On 01/14/2015 08:26 AM, Matthew Gillen wrote: > On 1/14/2015 8:05 AM, Jerry Feldman wrote: >> > Unfortunately there are only a few companies in the industry who >> > produce tax software, and they only Windows and Mac compatible, or >> > you can use the web interfaces. This type of software does not really >> > lend itself to to Open Source. > Why do you say that? Because it requires a lot of specialized knowledge > that typical CS majors don't have? There are certain projects in the > open source world that have to pay attention to regulatory issues (e.g. > wireless drivers), and they seem to be able to do so. > > I suppose the tax code is orders of magnitude more complex and > intertwined. I'd be curious to explore your statement a little more > though regarding what kinds of things lend themselves to open source While products like Quicken can certainly be Open Source (eg GNU Cash) my comment is mostly for the tax software. The development companies invest a lot of resources, not only in software developers but also in tax professionals. Could an Open Source development company make those investments. Or, what if Intuit decided to Open Source TurboTax, it would still require a rather large investment not only in developers but also in tax professionals. You would still have to have a rather large paid staff.
-- Jerry Feldman <[email protected]> Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id:B7F14F2F PGP Key fingerprint: D937 A424 4836 E052 2E1B 8DC6 24D7 000F B7F1 4F2F _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
