasionally test on Linux. (Ubuntu) I used to do that via builds if needed, and I've had a few hiccups, but those were mostly resolved. I've since resorted to testing flatpak builds (on Mint) without any major issues. Your mileage may vary.

Regards,
Adrien

On 7/25/23 3:15 PM, Ben Kamen wrote:
> I really dig the idea that GnuCash can use MySQL and might set that up 
> once I get used to GnuCash.

> And while I have a super basic setup configured, the first thing I'd 
> like to test out is my banking connection.