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Best Open Source Alternatives To Enterprise Apps
PeekAB00 writes "With 2009 IT budgets getting chopped down John Perez came up with this list of 25 best alternatives to enterprise applications (e.g DimDim over Webex, SugarCRM instead of Seibel, Zenoss over HP OpenView). John's list is somewhat eclectic. I am curious to hear what other enterprise (let's be frank ... expensive) apps I can replace this year with open source ones. I am particularly interested in back-up and email archiving suggestions."
Whatever you've got, consider replacing it with Sphinx, which is awesome. I'm using it with Rails and the Ultrasphinx plugin and it's been great - doing excerpts (for example, notice the highlighted results from a search for 'combat') - was a piece of cake.
The Army reading list
http://www.amanda.org/
Xapian (www.xapian.org) and Flax (www.flax.co.uk) which provides scheduled indexing, file format translation and templated output, based on Xapian. Scalable to hundreds of millions of documents.
OpenGOO kicks the crap out of SugarCRM when it comes to useability. I was ableto switch an entire office over to it with a crapload of buy-in by the secretaries and other non techie users simply because of how easy it is to use.
http://opengoo.org/
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
That's what the TFA says.
Strangely they include stuff like vBulletin, which, while open source software, is not free software. Neither beer nor speech.
I wonder how anything with a non-zero pricetag can be more cost-effective than something that costs nothing.
They should have mentioned phpBB instead of vBulletin.
NX-1
NCC1701
NCC1701a
NCC1701D
NCC1701E
Why only MySQL? PostgreSQL is a big competitor.
Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
I wish someone had told me that sooner.
I was led to believe I had to install Linux *first* before I could use OpenOffice. Now that makes me wonder what other free alternatives exist for common applications - like PowerPoint. Why waste money buying expensive software when I can just use zero-cost alternatives?
FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
Just wanted to say :)
And this is coming from a person who already hates Remedy :p
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
For email archiving, you should look at MailArchiva. I've only been using it for a few months, but I am happy with it. I am using the free version which has some limitations. If you need more features, they have a commercial version available also. http://www.mailarchiva.com/
:wq
"MySQL - The best and most cost effective choice for a free SQL/Database environment that needs to be hosted in the cloud."
Hosted in a CLOUD!!!!
Hey MySQL is actually a good choice for a lot of uses but then so is Postgres. I have not done much with FireBird.
And for Content managment they left out Drupal and Zope.
And just putting Linux down for the server... Grrr...
What kind of server? Yes as a server OS a flavor of Linux is a good choice but some are better then other.
I wouldn't pick say Fedora for a server. I would choose CentOS.
If apt-get is your thing then Ubuntu Server or Debian would be a better selection the Ubuntu.
There is of course always Slackware as well.
If I was going to build a NAS then I would look at OpenFiler.
And to be honest Solaris is a very tempting choice for a server thanks to ZFS.
Ond of course FreeBSD and OpenBSD are good options as well.
Just saying Linux is a real cope out.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Uhhh, a lot of the solutions mentioned in TFA are not open source, but they are cheaper than their more expensive competition. i.e. Basecamp, dimdim, etc. are not open source..
OTOH, SugarCRM, asterisk, open office are open source, free in both senses.
Anyway, an interesting list...
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
If you're looking to back up Unix, Mac, and Windows systems, then check out Bacula:
http://www.bacula.org/en/
I've got this running on 7 systems at work. Some use tapes, while others back up to a RAID array. It is fast, stable, and robust. It does not rely on Samba, NFS, or any other services. It has its own file and storage daemons. It will also do VSS backups of Windows clients, allowing open files to be backed up.
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
We are migrating a whole bunch of sites away from eRoom because it's so expensive. (I didn't know it was open source, but the guy who brought it into our enterprise is a huge proponent of open source. He has rapidly lost interest in it over the past 12 months, mainly because it was a headache to administer and an embarrassment in a business sense because of the costs.)
Open source or not, I don't particularly care; I'm interested in doing the best thing for the business. In this case, eRoom is so expensive as to be unjustifiable, and we're realizing substantial cost savings by migrating to a closed source solution.
Bottom line: eRoom may (or may not) be a good technical solution, but I'm amused by seeing it in an article about using open source alternatives to save money.
Seems like it was a stretch. Community and forum software as "enterprise"? Uh, no. I desperately need an open source alternative to Exchange/Outlook and point of sale software for my business.
Lets take the example of an expensive e-mail archiving app. How are they billing you?
If it's per e-mail address, then pair employees and have them share the same e-mail address. Costs cut in half.
If it's per e-mail, then tell employees to always send 2 messages at a time, concatenated.
If it's per MB, then ask your employees to mail less.
