[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Software recomendations

[Peter]

And two more cents from me: Legacy users are limited to running their
software on Windows. Good Open Source software runs on Windows, Mac,
and Linux and is uninhibited by operating systems. Can you really be
sure that anyone who wants to access all of your data is going to be
using Windows?

I started using Gramps on Windows while The Master Genealogist was
still my primary genealogy software. I also tinkered with it on a Mac,
but it wasn't until I began using Linux as my primary OS that I
converted my TMG database and Gramps became my primary genealogy
software.

And let's face it Gramps also was developed by genealogists, for
genealogists and they also are extremely responsive to users comments
and suggestions. They have their own bug tracking site and mailing
lists, truly letting users control the direction the development of
the software takes.

In response to one of Earl's comments, I have to say that I went from
using primarily closed software a decade ago to now using almost
entirely Open Source software (I have some excellent image scanning
software which is indeed closed source...) -- I find my user
experience to using Open Source to be superior in every respect (not
the least of which is security)... but that I guess is all just
personal taste.

Again, I like to truly "own" my genealogical data... and I feel it
should be free in every respect, not just monetary. Open Source
software (in my case, Gramps) will always provide that -- I don't
think that closed source proprietary software like Legacy can say the
same.

Peter


On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 5:06 PM, Earl Schultz
<Earl.Schultz at telusplanet.net> wrote:
> Legacy was developed by genealogists and they are extremely responsive to customer comments and suggestions.  I've had many chats with them about things I'd like to see or bugs and frequently they make changes to the software.  Their Gedcom and ability to export a number of other ways makes transferring data much easier.  And I love the ability to correct misspellings, etc. in the entire database (12000 people) with only 2 clicks because of their Master Lists which Gary mentions.
>
> Peter makes a good point about using open source software but it does not make the software better, just that the software can be changed, adapted and/or improved by many people so you don't lose anything if a company goes out of business.  If Legacy were to go out of business, I'd shop around and then export to the new software when I was ready.  No need to hurry as the software still works.
>
> I have used several open source software in the past.  None have been as good as the software I've paid for.  I have not tried Linux which I do hear is very good.  However, my son who is a system developer and uses Linux tells me I can't run some of my software easily so I've not switched.
>
> I do recommend Legacy to everyone.  It is extremely good software for a genealogist and likely will meet all your needs for less cost than many of the other commercial brands.
>
> If you are switching from FTM to Legacy or some other program, you should know that FTM makes that conversion more difficult because of their format.  The sooner you switch the easier it will be.  If you want more conversion tips, contact me directly.
> Earl
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 15:11:19 -0500
> From: Peter <chamdo4ever at gmail.com>
> To: Germans SGGEE <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
> Cc: MIKE MCHENRY <maurmike1 at verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Software recomendations
> Message-ID:
>         <CALr1thWKqPtCBOhrsRU7uDMHatk6tWRsVdRAKcqe4TwY8TrA+w at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> Hi Mike,
>
> Like I mentioned in my response to Richard, I was a user of The Master Genealogist for many years, but finally converted my TMG database to the Gramps software earlier this year ( https://gramps-project.org ).
>
> There's a handy little software called tmg2gramps which was extremely helpful to me in that regard. There is no denying that using tmg2gramps takes a bit of effort, but I found it to be worthwhile as I was able to import all of my TMG data to Gramps with little or no loss. Details of using tmg2gramps can be found here:
>
> https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php?title=Import_from_another_genealogy_program#tmg2gramps
>
> Hope that helps,
>
> Peter
>
>
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