I am so happy today. ECSTATIC, in fact. The reason? I can finally - FINALLY - tell Intuit the same thing they've been saying to me (and all Mac users) for years: DROP DEAD.

Intuit's disregard, disdain and disrespect for Mac users is legendary, and all I've wished for and hoped for all these years was a working substitute - even one that didn't do all the things Quicken does (badly) would have been fine.

Quicken Essentials itself, once you get rolling, isn't horrendous, but they've actually REMOVED features, not added them. Hey folks - all it needs to be able to do is add and subtract!

Finally, this year, here on December 30th, I've installed iBank on the Macs and iBank on the iPhone. They sync perfectly, they reconcile perfectly, it's easy to organize (and look at), etc.

Don't believe me? Go buy Quicken Essentials on a trial basis. Now, try to "Import" your Quicken 2007 data file. Hmm... can't do it because the file first needs to be "converted." OK. Launch the converter, go and select the file (a QDFM, typically). Except for one thing: .qdfm files are GREYED OUT and thus CANNOT BE OPENED. OK, so next - go crazy trying to figure out Quicken file extensions - maybe it's the .qdfm, what if you try .qdx? (nope) or .qd-whatevrer (nope). Turns out - the solution is DRAG THE FILE onto the file converter. That's right - the File > Convert function doesn't work - welcome to the wild and wacky world of Quicken for Mac.

And so, finally with great relief I say: Quicken for Mac - kiss my what? go where?

When, oh when will I ever learn? Intuit is so insanely incompetent at building a Mac application, they've been torturing me for years, and yet because of the dearth of alternatives, I've stuck it out, year after year, being shafted with every upgrade. It's INSANE.

I just downloaded Quicken Essentials for Mac. They say "no worries- we'll import right from your old (Quicken 2007 Mac) data file!" It wouldn't be a problem, except neither the application nor their handy-dandy "Quicken File Exchange Utility" even RECOGNIZES a Quicken data file! It's greyed-out and cannot be imported.

Ah,,, I know: i'll go to the fabulous new "Forums" and see what they say. Know what they say? They say NOTHING. Many users writing in to complain of this very problem, and NO RESPONSE from Intuit.

Intuit, please here me on this: I will dedicate my entire digital life to spreading the word about how much I loathe your software. I will blog it, post it, review it, talk to my students about it, and in general do what I can to see that you follow in the footsteps of the last arrogant company who gave Mac users the finger, the eventually to be demised Quark, who only wish they could beg back all the angry customers who fled to InDesign.

GOODBYE INTUIT - oh, and guess what, I'll be requesting my money back within ONE HOUR of this purchase.

SugarSync does indeed work well - and it works quickly.

I could wholeheartedly recommend it without reservation if it weren't for the glaring problems of data loss caused by SugarSync's servers' inability to handle certain Mac-only files (those that contain resource forks).

And it's not that SugarSync (or anyone using Windows Server 2003/2008 or Linux server software) is unique in this regard. My complaint is that warnings concerning very serious data loss are not conspicuously noted on SugarSync's website or in their guides and ReadMe files.

Examples:

.webloc files - these URL files, created by either saving a URL or dragging a web browser bookmark on to a folder, are often rendered empty (Zero K) once saved, backed up, sync'd with a different Mac and re-opened.
.textclipping - these clipping files are rendered empty (Zero K), same as above
.qdfm - Quicken data - sync'ing sometimes leaves these Quicken data files corrupted, resulting in total data loss - Quicken users, beware!
.pages - SugarSync can corrupt a Pages file once it is saved, sync'd, opened in a different Mac, and saved again - resulting in partial data loss (also true for Keynote files)
.domain and .domain2 - iWeb files, same as Pages files above

Is this unique to SugarSync? No! Dropbox exhibits the same behavior.

Alternatives?

In my tests, JungleDisk handles Mac files properly - but does not provide near the functionality of SugarSync.

MobileMe - well, if they didn't handle Mac files properly, what's the point? But using iDisk to sync and backup a lot of content from different Macs is like watching a slug read a James Joyce novel.

Mozy.com - Mozy seems to handle Mac files properly, but again, there is a sacrifice in usability.

My solution? So far, it has been to remember that URLs (.webloc files), text clippings, and Mac-unique file formats are going to get trashed - and to ZIP them before saving them. SugarSync seems to handle the resource-laden Mac files fine if they are .zipped (and obviously, one doesn't make "incremental" versions of .zipped files - you save one, open it, trash it, and re-zip it.

Also, SugarSync's pricing structure is reasonable, even for large data sets.