If it's a flat rate for the whole company, then pair employees with another company, and have them share the same e-mail address.
If you're developing an Enterprise App in Java, for example, you often end up with some requirement to add reporting to the system. There are several approaches and all of them come with costs and pain. Having been the proud owner of several batches of these requirements, I have experience to offer a relevant point of view. To wit:
You need to write a custom meta-data-driven reporting system:
http://www.bacula.org/
SIG: HUP
I don't know about now...but I used to monitor bugtraq and it scared me into never, EVER using phpBB.
NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
Recommending MySQL is just stupid. Not only is its development at Sun in question, it is a poor excuse as a replacement for a commercial database.
As the MySQL fanbois are used to saying, "MySQL is good enough for what I do," a commercial database is held, and rightly so, to a higher standard to which MySQL fails miserably to measure. Yea, sure, the MySQL guys can cook single instance benchmarks that look impressive, but the scalability, reliability, and feature set lack on a professional level.
I don't even need to say which is the better alternative because everyone knows what it is. Since the guy recommends MySQL, this means he didn't evaluate the application space well enough to make the recommendations he does.
http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/ is the right one.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
& everything is working just fine/better than ever.
phpdhcpadmin (on sourceforge) as a replacement for RedHat or Microsoft dhcp administration utilities.
> I wonder how anything with a non-zero pricetag can be more cost-effective than something that costs nothing
Training and support, for starters. You're pretty much on your own on these 2 things when it comes to so called "free" software, and the TCO ends up being more expensive than a paid application.
Amanda had some problems last time I looked. Bacula isn't TSM by any means but it's actually not bad.
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replace Blackboard with Moodle. When I was first starting to learn php, found moodle really easy to customize, in addition to just being great running on default. Nothing that NEEDS to be configured much to get started any more than Blackboard. Blackboard does provide hosting, but at an outrageous rate that is not really a 'hosting' price. On the other hand I have gotten many more teachers to use the Blackboard system just telling them how much the district spends per year just to have the service available.
On a side note, when the tubes came to the district, one high school hired a bunch of IT people, and the other had an industry experienced teacher run several classes that had students expand and maintain the network. The student run network was quite superior. In 1998 they managed to get an OC3 line DONATED by a local company, and a partial Class B Internet license, just to name a few things. Downtime was negligible and never during school hours. While the 'professional' school dwindled with poor service, and just the local service paid for by the school, the student run program was scraped after 4 years when students that graduated had not documented their code. It was mostly customized FreeBSD setup. (The other school was using NT4). Rather than addressing the issue with the teacher, program was terminated permanently. They hired a bunch of techs to take their place, and within about 2 years they decided it was too expensive and now there are some 6 people that go around fixing problems for the whole district.
And THIS in Silicon Valley!
I may have missed some of the details of all what happened, but I do know the kids today don't know hardly anything about computers other than how to play video games, but props to the few that can customize a myspace page. Now, email or Internet access in general is out every few days for up to several hours. Rarely, but a few times, it has been out every day for about 2 hours in the morning for a week+.
Too bad something like technology can't be used directly to teach students about the modern world, like, the technology itself while making money to have a quality infrastructure. Oh well.
Just to note, I asked the IT staff about OpenOffice, because I heard they were having major budget problems, and they said that they did a 'trial run' and for too many teachers they concluded the transition would be too difficult, and too many teachers couldn't figure it out. They are going to transition to Office 2007 instead for all the computer labs (eventually as they can afford it). I stopped making suggestions after that.
Anyway, shout out to Moodle for anyone interested in education. It is simple enough I would recommend it to (tech savvy) parents to use at home to manage their kids homework and chores, just as an idea.
Want Big Business out of government? Take away the incentive and start by getting government out of big business!
http://futurepast.free.fr/OLD/opensiebel/
Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.
I've often wondered if Glassfish app server and OpenMQ messaging are viable alternatives (in realibility, performance and features) to IBM's Websphere and Websphere MQ. That would save a bunch of money right there, but it's got to be a huge battle switching an existing IBM system (and add-ons to that system) over to the open source alternatives.
Not sure if that would qualify as 'enterprise', but a good suggestion. I think this article would ALSO be popular on digg.
Want Big Business out of government? Take away the incentive and start by getting government out of big business!
our small business uses Quickbooks for accounting.
I'm not sure whether I hate Quickbooks or Intuit (the vendor) more.
Is there a decent open source business accounting package that our accountant can deal with?
We are using it for invoicing, accounts receivable, check register, etc. Nothing fancy.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
Adobe Acrobat and AutoCad.
These two applications are used prolifically. They are also practically the exclusive editing applications for .pdf and .dwg files, respectively.
