Intuit Releases Lion-Compatible Quicken 2007 for Mac

[Hzarringhalam]

Quicken for Lion

This is terrible as it is

What do you do if you are still running quicken 2003? How do you convert the file to Lion? It's the only reason I have not upgraded to Lion yet but it seems Intuit's solution is once again half baked

 

[canucksfan88]

u mean it's still 2007? Good thing they spent all that money upgrading their software...

yes because accounting practices have sure changed since 2007!

 

[Nemesis90]

A humble point of view

1. "Quicken 2007? Why didn't they release a new 2012 version!"
Quicken makes almost no money for Intuit, and the Mac version even less so. From a financial perspective, it's not surprising they let it stagnate for years and then offer only token support. The days when Quicken was Intuit are looooooong gone.

2. "But Bill Campbell is on the board! Bill frickin' Campbell!"
I'm sure it's comforting to cherish romantic notions of the Mac community of old but it should have been clear when Intuit originally abandoned the Mac that there's no loyalty there. In his (potential) defense, I'd be surprised if something like Quicken 2007 compatibility with Intel Macs even reached his awareness.

3. "C'mon, this should have been easy!"
I take it most of you have never worked on complex software implemented and maintained over a decade or more by dozens if not hundreds of developers in that time using a variety of tools and incomplete documentation at best. God willing you never will. I expect Quicken (and QuickBooks, for that matter) code is such a mess that is touched only at great peril, and moving everything to Xcode isn't trivial. It can be done, of course, if the reward is worth the cost. Since I don't see much of a reward I'm guessing they outsourced it so the cost was low enough. Might also explain how long it took.

4. "But they do it for Turbotax!"
On a different codebase than Quicken, which helps Quicken not at all. And apparently enough Mac users buy Turbotax to make it worthwhile.

5. "LOL, a desktop app?!? FAIL"
This is probably why Quicken for Mac became "abandoned" again despite the continued resurgence of the Mac - mobile and web apps are growing even faster. "Why spend extra resources building separate desktop apps for different operating systems?" leads to "Why spend extra resources building features into this mobile/web app most people don't use?" leads to "Say, these guys already built that. Let's just buy them." a la Mint.*

But Quicken feature-parity in Mint? Ain't gonna happen. I know it sucks to be a marginalized edge case (happens to me all the time too), but I think the future is clear. It's like complaining that the iPad should have feature parity with an iMac - what isn't there is as much of the appeal as what is there.

* The same logic applies to most desktop products with large customer bases using different operating systems. I expect the same to become true of Turbotax and QuickBooks. And probably Photoshop, for that matter.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Is this a joke?

A good question to Apples Rosetta/hardware/software translation layer developer team, in the light of MS XP Mode (free).

Strange that VMware Fusion, Parallels and Virtual Box support Rosetta if you install 10.5.8 or 10.6.8 within a VM. Apple of course has not the money to pay two or three emulator or VM developers (see SheepShaver). No, absolutely not! Never!

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Would you rather have 3rd party software vendors working to add features, or just fixing things that the OS vendor broke in the update?

Yeah, i agree 100 %. Many people seem to forget that.

I have 1993 software packages that install and run on Windows 8. Why is Apple so much worse than Microsoft?

No professional solution on Apple OS platforms. Instead we must use SheepShaver open source solutions. Feels like Wine on Linux. Or we must use third party VM-software (Fusion, Parallels, Virtual Box). If that is innovation, i do not need it.

----------

This is terrible as it is

What do you do if you are still running quicken 2003? How do you convert the file to Lion? It's the only reason I have not upgraded to Lion yet but it seems Intuit's solution is once again half baked

Apples integration of old operating systems and old applications is half baked. Microsoft provides much better support (and for free).

 

[ElderBrE]

Legitimate question here, not trolling:

Why is this main page news all the time? Is there really that many users of this software on the Mac to make it front-page news every time there is something new about this application?

 

[aristobrat]

Look at the reaction this news triggered. People have lots of feelings over this issue, which IMO does make it a candidate for Front Page news.

 

[cvaldes]

and?....

Mint is 100x better and free.

Mint is fabulous for cash flow tracking and basic budgeting.

However, Mint is pretty mediocre in handling investment accounts and is absolutely pathetic in tracking investment performance. Even six-year-old Quicken 2007 (yes, it was released in 2006) does a better job of tracking investment performance.

