The big player in both desktop and cloud is QUICKBOOKS® but this is by no means the only one. Intuit, the maker of QB, has huge market share largely by virtue of getting in the game so early. The owners are very clever men. They even specifically chose the name of the company to give the buyer confidence – You can do it yourself! It’s intuitive! (Not!)

I love QB. I want you to use QB. But I don’t believe the desktop version is intuitive. It may have been intuitive at one time, but it is now so very large that most unsophisticated (ie, non-accountant) users get lost and make a terrible mess. If you are just running the QB, you might figure it out. But if you are running a business (retail, plumbing, photography, caterer,) and QB is merely a tool that you use on occasion, chances are you are going to make a mess. I’m sorry, but I’ve seen it too many times.

The problem is, the software just does so much!

Business software is a big deal. Switching (that is, moving your data from one platform to another platform,) is a very big deal. It takes time, is rarely 100% accurate, and might come with a fee. Better that you should spend some time in the magical world of Free Trials before you end up with a system that hates you as much as you hate it. Watch the videos. Go on webinars and ask questions. Talk to your peers. (And your CPA.) Over these next few posts, I’ll discuss the various tasks you should consider finding software for.

But first, I’ll share my criteria for evaluating software.

Also sometimes called Apps. Apps is short for “applications,” as in, an application (or piece of software) that can perform a particular function (such as organizing photos or quickly ordering a pizza on your phone.) An app is generally dependent on a larger piece of software that has a larger (but less humanly interactive) functionality.

I find it easiest to think in terms of solar systems. You take a big piece of software and put it in the middle. This is your basic workhorse: your sun. Then, for additional needs, you add other smaller programs with more limited functionality: planets. For instance, your phone contains an operating system which keeps everything in line, but with which you don’t really interact. A few apps are preinstalled, for basic tasks like storing contacts, texting, etc. Then, you go to your app store to get smaller applications to perform particular jobs. You might download a game, or a link to some business software that is stored in the cloud, or a link to your home security system so that you can check to make sure all the lights were turned out.

Opera, the browser, is made by Opera Software, a Norwegian software company. Opera was originally released in 1997, but unlike the American browsers, it had no ads, and it was not free. Instead, it only had a free trial, and then it was expected that you would pay for it. Apparently, ads were not a problem for the vast majority of people the world over: Opera has never had more than a single digit usage rate for computer users. In 2000, they went free, but accepted advertising sponsors in a big way. In 2005, they finally gave up on the unsolicited ads and accepted revenue from Google, their default search engine.

Safari is different from all of the above. This is because all of the above work for PC’s, but Safari is exclusive to Apple (Mac) products. In other words, Apple users don’t get much choice. This is generally okay because Apple users generally like to think they are using The Best. Since there is only one Best, having a choice would imply someone had mistakenly made something inferior for their beloved Apple device, and who in their right mind would dare do something other than The Best when it comes to Apple? No, it is better best that the Apple users don’t get to choose.

For all the noise made by Apple users, their browser stats are under 5% desktop usage.

Today, Chrome is #1. Chrome is fast. Chrome is pretty. Chrome comes up with answers sometimes before I finish typing

But Chrome is a Google (Alphabet) product, so you know “they” are tracking your every move. Then again, this is part of how it gets to be so fast. Internally, it knows where you’ve already been, and where you’ve already clicked. In fact, it tells you how many times you’ve been someplace, and when you were last there. Surely those notes aren’t just for my benefit. The question is, do I really care if some office full of young tech wizards knows how many times I’ve re-searched and re-downloaded IRS Form 2848?

To answer this, we have to address the phenomenon of FREE browser. All those young Silicon Valley tech wizards, as much as they love sitting in front of their screens all day (and getting free lunches and bringing their dogs to work and so on,) still want to be paid. And Silicon Valley is not a cheap address. If I get free searches, who’s picking up the tab?

Firefox has a spunky reputation and a fiercely loyal following.

Although currently only the #2 most used browser in the world, after its initial 2004 release, Firefox quickly surpassed IE and did enjoy the position of #1. It is also free, but you have to download it and install it yourself. Its maker is Mozilla, and this is where it gets interesting.

Mozilla was originally an offshoot of Netscape. In fact, they prefer that the name be Mozilla Firefox. The story of Firefox – excuse me, Mozilla Firefox – is full of intense competition and pride and they-done-us-wrong energy. They maintain a core community of devoted followers who would never think to use any other browser for any other reason. After all, can you really tell the difference between nanoseconds?

Internet Explorer

It’s hard for me to objectively appraise IE. It is Microsoft’s browser. Microsoft is a behemoth company. If a device is prepackaged with a Microsoft operating system, it almost undoubtedly also has Microsoft’s browser. As the default browser on so many computing devices, a person can’t help but wonder. Certainly only the “cheap” one comes for free, right? And “cheap” isn’t necessarily best, or even good. Even if it is made by the behemoth, Microsoft, which also made the operating system in the machine you are using.

Also, by now, IE is over 20 years old. This makes it something of an old fogey in the tech world, and “old” doesn’t really mesh with modern expectations for speed and versatility. Sure, they’ve come out with new versions – all the way up to 11, but is IE really still nimble and clever for what I want to do?