These kinds of files are used every day by a huge number of people who have no choice but to buy the proprietary software for editing these file extensions. It would be a boon and a blessing for someone to develop a open-source system that could replace these programs.
If someone does I would make a donation, that's how much I think this is needed.
OpenOffice instead of MS Office
7-zip instead of WinZip
Alfresco for document management and workflow
Zimbra (or Google Apps) instead of Exchange
Firefox instead of IE (yeah, you'll save money by not having to remove all the magically installing spyware)
MySQL or PostgreSQL instead of MSSQL (come on people, open source is about choice - use whatever open source dbms you want and quit fussing!)
xTuple instead of Quickbooks (great enterprise-class accounting/sales/CRM/inventory software that can truly rival the "polished quality" of Quickbooks with pretty much the same features)
As someone who maintains several large forums on nearly all of the major forum software I'd stay away from phpbb... it's got a lot of security issues and the administration features are really lacking when compared to the other players.
If you're using it on a intranet server for business collaboration then it'd be fine but as far as putting it on the web, I'd avoid it. I actually just migrated the two phpbb forums I had to vB.
SMF is the other major open source contender and it does somethings better and other things worse than phpbb... I'm still using it for one of my forums but thats only because part of the point of the site is that it's 100% open source so...
Really IPB and vB are both better choices but neither are free. Interesting enough they both USED to be free. It seems that in the forum world once they reach a certain level of usefulness they close those doors and start collecting license fees.
Collector's Edition
NCC one seven O one. No bloody A, B, C, or D.
It is a very well written troll.
FTFY.
Visit jerryleecooper .com (link busted on purpose) for more trolls in the same vein. Looks like astroturf.
Does any one know of a good alternative to Microsoft Project? I am working on a small (academic) practicum project with a constraint that no money is to be spent on acquiring software. I tried OpenProject but that seems to have quite a few rough edges. Any other alternatives?
I'll throw out http://opennetadmin.com/ as a competitor to Lucent/Vital QIP. Its still in early stages but already can handle DNS and DHCP quite well. It even blends to other facets of your network configuration such as routers/switches.
Note that SMF (Simple Machines Forum) isn't technically free open source software either. See their license for details: http://www.simplemachines.org/about/license.php.
So they could easily do the same thing and go commercial and non-freely available too without any rights for anybody to fork it later on. Hence why I'm not interested in using their forum for any serious site.
This space is not for rent.
"Least-Bad Alternatives to Enterprise Apps."
Everything that's mentioned on this list has some Achilles heel--though it's suitable for some purposes it's not an exact replacement for what's mentioned.
Many of the "geekier" replacements (i.e. Digium which is actually Asterisk) have hidden admin costs. OpenOffice has hidden training costs (and frankly, every non-technical person we've put in front of it hates it--they all want Office 2007.) The ticketing systems are pretty lightweight. SugarCRM is pretty lightweight. MySQL doesn't scale. BaseCamp is simplistic as far as project management goes (and it's not open source?)
Open Source and free apps have been around for decades - yet there's a reason companies still get away with *charging lots of money* for enterprise apps...
I own a small Managed Service Provider in Seattle. I've wanted to use open source for years as much as possible--but the commercial alternatives have always been better fits for our needs and our customers' needs.
It has a little friend (I'd say brother, but they aren't in any way related) called Backuppc which does disk-to-disk backups. It won't natively back up open Windows files, so database dumps or VSS scripting is needed.
It does, however, do pooling (industry calls it deduplication). I have the equivalent of 9 TB of backups (2 months of weekly fulls and daily incrementals) stored on less than one TB of space. The actual amount of raw data being backed is about 1.5 TB: 558 GB compressed and 188 GB uncompressed on disk (746 GB).
Bacula doesn't do deduplication so its d2d capabilities are limited. But its tape abilities are comparable to anything out there (if you don't mind losing the GUI).
I am hoping someone can suggest a replacement for "Hello World" which, according to our engineers, is a critical application for our enterprise.
Sincerely,
PHB
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A LAPP stack sounds kind of cool... Folks could call themselves LAPP-landers.
Of course, like LAMP as an acronym, it still suffers from the potential disagreement about what the last P stands for (Perl, PHP, Python, ...) (note preceding list is
in alphabetical order and implies no stated preference :-))
- "History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men" -- Blue Oyster Cult, 'Godzilla'
Did the author even glance at feature sets?