Mint might be able to handle a basic brokerage account with just stocks, but if you have a blend of investments (bonds, CDs, alternative investments like managed futures, etc.) Mint is woefully inadequate. At least on Quicken you can create multiple accounts and stick various investment types in separate accounts (e.g., keep your tax-free munis together and put their interest payouts in that account).

Quicken for Mac also has a variety of customizable reports and handles tax-related items much better. For example, Mint just displays "Paycheck" for my salary. In Quicken, I have a recurring salary transaction that breaks down all the various taxes and deductions (including 401k, insurance payments, etc.).

I don't have a mortgage right now, although I think the same superiority of Quicken emerges there as well. You have a nice amortization table in Quicken and you can categorize things if you have an escrow account for property taxes, etc.

Mint is pretty weak on anything beyond basic cash flow tracking, but it does do that extremely well.

These days I use both.

I use Mint for everyday cash flow analysis of my various bank accounts (checking and savings at a couple of credit unions) plus credit card issuers as well as cash. A lot of dive bars in my area don't take credit cards; neither do small mom-and-pop restaurants (like taquerias) nor the vendors at farmer's market.

I still use Quicken, mostly for the investment tracking features.

Some day, Mint will get their act together on the investment tracking side of things, then I'll dump Quicken. But that day isn't here yet.

 

[John.B]

A good question to Apples Rosetta/hardware/software translation layer developer team, in the light of MS XP Mode (free).

Here's what I found at your above link:

You are not eligible to download Windows XP Mode. You must have Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate to run Windows XP Mode. To upgrade visit Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade.

"Free", my arse.

 

[Rocketman]

I have been beating this drum for a decade. File and content compatibility to "old" apps is a strong feature for current generation macs. Just because Apple forsakes old hardware for commercial reasons in no way means we want to forsake "old" data!!!!

Apple, make a Rosetta 2013! Tell the, "forsake the old" gods, it was in error. Let humans prevail.

Rocketman

 

[pedidoc]

Talk about quietly releasing an update!

I can't for the life of me find out how to purchase it through their website (at least currently). There's a link labelled "now available" that takes you to another page with NO links! Definitely not a moneymaker if no one can purchase it.

It can be found via the macrumors article link still. Just not anywhere on their own website unless you used ESP

 

[thederby]

yeah, quicken for mac 2007 is old, but look at it is intuit finally making their product intel-mac compatible.

this will keep most of the quicken faithful (the ones that were holding out for lion) from jumping to a competing product.

next up will be updating to 2012/2013 specs and windows version feature parity and (hopefully) the ability to natively import quicken for win databases.

 

[jaguar451]

Well, I'm happy to see it. I'm glad they kept the scope focused and got something out (ahead of the schedule they committed to.) Hopefully it works well.

 

[AppleFan360]

Too little too late. I moved to iBank and won't look back. Intuit can go bankrupt for all I care.

 

[KPOM]

yes because accounting practices have sure changed since 2007!

Well, in the business world, they actually have changed quite a bit.

That said, while personal finance itself hasn't changed much, Intuit has improved the functionality of the Windows version since then, but has taken a step backward on the Mac with Quicken Essentials. Realistically, Intuit could have done a simple port of the Windows version and produced a file converter so that a hypothetical Quicken for Windows 2012 could convert Quicken 2007 Mac files. Heck, Intuit made a converter for Microsoft Money files when Microsoft discontinued that product.

 

[John.B]

next up will be updating to 2012/2013 specs and windows version feature parity and (hopefully) the ability to natively import quicken for win databases.

What actions have you seen out of Intuit in the past 10 years that could possibly make you believe any of this will come to pass?

 

[KPOM]

1. "Quicken 2007? Why didn't they release a new 2012 version!"
Quicken makes almost no money for Intuit, and the Mac version even less so. From a financial perspective, it's not surprising they let it stagnate for years and then offer only token support. The days when Quicken was Intuit are looooooong gone.

So why waste the time and effort in building this, as well as Quicken Essentials?

3. "C'mon, this should have been easy!"
I take it most of you have never worked on complex software implemented and maintained over a decade or more by dozens if not hundreds of developers in that time using a variety of tools and incomplete documentation at best. God willing you never will. I expect Quicken (and QuickBooks, for that matter) code is such a mess that is touched only at great peril, and moving everything to Xcode isn't trivial. It can be done, of course, if the reward is worth the cost. Since I don't see much of a reward I'm guessing they outsourced it so the cost was low enough. Might also explain how long it took.

Then why not just add the functionality to Quicken Essentials (a new product) and make it file compatible, or add those capabilities to Mint.com? People aren't attached to the code. They want the functionality, which is mostly tracking of investments. It shouldn't be that difficult.

