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GNU Enterprise might be a great place for them to start contributing cash/engineers. It would be great for SAP and the others to have some competition in the Linux world.

As someone else noted, you are looking for PSA systems. AllocPSA is a nice GPL PSA project.

allocPSA: http://www.allocpsa.org/
screenshots: http://sourceforge.net/project/screenshots.php?gro up_id=165183&ssid=57157

GNU Enterprise is another: http://www.gnuenterprise.org/
http://www.gnuenterprise.org/packages/

As someone else noted, you are looking for PSA systems. AllocPSA is a nice GPL PSA project.

allocPSA: http://www.allocpsa.org/
screenshots: http://sourceforge.net/project/screenshots.php?gro up_id=165183&ssid=57157

GNU Enterprise is another: http://www.gnuenterprise.org/
http://www.gnuenterprise.org/packages/

Never tried it myself, but I believe they separate the data modeling from the presentation layer so you can target text clients, GUI clients, or web clients. Here is a screen shot showing forms presented on the various renderers.

Believe it or not, there's a small business who recently hired me to get them out of the mess that is FileMaker 5.0 -- if that, I think the majority of their machines run 4.0. I basically told them that to recreate their FileMaker database as anything relational (which they understand and want) will take about the same amount of time, whether I do FileMaker 8.0 or something else. Chances are, I'll take something like Glom or Rekall, maybe even Gnu Enterprise, create their database in that, and extend it.

I don't know if it'll do taxes, but it will do everything else. And I'll probably GPL all my work, too.

This is what Open Source is all about -- when you figure a system like this will probably cost you several thousand dollars anyway, why not pay a programmer to do it for you? It may end up cheaper, and it certainly means you can hire other contractors to mess with it later.

At some point either GNU Enterprise or Compiere are going to be good enough and supported enough to do away with their only product.

Oh and open source and free software have nothing to do with socialism and every thing to do with supply and demand...

GNU | Enterprise

There are a few:

* Gnu Enterprise (never used it)
* Rekall (Python based)
* pgaccess (TCL/Tk based)

Like Glom or GNU enterprise. Both prefer to use postgres, but failing that, at least gnuenterprise can use sqllite for local database use (dunno about glom).
Both projects seem pretty good, they just need mindshare :)

How about GNU Enterprise?

Gnu Enterprise might be just what you need.

It's not very 'complete', but very extensible.

Look at the pretty screenshots.

Gnu Enterprise might be just what you need.

It's not very 'complete', but very extensible.

Look at the pretty screenshots.

I am very very impressed by PostgreSQL. I am waiting for the geeks to slap a programmable GUI onto it.

Perhaps Gnu Enterprise will suit your needs?

Java becomes more like a usable programming language every day!

The functionality of mailcap, later cloned in win32, GNOME and KDE, is now available to Java as JDIC!

And JDNC provides powerful GUI functionality, including an XML format for describing GUIs, a la Glade, wxWidgets XML resource files, XUL , XAML. Of course, they are all completely incompatible. Also worth mentioning here is GNU Enterprise, which has seemingly similar aims to JDNC.

I don't know what all this has to do with ActiveX. For all I know, ActiveX was MicroSoft's intended replacement (or umrella) for Java and JavaScript. It has met with mixed success, having met with popelarity mostly as a malware target. JDIC and JDNC look like decent proposals to me. It's good to see Java maturing both in speed and functionality. The more choices, the merrier, after all.

Another one to have a look at is GNUEnterprise (www.gnuenterprise.org). It's under heavy development, uses XML and Python, and ties in nicely with GNU Bayonne, which does everything to do with telephony. Check it out!

Over time, the business rules/knowledge might be turn out to be the most valuable asset, leading others to make a GNUe module for your vertical market.

Likely? Honestly not. Though I'd check with them just in case there might be a match.

If that's his point he's not looking very hard.

While there are a few others listed here, such as this little one, many applications do require customization though typically they aren't bare generic web services like Apache.

PeopleSoft don't sell pre-made applications that require no configuration changes, and document creators don't write your content, so expecting that open source project should is highly unrealistic.

I know of at least two more-or-less-big projects:

• ERP5
• Open for Business

Anyone care to comment on how all these projects compare to each other?

Some of the projects are highly usable now as they are, though the core tools are available to create your own customized company-wide applications.

Theres a program called gnu enterprise written by some people that previously used oracle forms. Of course it's Free software, and supports multiple database backends etc. It also supports multiple frontends, although the only one that I'm aware of that supports the full functionality is the wxwindows frontend, although web, and console frontends occasionally show signs of life. It's undergoing continous frantic development as more features are added and bugs are fixed.

Enterprise solutions? few... these are more complicated and require tuning/tweeking. Other commercial (shrink wrapped) solutions? probably many... Did Quicken work for you? What about Office? What about any games you might play? (Yes, I know that Enterprise solutions and shrink wrap software aren't in the same class.)

