Microsoft Small Business accounting

[bba96]

I am new to linux. I want to run Microsoft Small Business Accounting 2009. I installed Wine 1.6. It opens the cab files then asks if I want to install. I click ok and almost immediatly I get setup could not install the required windows installer. What can I do ?

[MintBean]

Think of Wine as a hack. Some things it runs, some things it runs with some tweaking, a lot of things it either doesn't run at all, or runs with more or less annoying issues.

-Direct questions at the Wine site. Much more chance someone there has experience with the particular software you're running under Wine.
-If all else fails, consider running the software in an emulator (e.g. Virtualbox) or dual boot with Windows.
-See if there's a decent Linux alternative,

[jimallyn]

I would look for a good Linux alternative. Barring that, I would install PlayOnLinux, which will allow you to have more than one version of Wine installed at a time and a few other options. You could also install Windows or a Windows-compatible OS like ReactOS (a still in progress Windows clone attempt) in VirtualBox and see if that works. There are a lot of things that won't run in ReactOS, but I understand it is getting much better.

[samriggs]

Libre Office

[Mark Phelps]

One of the more difficult challenges of shifting over to Linux is learning to live WITHOUT Microsoft apps.

While Wine does run SOME Windows apps, the Microsoft "business" apps generally do not work at all.

IF you need to continue to run these apps, then you also need to continue using Windows to do that.

[phd21]

Hi "bba96",

Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux Mint and its excellent forum !

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

It would help to know more about your system setup. If you run "inxi -Fxzd" from the console terminal prompt, highlight the results, copy and paste them back here, that should provide enough information.

There are also various versions of Linux "Wine", including "Wine-staging". And, as was already stated some applications work, some don't, or they do not work well.

There are many very good Linux (or cross platform) accounting packages available, some might even read (import) your MSBA data files. Of course most accounting packages will also allow you to export your data into a more common or open source format which can then be imported by other accounting packages. There are many posts in this forum on accounting packages, if you search for them (ie: search for "accounting", etc...).

If you must use MSBA, then installing Virtualbox or vmware, then installing a version of MS Windows into that, then installing any MS Windows software into that will allow you to run any MS Windows software while still in Linux Mint without "dual booting". Of course you must have the computer resources to run Virtualbox or vmware with MS Windows in it efficiently.

How to install Windows in VirtualBox, easy instructions (great website).
- downloading and using a MS Windows version that is ready for Virtualbox will save you a lot of time, and you can use a "retail" MS Windows Activation code that you may already have.
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... ct/oldgrub

Hope this helps ...

[samriggs]

I appoligise I just got off work on a midnight shift and really didn't notice the full title of this post, "business accounting" part, so libre office would really make no sense unless you use the spreadsheet

So to make amends for my tired eyeballs here is some linux friendly software for accounting, some have demo's but charge but others are free for you to check out if your intertested in linux friendly alternatives for business/accounting software

gnucash https://www.gnucash.org/
sql ledger http://www.sql-ledger.com/ (requires sql server)
Compiere http://www.compiere.com/
Tryton http://www.tryton.org/
PyGtk Posting https://sourceforge.net/projects/pygtk-posting/ (new but looks promising)
Slickpie https://www.slickpie.com/ online accounting software if you trust using one online

Sam