A relative of mine is getting less and less happy with Microsoft’s messing with Windows. She is willing to try Linux provided it does what she needs. The programs she uses are:
Firefox (works on Linux)
LibreOffice (works on Linux)
Chrome (rarely, also Chromium exists)
Sage 50 Accounting (see below)
Sage 50 Accounting is her main software. Switching is not possible at this time. As I daily drive Linux, I am helping my relative out. I have tried installing Sage 50 in Wine, and failed. I am not a Windows, Wine, or Linux expert, so I am stumped.
I am hoping someone here would be willing to help me out. Sage 50 has no entry on Wine AppDB. Its old name of Simply Accounting has an entry, last version tested is 2008, and it was “Garbage” then. https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=819 Wine has come a LONG way since 2008, so I am hopeful it can work.
Notes:
If you could, please provide detailed instructions on how to duplicate your solution. I need to be able to reproduce this at will if and when a computer needs replacing. And I would like to learn more
I am most comfortable with Debian using KDE Plasma (with or without backports), but another distro is cool too.
I can compile software from source or apply freely available patches, as long as there are good instructions, but I would prefer not.
Any freely available version of Wine is good, whether system, backports, GloriousEggroll, etc. Using Lutris or PlayOnLinux is good too.
The installer is 2 parts: step 1 decompresses the installer proper, which does all the work of step 2.
Installing “.NET 4.8 Full” as prerequisite fails consistently. Then Wine complains about .NET type stuff (in over my head, sorry for the vagueness). Extracting Wine Mono to /opt/wine/mono/[…] fixed that. Mono - WineHQ Wiki
Then came “NullReferenceException” error, which appears to be internal to Sage 50 (?)
To install: select a trial version when asked for a serial number. Select Accountants Version when prompted on which edition.
I never got this far: When Sage 50 is installed and seems functional, open a sample company to test.
Any questions please ask. Thank you to anyone who helps!
Sage 50 isn’t compute intensive AFAIK, so a VM would work.
But my experience with transferring files between VM and host is that it is complicated, unless I setup shared folders. Also cutting and pasting text between VM and host doesn’t work.
And since Sage 50 is in use the majority of the time during the day, the Windows VM would be too. Which would mean dealing with Windows all the time anyway.
So yes, it can work, but if ditching Windows is the aim, what is achieved here?
You can stay with Windows 7 and if you only keep it disconnected to the internet (apart from the initial Windows registration and maybe Sage50 registration as well) and you should be safe from most issues that plagues outdated software like Win7.
File transfer is not elegant. But it could be solved in multiple ways I am sure.
But do try to solve things via Wine. I think an easy way to solve this is via Steam’s Proton or Lutris. Do try to install and run from there if you dont want to mess with command line. There is also WineBottles last I looked.
Helping your relative move Sage 50 Accounting to Linux using Wine can be a bit challenging but worth a shot. Start by ensuring you have the latest Wine version installed—Lutris or PlayOnLinux can make this easier. Then, follow the steps to download and decompress the Sage 50 installer as instructed. When dealing with .NET 4.8 Full installation issues, try extracting Wine Mono to the correct directory (/opt/wine/mono/). If you hit a NullReferenceException, it might be an internal Sage 50 issue rather than a Wine problem. Also, I found some info about the Sage 100 end of life.
if you want to run locally:
QEMU
Windows 11 pro VM (you’ll need a rufus modded Win 11 iso to bypass TPM and hardware requirements)
strip of the BS and nerf the install to the bare basics
install Sage
host SMB share from Windows VM
mount SMB share in Linux and map locally for file transfer
@Kokerabi Thank you! I had tried the latest Wine via Lutris, no luck. I was going to try Proton, maybe it will work better? I haven’t tried PlayOnLinux yet, I will do that
@TryTwiceMedia Thank you! I hadn’t thought of SMB shares for file transfer, that’s a great idea!
My 5 second Google search didn’t yield much. Do you have a link? If not I will practice my Google-fu later.
rufus is an image creator, else you can run a script against a standard Windows 11 Pro install iso to disable hardware check (download directly from Microsoft, do not skimp on this)
I’d have to dig for the script I run and I am already leaving the office for the day.
I would recommend making a USB ISO through Rufus then passing it through to your VM.
It sounds strange, but it’s easier to make a Windows installer from a Windows machine than anything else.
For backups, you can shutdown the VM once a week, copy the VMDX file then restart the VM.
I do run Sage50 US. having a core server (win2019server) and clients that both use microITX PCs, thinclients, and VM workstations for remote users.
I have been trying to get Sage to work in linux since it was Peachtree. It KINDA worked until 2011… but after that it only works underwindows as they focues more and more toward a Microsoft centered model.
I’ll keep an eye out and hope for linux support though!
don’t hold your breathe
Sage creating an open SMB share on the host server (and not registering it through file share role) to hand out configs and installers is some shit no Linux distro…maybe Ubuntu, but none other that follows the Linux ethos would allow.
