The sun never sets on the Intel empire - Intel official
|
|
|
Microsoft burns Money
RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of the economic downturn, Microsoft has decided to kill off its long running Money program.
CNET reports that the Vole has been ringing up financial institutions and will announce the move to its customers. Microsoft said it will stop flogging the product at the end of June, but plans to support it through January 2011.
After 2010 punters will still be able use the product but they will not get automated data feeds from their banks, credit card companies and other financial service providers, which is half of the fun.
Microsoft's Adam Sohn told CNET that the reason for the killing Money is "a mix of what's going on in the market" and "a little bit on consumer behaviour".
In other words no one wants to buy Microsoft Money any longer now that many banks, brokerage firms and web-sites offer something similar for free. Microsoft has in the past discontinued its Encarta encyclopedia and Windows OneCare antivirus products for similar reasons.
The competition for the Money application is Intuit's Quicken. Intuit is reportedly looking at ways to make it easier for Microsoft Money users to transfer their data over to its product. Intuit has also been improving its free online product. µ
Share this:
Share
It seems that Microsoft has really fallen on hard times.
Normal renewal for Action Pack is $299. This is with Media Delivery. Now the $299 is for download ONLY. Media delivery is another $200 added to the cost. Self serve is suppose to be cheaper that full serve. In other words for downloads ONLY subscrition it should be cheaper since you have to provide the bandwidth and hardware.
--------------------------------------
Item Description Language Media Price (USD)
RENEW Microsoft® Action Pack Subscription ENGLISH (Download Only) English Download $299.00
RENEW Microsoft® Action Pack Subscription ENGLISH - Download + Physical Media (DVD) English Download + DVD $498.00
Microsoft is like the fox who could not get the grapes, so he decided they were sour. Whatever Microsoft can't do well, it decides "Oh well, that is going out of style anyway."
Moneydance is a stupid name for a really good program what works equally well on Linux, Windows, and OS X. It can import Quicken files better than Quicken can!
For once I find a piece of software that does the job I want it to, which is to download the 401k info, and keep all my data in one place. And I learn how to use it. Any idea if we can buy an extension to the "Online Services" ? Mine are set to expire 8/13...not fun! Maybe I should have just stuck to Excel, or paper, or something that doesn't become obsolete.
You pay and pay and pay. Become dependant on it for your business. And then they pocket your money and leave you stranded. These kinds of games have put people out of business in the past.
Next time, use Free Software / Open Source to protect yourself.
Whoa, Money was probably the program I used the longest, from about 2000 or so until last year. However, I was using the Windows 3.1 version of Money, which still ran on XP.
All I'd needed was a simple checkbook, nothing more. The extra data feeds, mortgage calculators and so on weren't of much use to me. But it was nice to keep track of what I was spending and where it went. I liked being able to back the whole thing up to any device, whether flash or CD, and be able to install it by just copying it.
No re-installs, no licensing, no activation, like the good old days. Money stayed with me through countless upgrades.
When I finally went 64 bit my version of Money finally became useless. Sure, maybe in a virtual machine/DOS box/whatever I may have made it work, but I finally went to AceMoney, a freebie checkbook that does all the same things, is as portable, and has a few extra bells and whistles over my old Money.
So long, Money, may your bits rest in peace.
Like in the UK, MS Money was never updated since the 2005 version in Australia and countries which had the "international English" edition.
As a regular user of Money over the years (since the Windows 95 version), I'm suprised to hear MS is discontinuing it.
Unlike in the UK where Quicken isn't being updated anymore, it is still available in my country of Australia and updated every year by our local developer Reckon.
GnuCash is free so it's easy to try.
So Quicken went under eh? Shame what MS can support a product (Money) with its monopoly money and drive out decent competition - I much preferred Quicken to Money when I was using it about ten years ago.
GnuCash is excellent - it's is true double entry and you might need to get up to speed but I found the transition easy enough. It's also flexible enough to be able handle whatever you throw at it.
Intuit stopped selling Quicken (its competitor to Money in the home accounts product range) in the UK back in 2004.
Money has not been updated in the UK since 2005.
Are there any decent home accounts packages left that are UK specific, not biased to the U.S. tax system?
MS stopped selling a UK version of Money several years ago and stopped doing updates at the same time.
shame, it is a very good product which I am still using and will do until something radically better comes along... this will be a tough act to follow.