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You might be trying to reinvent the wheel. BananaPOS seems to have died. Why don't you resurrect it? http://bananapos.com/pos/home.html

The banana POS (http://www.bananapos.com/pos/home.html) software has been around for a while, but does not seem to be developing at a rapid pace. Maybe it's already mature. Check it out.

http://www.bananapos.com/pos/home.html perhaps?

May want to check out BananaPOS. It's the only Open Source POS system I found after a lot of searching that would be worth using. The feature list looks very nice. Version 2 is just right around the bend but the beta versions are available already.

I ran my software consulting business on GnuCash. It was really pretty great, actually. Once you follow the tutorial and get a handle on basic accounting practices, I was able to handle all my expenses, invoicing, accounts payable/receivable, etc. Good stuff.

A lot of people kind of react poorly to GnuCash because it isn't a simple checkbook app. In my experience, that's a shame. It CAN be used that way--I run my personal finances on GnuCash, too. But it's powerful enough to run a mid-sized business on.

If your client is looking more for a POS app, take a peek at Banana POS. I don't know that much about it, but it is F/OSS and might be closer to a tracking application than GnuCash.

First off, most venders I spoke with are researching Linux as an option, but are waiting before they implement anything.

That said, there are a few "platform-independent" options sprouting up. Siva Corp has an interesting enterprise POS package (Web Based / MySQL backend). Tesoro's Volante has a nice looking java-based system. I've googled like crazy over this topic and found a few smaller players (BananaPOS mentioned above somehow escaped my searches).

Then there are a few Linux-native solutions such as Sicom POS.

The temptation is to look for a "mature" POS product with thousands of deployments before you make a decision such as this. This, of course, does not exist. We are now deciding to be "early adopters" because we believe in the stability, openness, and cost-effectiveness of using open platforms. Eventually we hope to have all of our back-office computers running Linux / Open Office.

If you've been around this industry for very long, then you know that this is not an industry on the cutting-edge. (Unless you are a huge, multi-unit operator). Look for a case-study on open source in the food service business in about 6-8 months. Hopefully it will be positive. (Or I will be looking for another career ;)

I've been actively researching this for quite some time now. I've come up with a few:

L'AnePOS - written in Perl, uses Tcl/TK for admin, PostgreSQL backend. Nice system, but the code needs cleanup. The project admin told me he should be updating it very soon.

Compiere - Whole ERP/CRM package including POS. Too big for small shops, just right for medium. Oracle backend, tho - expect to pay a bit for that.

BananaPOS - Not sure, development seems erratic.

There's JPos as well, though I'm not sure what backend it uses and Mercator, which is still in Alpha. I'm trying to get a project called Poszilla off the ground, too - Point of Sale based on Mozilla, which would truly be be platform independant, maybe even DB independant.

GPLed Point of Sale is getting there, I guess.

Soko