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Cost-Conscious Companies Turn To Open Source

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the only-a-matter-of-time dept.

Martyr4BK writes "BusinessWeek has a slew of special reports today on open source software discussing the benefits for buyers who are cost conscious and open source being the silver lining for the economic slump. They even have a slideshow of 'OSS alternatives' like Linux, Apache, MySQL, Firefox, Xen, Pentaho, OpenOffice.org, Drupal, Alfresco, SugarCRM, and Asterisk. These are all good examples (we use a bunch of them already); what other open source software can I use to drop my company's IT costs, and maybe get a decent bonus for the year?"

4 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Would love to... by DogDude · · Score: 3, Informative

    Would love to save $$$ with OSS, but the software I need (robust, full-featured POS system) is non-existent. Bummer.

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    I don't respond to AC's.
  2. Re:Couldn't find the slideshow mentioned... by AndGodSed · · Score: 4, Informative

    I use planner.

    Have you tried it? I find it is adequate for my needs. Mind you I am not the most hardcore project management user out there...

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    Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity

  3. Re:Migration doesn't sound like cost cutting. by truthsearch · · Score: 3, Informative

    Linux/F/OSS is mostly supported by angel investors and Sun Microsystems

    This is just completely wrong. Most open source projects have no outside investors at all, but are either maintained on a developer's free or salaried time. IBM, Apple, and Google, for example, have hundreds of employees who contribute to open source projects on company time.

    I don't know why you would think so many projects would be backed by angel investors when those projects would return nothing financially on their investment.

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    Developers: We can use your help.
  4. Re:Couldn't find the slideshow mentioned... by CornMaster · · Score: 3, Informative

    I use dotProject: http://dotproject.net/

    It's not exactly an application or linux only, as it is a web app, but it is free and open source. And it allows many users to input into a process. Currently our project manager manages everything with MS Project using some of its features. This type of product allows managers (or at least in our case) to offload some of the updating to the workers since they can log their own progress.

    I've used a few other web app managers but dotProject seemed to have the most features. Not exactly a piece of cake to configure, but it is quite powerful.