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http://live.pirillo.com/ – My parents are visiting because they attended our Gnomedex conference. Dad is an Accountant, and I thought it would be a fun twist to get his take on some technical issues… beginning with accounting software.

The first computer we had at home was an old Imsai. It was a huge machine, with two floppy drives. We had to install a program disc into one drive to run Dad’s accounting programs for work, and a data disc into the other drive. This machine, complete with software, cost around $20,000.00 back then.

The first spreadsheet program Dad remembers using was called Multiplan. Multiplan was developed by Microsoft, and was the basis for Microsoft Excel. Dad then used Lotus 1-2-3 for several years. Even though he’s used Excel many times, he just is more comfortable with Lotus. He finds that it is easy for him to write a macro for Lotus to perform functions for him… but not easy in Excel. Excel is not as user friendly, and Microsoft makes it hard to find proper help for basic tasks.

QuickBooks is not a program that Dad recommends. You should be very careful when using this software. If you make a change to a transaction that is a few years old, it will change everything up until the present, and not necessarily correctly. Quicken, on the other hand, is a very user friendly software for home users. It works well with Turbo Tax. The advent of programs like Turbo Tax has made people essentially lazy, much as the calculator made people forget how to do basic math.

Dad and I played around a bit with Apple’s Numbers 08. This is a spreadsheet program for Macs. The templates are good. You can find mortgage calculators, invoice creators, and even expense reports. Without delving too deeply as of yet, Numbers appears to be an excellent alternative to Microsoft Excel. Apple offers free video tutorials to help you figure out advanced functions.

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I don’t know if I’d call myself a software expert, by any stretch of the imagination – but I do know good software (and a good deal) when I see it. Window Clippings just went shareware, and I started an exchange with Kenny Kerr about this move – specifically, related to the new licensing structure (what it was, how it works, etc.). After sending him the following bit of text, he responded with a link to his earlier assertion.

I suppose the following is applicable to anybody who develops and releases software online as “free trial” or has software downloads geared towards on generating registrations.

So long as you don’t get picky about licenses tied to machines (please, don’t get me started about activation crap). If registration isn’t convenient for me (read: PayPal) , and if licensing is annoying (read: limited), and if the upgrade path is cost-prohibitive (read: paying for the same thing over and over again), I’ll walk – or, I’ll find something that’s open source and/or free.

Either way, subsequent licenses should be at *LEAST* half off (if not more). Let me put it to you this way: $10 isn’t much, but it means more to me if that covers a perpetual license that’s not tied to any one computer or another. It’s the reason I switched from UltraEdit (shareware, hellish upgrade path – even discounted) to PSPad (free).

Most shareware authors are mediocre developers and rotten marketers. They’re either too greedy, don’t understand their own marketplace, or they have absolutely no business savvy whatsoever. It’s the reason why I believe the entire shareware industry is in deep trouble. Deep, deep, deep trouble. The Web is killing ‘em.

Exception to the rule? OS X.

You could do $10 once, $1 for each additional upgrade – and if you tie the registration into the user’s PayPal account, and you have a seamless upgrade path (all done within the utility itself), you could make upgrading painless and affordable. They could still upgrade without paying the extra buck for the new version, and the new version would fall back on its “basic” self. No harm, no foul. EVERYBODY can afford a buck, especially if it’s convenient.

Just don’t nag, man… ever. That’ll wipe you off my radar quicker than you can say “Milli Vanilli.” There are very few software titles that I’m willing to pay for – and even the ones I do pay for wind up disappointing me at some point. Right now, Window Clippings is nice to have – but not “$10 nice” yet, especially with a questionable upgrade path.

There are too many [X] utilities out there for me to say this is a slam dunk for you.

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