Running a Small Business on the Linux Platform?

WinDOOR asks: "As part of a small-mid sized family business, finding a way to rid ourselves from the dependence of using Microsoft products is a very daunting challenge. I've been searching for a good Linux based ERP/CRM software that's adequate for use with about 20 or so users and that can handle light manufacturing and POS type order inputting. I've looked at Compiere, but consider the Oracle tax to be one and the same as the Microsoft tax. We don't have the money nor expertise to design our own solutions like the big corporations that have switched sides. What packages or vendors have you had the most success with? Is Postgre or MySQL an acceptable database backend? Is there a viable replacement for MS Access yet? What language would be best to learn if I had to create my own solution? Do CS Students do this kind of work to pay the bills?"

Comments

Not anymore

[Safety Cap]

PostgreSQL 7.4 is very fast. 8.0, when it goes gold will be even faster. The main difference if that PostgreSQL is primarily designed for people who know how to normalize their data and want to take advantage of the DB engine to do most of the heavy lifting/ensure referential integrity.

MySQL, on the other hand, is great for quick-n-dirty setups, but lends itself to poorly designed solutions that are a bear to maintain.

Bottom line: learn about data normalization before you do anything. If you're building something that will be extended and maintained over time, use PostgreSQL. If you're building a throwaway app, use MySQL. If your throwaway app will turn into a production system that will have to be maintained, use PostgreSQL.

As a CS student paying his bills...

[theoddball]

...I can say that Linux and FOSS in general have been a godsend for my development.

We've got ~30 users, and our main business is data entry for financial / real estate transactions. That adds up to a lot of database hits, and a lot of data, period, for such a small shop.

Our main database server (which was recently deployed) runs Fedora Core 3 and Postgres. Setup was a breeze, and it's been rock solid. Postgres has a lot of the features you'll see in higher-end databases (PL/pgsql is similar to Oracle's PL/SQL). The main thing it lacks, IMO, is built-in auditing support. It does have a richer featureset than MySQL and some things that are better suited to business needs.

Our implementation uses httpd & php as the client interface. Report generation is done via PDF or postscript. PHP is relatively easy to pick up and seems to make for relatively fast development, too.

I can't speak for CRM/ SCM uses, but for our moderate demands, Linux+Apache+PHP+Postgres gets it done quickly and quite cheaply.

Re:As a CS student paying his bills...

[theoddball]

I don't consider myself "clever" for the choice--I'm just attempting to be pragmatic. I'm working with limited resources. I don't have the funding available to pay for W2K3 + SQL server, RHEL, etc. I'm doing what I can with what I have. Small businesses don't necessarily have a lot of resources at their disposal--if they did, why would they hire CS students?

FC3 is, admittedly, not "stable" like, say, BSD is stable. It's also not unstable like a -test branch is unstable. It's a production distro, albeit one with less-seasoned packages. Its performance for us so far has been flawless. And, more importantly, it's an OS that is known and understood by the people who will support it after I'm gone . There's a huge userbase--and knowledgebase--accessible for no cost. There's a massive collection of easily-managed packages. (And the people who will tend this db server know how to use it all.)

I openly admit there may be better options for this deployment. But remember, with a CS undergrad, you're not getting a seasoned professional. You're getting someone who, to some extent, learns the ropes as they go. I'd be willing to bet you were one yourself, one day.

Don't confuse the database and frontend

[leonbrooks]

There are many applications (pgaccess, Rekall, phpPgAdmin, dozens more, even OpenOffice!) which will grant you drag-n-drop style access to your database, whatever it is. This is the essence of what makes MS-Access attractive.

PostgreSQL, MySQL, ibFireBird are all good as back-ends. It's almost certain that the first two shipped with your Linux distribution.

OpenOffice.org

[mrholyschmidt]

OpenOffice can connect to both MySQL and PostgreSQL to save information. It also has form editors which look very much like those in MS Access. Its the closiest thing I've encountered on linux to an Access clone.

The trickiest part of using the whole thing is getting the connection set up to the database, and a simple google search will give examples of how to do it.

Don't do it!

[Captain Kirk]

Running a business is hard enough with moving into software development. Find off the shelf packages that meet your needs and concentrate on what you are good at.

And there is no replacement for MS Access. IT professionals rightly hate it. But if you are paying salaries, a database that is quick and easy to set up, that anyone can make forms and queries in is waht you need. BUT, move to a SQL backend as soon as is possible and just use Access as a GUI.

Re:Don't do it!

[Spoing]

1. And there is no replacement for MS Access. IT professionals rightly hate it. But if you are paying salaries, a database that is quick and easy to set up, that anyone can make forms and queries in is waht you need. BUT, move to a SQL backend as soon as is possible and just use Access as a GUI.

Agreed...as you will likely agree with this;

The problem with Access is that it's not portable and much of the business logic is in the GUI. Usually, the databases are thrown together and not documented...making maintenance a real juggling act. A special place in Hell should be reserved for the original creators of this tempting beast.

That's funny

[Otter]

I'm surprised an open-source project like Compiere is so tightly wedded to Oracle. (They seem to have had it working with PostgreSQL and backed off from it.)

I can't imagine this is the first guy to consider Compiere but be reluctant to commit to Oracle -- who do they think their likely customers are?

How about SQL-Ledger

[recjhl]

From the Debian description:

A double-entry accounting program written in perl
Accounting data is stored in a SQL Server, for the display any text or
GUI browser can be used. The entire system is linked through a chart
of accounts. Each item in inventory is linked to revenue, expense,
inventory and tax accounts. When you sell and purchase goods and
services the accounts are automatically updated.
.
With the assembly feature you can build manufactured goods from parts,
services and assemblies. When you sell assemblies all the accounts
linked to the individual parts, services and assemblies are updated
and stock levels adjusted accordingly. If any item belonging to an
assembly is changed all assemblies are updated as well.
.
Invoices, Packing List, Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Sales and
Purchase Order, Statements, Receipts and Checks are generated from
templates and may be changed to suit your needs. Templates are provided
in html and tex format. The tex templates are processed with latex
to produce postscript and PDF documents and can be sent to a printer,
displayed in a PDF viewer or sent out via email ...

See http://www.sql-ledger.org/.

SugarCRM

[V.]

I've been looking for a CRM solution for my company, Venn Technologies, Inc.. IMO, the best Open Source CRM out there right now is SugarCRM. I covers the basics at least. It doesn't have hooks for issue tracking and billing just yet but they are working on that. Currently, I'm evaluating SQL-Ledger and GNUCash for tracking the financials.

Access

[hey!]

Most people (detractors AND advocates) seem to miss the point of Access.

For quick and dirty solutions made by non or semi-technical people, it provides a simple, highly integrated environment covering ALL of the following areas: database management (storage), forms data entry, query building, reporting, scripting.

Access has some horrible weaknesses (the database engine is practically suicide for any important application). Equivalent and arguably superior open source solutions exist for every single piece of functionality Access provides. Therefore it is quite possible to put together a suite of tools that is far superior to Access as a whole.

However, getting each piece up and running and familiarizing yourself with it takes a certain amount of time and effort, as is especially the case with most open source software. Multiply it by everything you need to make up the whole suite, and most people will not bother unless they are professionals at creating datbase applications.

That said, if you are reasonably conversant with SQL, and don't have fancy reporting or validation needs, I think a lot of the kind of simple form entry and data retrieval tasks could be handled by Zope with the appropriate Zope extensions (products). You don't get a fancy query builder or report formatter, but on the plus side you have a three tier application that requires only a browser to operate.