Well, for the enterprise there is GNUEnterprise, which is a pretty kick-ass framework (in fact, I'm using it to build a replacement for QUicken). It's still young, though, and almost requires you to write the application. There's stuff in the works, and you can find out at their website.

I don't like MS Office from a usability standpoint. I always found it to be a virtual pain in the ass. I really really really like OpenOffice.org. In fact, in my business we're finding that OpenOffice.org, out of the box, solves our office productivity needs.

As far as quicken goes, there's nothing in free software that compares. GNUCash is pretty cool, if you understand double-entry. I do not. I could learn, and I'm going to have to in the coming months, but I don't want my wife to have to learn it. Quicken works with the way we conceive of our finances, and it works quite well. It could use some reports that it doesn't have, though.

IMO, an OSS solution that exists right now compared to its proprietary counterpart is automatically superior. :) (Don't forget, I'm a zealot too :) ) There are reasons, but here's the most compelling, in my opinion:

Proprietary software companies have no motivation to fix bugs and add features, other than competition. Remove or limit competition in a niche and you've just signed up for bug-ridden software that always works badly, if at all. The reason is that if proprietary companies actually fix bugs and/or add features, they will eventually reach a point where their codebase is mostly stable and the feature offering is superior so that customers don't have to upgrade anymore. Lose the upgrade cycle and you lose your repeat business. I've seen it in a few niche markets, and we see it in a big way in Windows.

Finally,

Too bad more of the folks who frequent this board don't think like this. To this, I would add: Lose the arrogant attitude that anyone who thinks differently than you, or thinks that there are other perfectly acceptible solutions than Linux/OSS is contemptable. Use reason and fact in your arguments (note: "argument" doesn't mean shouting and insulting) instead of spewing what you think is "cool" and/or what you've heard other people whom you think are "cool" say. In my opinion, one of the largest issues many people have is they think that if they open the door to Linux, the zealots will come in and treat them like crap for wanting/using something other than Linux/OSS. Remember, it is *their* business, not yours. You can advise but in the end, you have to do what *they* want or you can not do it at all.

That entire paragraph does a good job of explaining why I even bothered getting a user account. I started karma whoring because I noticed a lot of people that put out arguments similar to mine post as AC or do enough trolling for fun that they never get modded up. I troll myself every now and then, but I try to keep this +1 default so people will see what I'm saying. :)

There comes a time when you have to stop complaining and start leading by example, and that's all I'm trying to do. There's plenty of other users out there doing it too, and plenty of people we haven't even heard from. So, as I said before, we're doing fine. :)

I have been waiting for large financial and enterprise management apps to support Postgresql, cutting the all important TCO down to just support and hardware of the database. Although GNU Enterprise GNU Enterprise may become the thing small companies or finacially strapped have been looking for

GNU Enteprise

Here's an overview; "GNU Enterprise (GNUe) is a suite of tools and applications for solving the needs of the enterprise. From human resources, accounting, customer relationship management and project management to supply chain or e-commerce, GNUe can handle the needs of any business, large or small. If you are looking for a full-function ERP, GNUe is the package for you.

Details: Written in Python (for easy application creation) and C (for speed), GNUe is under constant and heavy development. If you want to write custom applications for it, it's ready. Pre-packaged applications are on the back burner as the development team works on making the core modules more complete and compliant with varying standards. My personal estimate from following the project is that the first complete applications will show up in about 6 months, and then rapidly accelerate as more app developers learn about GNUe and get interested.

GNU Enteprise

Here's an overview; "GNU Enterprise (GNUe) is a suite of tools and applications for solving the needs of the enterprise. From human resources, accounting, customer relationship management and project management to supply chain or e-commerce, GNUe can handle the needs of any business, large or small. If you are looking for a full-function ERP, GNUe is the package for you.

Details: Written in Python (for easy application creation) and C (for speed), GNUe is under constant and heavy development. If you want to write custom applications for it, it's ready. Pre-packaged applications are on the back burner as the development team works on making the core modules more complete and compliant with varying standards. My personal estimate from following the project is that the first complete applications will show up in about 6 months, and then rapidly accelerate as more app developers learn about GNUe and get interested.

Speaking of GNU stuff, there is a more full-featured bunch of programs called GNU Enterprise. It is more heavyweight than GNUCash and has a good design. The only drawback I can see is that it is still in a pretty early stage of development. They have some stuff already, but they still have a long way to go.

An "accounting" package is not enough these days. Lets face it, developing relationships with customers is what it's all about. Which means that getting information in and out of your systems in the quickest possible manner is what will win in the face of competition. Enterprise Resource Planning systems from the likes of SAP and Oracle are what give big business the edge. Sure you don't have $250K to spend on solutions from these guys but Appgen, Compiere, and GNU Enterprise are bringing these kind of systems to the masses. The most promising at the moment seems to be Compiere but it does require some up-front costs - (nothing a small business could'nt handle if they were planning on a Windows deployment anyway). Check them out!