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Running a Business on Open Source Software?

Posted by Cliff on from the topics-for-PHBs dept.

Graabein asks: "I'm part of an effort to startup a VoIP provider. We've decided to use Open Source Software wherever possible. Production is not a problem, we can handle the VoIP network itself, POTS termination, web sites, email systems, all the usual stuff. The business side of things is another matter entirely. We need to be able to handle Customer Relationship data, manage subscriptions, handle invoicing and accounts, have a web shop of sorts, online billing, credit card transactions, and more. Whatever system we use has to be able to handle national standards for accounting, or at least be possible to modify to do so. We've looked at Compiere, but our business types are not impressed. Neither am I, for that matter. Requiring an Oracle license is one thing (database independence is 'in development', but it has been for a long time, with no discernable progress), not working properly with Mozilla is another (you need IE to use it fully in HTML mode). What other options are there?"

"Our business types are full of suggestions for supposedly excellent and well suited systems, however they all have in common that they require Windows on the client. If we choose one of those systems our OSS policy is pretty much moot and OSS has been relegated to (some) servers in the computer room and that's about it. I don't mind running these business functions on a Windows server if that is the best system for the job, but having to run Windows on every client in order to access the data is simply not acceptable.

We want Linux and OpenOffice on every desktop. We want to be able to access customer data from a variety of clients, even including Windows. The same goes for Accounting data, HR data, QA data, you name it. Do we have to write our own system from scratch? I'm not sure that is very realistic."

5 of 504 comments (clear)

  1. Mozilla Runs on WIndows by osewa77 · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Mozilla runs fine on any desktop. A browser-based interface would work independent of the desktop environment you choose.

    1. Re:Mozilla Runs on WIndows by bubkus_jones · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      buymusic.com should take their own advice and "Get loaded".

  2. Re:Real world vs. fanboy fantasies by TheSpoom · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    BWAHAHAHA

    Best. Troll. Ever. :^D

    --
    It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
    - E. Debs
  3. Re:Why Michael Moore cannot be trusted by Sivaram_Velauthapill · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I don't necessarily agree with everything Micheal Moore says. However, I do agree with most of it...

    Bush DID go AWOL...not that I care
    Bush IS stupid... even his former secretary of treasury indicates it (note: I don't necessarily agree with a right winger like Justin Raimondo)
    I agree with you that Bush is NOT a drug addict...
    I also don't agree with the view that Bush stole the election... The Supreme Court decided it and if there is a problem, it lies with the courts...


    Bush allegation, remember that after stripping away the humor, you're just reading the rantings of a religious fanatic. His religion is hatred.

    I suppose in the upside world where Ann Coulter, Bill O'reilley and Rush Limbaugh preach love, Moore is preaching hatred...

    Pushing this anti-Moore stunt precisely when the Bush administration is facing its biggest problems doesn't help you at all... A better stunt would be to revert to the classical 'anyone who criticizes the war is a traitor and a communist'. That stunt is more appropriate given what Bush is facing...

    Sivaram Velauthapillai

    --
    Sivaram Velauthapillai
    Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places ;)
  4. One question..... by magores · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    You hiring?