Running a Business on Open Source Software?

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."

Comments

Impossible

[Anonymous Coward]

It is impossible to run your business on open source software and you should not even bother to try it. If you do succeed, how will Billy Boy and the rest of the gang be able eat?

Are you going to provide free service?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am starting up a software company. Since you have no plans to pay for software any time in the future, can I use your hardware and services for free?

Also, not buying your software and not paying proper sales taxes takes the money out of public schools in your state. Use all the free software you want, but don't be surprised the next stay in the hospital will cost 3 grands a day.

Re:Are you going to provide free service?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the stupidest goddamned comment I've ever read. You're a fucking moron. Go suck a tailpipe.

Real world vs. fanboy fantasies

[Mike Bourna]

I am what most people would consider a highly trained technical professional. Unlike most people who spout off at this site, I have the certificates to prove this, and furthermore they're issued by the biggest software company in existence.

I know how to tell facts from marketing fluff. Now, here are the facts as they're found by SEVERAL INDEPENDENT RESEARCH INSTITUTES:

Expenses for file-server workloads under Windows, compared to LinuxOS:

• Staffing expenses were 33.5% better.
  
• Training costs were 32.3% better.
  

They compared Microsofts IIS to the Linux 7.0 webserver. For Windows, the cost was only:

• $40.25 per megabit of throughput per second.
  
• $1.79 per peak request per second.
  

Application development and support costs for Windows compared to an opensores solution like J2EE:

• 28.2% less for large enterprises.
  
• 25.0% less for medium organizations.
  

A full Windows installation, compared to installing Linux, on an Enterprise Server boxen:

• Is nearly three hours faster.
  
• Requires 77% fewer steps.
  

Compared to the best known opensores webserver "Red Hat", Microsoft IIS:

• Has 276% better peak performance for static transactions.
  
• Has 63% better peak performance for dynamic content.
  

These are hard numbers and 100% FACTS! There are several more where these came from.

Who do you think we professionals trust more?
Reliable companies with tried and tested products, or that bedroom coder Thorwalds who publicly admits that he is in fact A HACKER???

--
Copyright (c) 2004 Mike Bouma, MCSE, MCDST, MS Office Specialist, widely respected Amigan

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
Free Documentation License".

use niggers

[Anonymous Coward]

nigger labor is cheap and hard-working, unlike white labor or wetback labor

just try it and your productivity will explode

THINK ABOUT MY PENIS

[Anonymous Coward]

HA HA HA HA HA!

Innurnut mind rape! Think about my cock again, bitch!

Re:Because Windows... what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because Windows sux like a hoover! Because it's bug ridden, crash prone, expensive, unreliable, doesn't scale, is not interoperable with other systems, doesn't conform to actual national or international standards (just a constantly changing 'built my Microsoft' standard) --it doesn't even work with older versions of itself! Everything is the gui. Backend services are essentially 0. You need huge numbers of servers per application, rather than huge numbers of applications per server. You need dozens of MCSE's around the clock to curse over it and spend time and lots of company money cursing Microsoft while companies are paying overtime again and again. You really have to reboot on a regular basis to keep the systems stable (which is more down time). Licences are bloody hell expensive. Other systems provice much better performance on lesser hardware (which is also less expensive). Service packs don't necessarily solve problems at your particular site, and there is no way of 'cherry picking' some parts of the patch without applying the whole danm thing. Patches tend to be once in a blue moon. There are truckloads of virii (which tend to target these systems not because of popularity, but becuase Microsoft software is a really easy mark. Updating virus software takes time and money. What the hell is with the registry? Only recently was there a way of making backups. You need special tools to modify it. All of your critical eggs are in one basket, so if something goes wrong...weee all our applications are dead! Why is it that Microsoft software 'is all integrated', but open source software upgrades to libraries are general upgrades, whereas dll's offered by 'company X' for software product y all tend to be different, and wipe out other peoples stuff (killing off other apps). Undeleting a package on windows usually means 'oops, 3 other applications are dead because the uninstaller wiped out the dll they need'. Microsoft's views on renting software makes businesses worry about losing all their data till they pay up the Microsoft tax (potentially killing their business). Don't think MS will do it? I know a *LOT* of people who didn't think MS would actually implement licence 6. It's also bloody hell inconvenient to have to buy new hardware for the new software you really don't want and then have to implement it in a year when sales haven't been steller, and have to do all of this at year end (MS doesn't care when your year end is, they only care about theirs). Don't get me started on why MS is bad for business...

Re:Because Windows... what?

[jeabus]

Dictionary of Anonymous Cowards

Fact n.: see opinion.