[Fsfe-uk] Re: Accountants

[Richard Ibbotson]

Oliver

> I was an accountant once and am still a member of the Institute. 
> One of my long-term aims has been to write a GPL accounting
> package, though I haven't yet had the time to do more than a few
> sketches.  I would like to work with people on specifying it.


Oh ... Oliver :)  I've not heard anything from you for at least a 
year.   Hope you are well.

Having had a look through the entire rack full of MS killer apps and 
the entire rack of GNU/Linux killer apps I know that the one true and 
certain way of getting the attention of the international financial 
community is by providing them with accountancy software that fits in 
with standards in the local area and international standards as well. 
 So,  the .RPM and .DEB packages lend themselves to this very well.  
You can add or subtract a package to increase functionality or 
decrease it in the way that you might want.  Good way to do things ?

In our case in the UK Governement PKI standards come to mind as an 
obvious issue.  This is what stopped Jalia from becoming a success.

My own pet accountant is completely hopeless with computers but even 
his own perception of GNU/Linux firewalls and Samba servers is that 
they are much better than anything else that he has seen. So, he'd 
like to see more of them.  Or, better still, move to GNU/Linux on his 
desktop.  Which he can't due to the lack of an accounting package.

I think specifying a standard for an office package for financial use 
is probably something of a severe test of somones or anyones 
organisational abilities ?

Thanks


-- 
Richard