4. "But they do it for Turbotax!"
On a different codebase than Quicken, which helps Quicken not at all. And apparently enough Mac users buy Turbotax to make it worthwhile.

It shows that they could do it. Perhaps the reason people still buy TurboTax is that Intuit pays attention to the product. If anything TurboTax ought to be more difficult to maintain since the tax laws change all the time (plus there are versions for every state) and a much lower tolerance for error.

 

[firewood]

Is this a joke?

No joke. Quicken 2007 does a collection of things that no other genius groups of programmers has gotten any other app to do. These new apps do a lot of stuff better, but not the collection of things for which I use Quicken.

The lack of Rosetta was holding me back from upgrading my main Mac to Lion (the software development Macs are already on Lion and the new ML Beta). Now all I have to do is figure out which current Mac email program is missing the least amount of Eudora features, and I can update one more Mac.

 

[mtkoren]

A little too late and can't even import!!!!!

I spoke with customer service and the new Intuit 2007 will only import other quicken files but NOT QIF files.

This means that people like I who went to iBank when i got Lion, can't return without agonizingly massive amounts of manual data input in order to get this up to date. How could they not have a QIF import????

Now i like iBank. But quicken 2007 did some things better - it has better paycheck management, is easier to get fast reports, and is easier and faster on searching.

 

[eric_n_dfw]

Ynab

We've been using MoneyWell 1.x for a while but have never been that happy with it. Just discovered YNAB, though, and are loving it - will be paying for it next week when our free trial expires.

(BTW: MoneyWell 2.0 isn't an option since it requires Lion and I have no desire to upgrade from Snow Leopard on my MB and MBP - why the heck a glorified checkbook app requires Lion is beyond me)

 

[justperry]

Perhaps the reason people still buy TurboTax is that Intuit pays attention to the product. If anything TurboTax ought to be more difficult to maintain since the tax laws change all the time (plus there are versions for every state) and a much lower tolerance for error.

I know this is a bit of topic, but you have to buy a program just to fill out your tax income.
In the Netherlands the government provides people with a free program and it's available for Mac and Windows.

 

[Surreal]

I have 1993 software packages that install and run on Windows 8. Why is Apple so much worse than Microsoft?

Bending over backwards for legacy support stifles forward movement. While the intel move was a huge shift, Quicken had more than enough time. Apple announced the shift in 2005. seven years ago. The fact that Quicken only worked on Intel macs via Rosetta until now cannot be blamed on Apple presenting so much of a moving target that Intuit couldn't get it done in SEVEN years.

Also, I am hard pressed to believe that Intuit is doing anything low level enough that many updates OTHER than the intel move would break much in their software. Maybe encryption, but that is it. really, they are not writing drivers, they are writing tax software.

That sense of entitlement to legacy support stymies developers as well. Working on new versions doesn't reward when customers are convinced developers should bend over backward to maintain legacy support. reasonable fixes, sure, but I would think that almost any developer could put a compelling update together with 7 years.

 

[maconservative]

This should cost no more than $5 for the downloadable version.

It should be free for those of us who had PPC version.

 

[KPOM]

I know this is a bit of topic, but you have to buy a program just to fill out your tax income.
In the Netherlands the government provides people with a free program and it's available for Mac and Windows.

You don't have to buy a program, but a lot of people do because the tax forms are very complicated here. There are some government programs to subsidize the purchase of software for those of low income, but for them the tax forms are relatively simple.

Actually, the trend lately has been to online services. Simple returns are free using TurboTax Online (and similar services). But yes, tax preparation is a huge industry here.

Do you file forms electronically? That's been a big push here.

 

[KPOM]

Maybe if Apple spent some engineering effort towards making OS upgrades compatible, vendors would not have to waste money "treading water".

Would you rather have 3rd party software vendors working to add features, or just fixing things that the OS vendor broke in the update?

I have 1993 software packages that install and run on Windows 8. Why is Apple so much worse than Microsoft?

It's a different design philosophy. Windows has run on the same processor architecture for 27 years. MS will make yet another attempt with Windows 8 to finally end its dependence upon the x86 architecture. Apple has changed processor architectures twice in the last 18 years. Windows also took longer to adopt 64-bit architecture. In the end, to get there, Microsoft had to break compatibility with 16-bit applications.


Both have their advantages. With Microsoft, it's nice to know that older software is likely to run for quite a while (which is why it is popular in the enterprise). But Apple's OS has been more adaptable.