i have always wondered why downloads to mac quicken were sometimes not supported by financial institutions. i think i found the answer:
As a software engineer with lots of experience in data communications, I had wondered for years why some banks only supported Quicken direct electronic banking for Windows and not for the Mac? I mean, what’s the difference? You define a protocol, and all the servers and clients use the same protocol, right? That’s how all the internet services (IP, TCP, UDP, SMTP, etc.) work. I couldn’t see any reason to have different protocols for different client platforms. But your reader’s reply from Vanguard finally provides the reason:
“Intuit charges financial institutions like Vanguard separate fees for the download feature for Windows and Macintosh users. ”
-macintouch
ya know what? this is complete and utter bullshit. i am not sure who to be more sour with, intuit (for charging the fees) or my brokerage (for not paying the fees).
it’s intuit. if we are paying $60 for their software, they ought to be seeking the same interoperability for the mac user as is afforded the windows user.
but wait there’s more: boing boing is reporting that they are tweaking the import format to get more licensing fees out of financial institutions, AND they are “sunset-ing” the import capabilities of older versions of quicken.
if you ask me, the greed that inuit is demonstrating in exercising its monopoly over the financial software market will quickly lead to repercussions that they will not enjoy. they are pissing off both institutions and consumers, and this should lead to an open source financial software file format that will erode their control of the market.
if you fuck with people hard enough, they will go elsewhere. and i have looked at quicken’s “proprietary” export files in a text editor. any person with a basic programming background could write a new standard for it in an afternoon. intuit shouldn’t be acting as if they invented the wheel.
here’s some more on the story.
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