I'll try to keep this one short today. If it gets too long it will be because I got myself all worked up into a rant about PC operating systems.

I really and truly make a habit of wringing the most possible enjoyment out of my weekends. For me, when Friday's done I set the work aside and focus on friends, family and whatever else makes for a full life (that isn't work / career related). This weekend however, while it had to do with family, didn't exactly qualify as 100% enjoyment.

This weekend my wife's PC decided she no longer needed access to her data. Whether the problem is actually a hard disk problem or something with the operating system (Windows XP), is still to be determined. When something goes wrong with her PC, lucky me, I get the call.

So you can see where a good portion of my weekend went. Whatever it is that's wrong with her PC, Windows cannot handle it. The operating system takes forever to boot, and once it does it runs incredibly slowly.

It's been a little over a month now since I made the switch away from Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Money to begin using Ubuntu Linux and GnuCash to manage my personal finances. I thought this would be a good time to give you an update on my progress and overall happiness level with my decision.

In all I have to say I remain pretty happy with the move. Getting over first impressions and becoming a more habitual user has led me to look for some of the less used features, and that's opened my eyes a little wider. One particular eye opening experience I wanted to tell you about happened when I sold my first lot of stock last month.

Clumsy as it is, Microsoft Money has a feature that let me identify which shares of stock I sold. It's a very useful thing to have when you're trying to manage the overall level of capital gains you'll report to the IRS. Unfortunately gnucash has nothing resembling this feature in operation at this time.

Over the weekend I got an email inviting me to participate in a survey. Now, I usually just toss these in the trash bin. This one caught my eye because it both appeared legitimate and it offered me compensation for my time in completing the survey. So I read on.

The email had every appearance as having been sent by my credit card provider. The graphics were very good. The "From:" and "Reply to:" addresses looked right. The URL for the survey even looked on the up and up.

The email told me the survey would take 5 minutes or less and that I would be compensated via a credit to my card account when I completed the survey. I was born at night; but it wasn't last night. I smelled a scam.

You already know I no longer use Windows on my PC. I've made the switch to ubuntu Linux. I felt reasonably secure that whatever lay on the other end of that link was not targeted at my browser or my operating system. Had I been running Windows I would not have taken the risk. I clicked the link.

This is it. I have officially cut the cord with Microsoft Money. I'm not going back.

Since installing Ubuntu Linux on this box and coming to really like it, I've been looking around trying to figure out how to get away from all those Windows-only applications whose functionality I can't live without. Managing the family finances is one of those applications.

I have used some form of money management program since the mid-80's. Anyone remember Managing Your Money? I still have floppy disks with MYM data archived from those early years. Some years ago I decided I'd keep them, despite their uselessness. It's a link to the past, the way things were and will never be again, thank goodness.

It's GnuCash for me now. I spent this past weekend downloading and installing it, and then learning how it works.

Let me tell you, this is strong stuff. I'll elaborate on why I am so impressed with GnuCash in future posts. The reasons are far too numerous to go into right now. Not only that but I'm still discovering new wonderfulness every time I use it.