This one looks like a nice online CRM app : www.fescalo.com
A good open source solution for replacing the costly PBX systems is the Asterisk platform http://www.asterisk.org/ If you want even more functionality a good recommendation is a pre-built system which incorporates FreePBX which provides an easy management interface for configuring and maintaining the PBX as well as various built in apps. All of this put on top of a CentOS system. I currently run the PBX In A Flash pre-built package put out by Nerd Vittles. http://pbxinaflash.net/ It is probably one of the easiest to use/update Asterisk systems I have worked with and is by far the most stable.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
We just did an evaluation of tools like Nagios, Munin, Zenoss & Zabbix and chose Zabbix. It's a little more effort to get going than Zenoss: compile from sources for the free version create your own account, move the files around yourself, etc than Zenoss (RPM install). But once going you're instantly more productive. Zenoss touts their strength as an agentless solution, but in practice I found that I didn't get a single system out of an initial scan of 50 PCs that picked up all the information is was supposed to get, or didn't give me a splat of SNMP errors to boot. Plus you have to block out a day to learn the Zenoss language of zenThis, zenThat, zenTheOther to even begin to understand the product and work out what you want to capture.
Zabbix by comparison was a loads easier. Edit the client conf file to point back to your server then copy the client agent conf file to the target, and the agent binary, following their instructions (create an account for it on Linux) start it, and you're done on the client side. From the server, login to the web page and follow the instructions for adding a new client and linking it to the appropriate system template. Instantly it starts collecting data and (after a period of time) you can view what it's collecting in graph form. The graphs have a nice zoom feature too: just click, drag and release on the bit you want to expand. I'm not even beginning to do this tool justice, it can do so much more than this. Go see their web site.
Zenoss looks a bit prettier, but Zabbix blew them away on ease of use once it was up and running. Oh, and Zabbix can do agent-less too using SNMP templates for things like network switches, if that's the way you want to go. Oh (again) be aware that if you have a mix 32bit and 64 of Linux builds (as we do) that you compile the agent binary for the box you're putting it on. They provide pre-built win32 and win64 agents for you.
About 12 months ago, we stumbled across ClarkConnect and have been using it extensively in deployments of 30 users or less. Felt compelled to reply to the OP since you mention archive and backups.
It has a very simple email archiving module (using MySQL backend).
For backup, we've been using the Bacula module - but the CC team just recently begin offering a remote backup service that is much more elegant.
All in all, one of the best OSS-based platforms for small businesses, IMO.
S.
as to the difference between:
Open Source software
(free, as in speech)
and
Free Software
(free, as in beer)
Several of his suggestions are available at no cost - but they are NOT open source.
Senior NCO in the fight against entropy. I've seen things, man. Things no one should have to see.....
"I own a small Managed Service Provider in Seattle. I've wanted to use open source for years as much as possible--but the commercial alternatives have always been better fits for our needs and our customers' needs"
..
What's the name of your company and customers?
Here's a Managed Service Provider that uses Open Source
DirectPointe, Top Managed Service Provider, Defeats Bad Economy
davecb5620@gmail.com
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Does anyone here have any experience with and/or recommendations for any open source finincial software suitable for running a small (but growing!) services company?
We are currently running on QuickBooks, but we are finding it extremely limiting.
Thanks!
AC
This is enterprise software. Not something that normal users are getting their grubby little claws on. We admins can figure this stuff out pretty easily. How often do any of us need actual paid-for training for any software?
Off to a good start. So, what is an enterprise? Merriam Webster thinks that it is one of the following:
So, apparently, Enterprise Software can be software that helps one recite the alphabet backwards while drunk (difficult), pick random sex partners (risky), walk up to Mike Tyson to insult him (daring), or helps, for example, my little cousin run her lemonade stand (economic activity).
"As the MySQL fanbois are used to saying,
then how does the Shinsei Bank of Japan manage (US$118 million net income, first quarter 2008).
"the MySQL guys can cook single instance benchmarks"
Produce any evidence that the 'MySQL guys' faked benchmark results, produce a comparison benchmark of MySQL versus a 'commercial' database.
troll detect score 5+, keywords fanbois, cook, benchmark
davecb5620@gmail.com
Typically, the Slashdot summary gets it wrong. The article is called "The 25 Best Alternatives To Your Enterprise Applications & Functions" and describes the list as "some of the most cost effective applications on the market that can easily replace some of your more expensive Enterprise solutions and functions." However, the article confusingly has an Open Source logo prominently displayed and doesn't very well distinguish between Open Source, free of cost, and low cost alternatives.
Consider MindTouch over Sharepoint. MindTouch offers many many other usability features, scalability and extensibility features compared to Sharepoint. Dramatically improve business automation and collaboration within your teams and departments. www.mindtouch.com MindTouch has millions of users and powers thousands upon thousands of public sites like: * http://developer.mozilla.org/ (Mozilla) * http://ipp.developer.intuit.com/ (Intuit) * http://baseswiki.org/ (Harvard-Kennedy Business & The United Nations & The World Bank) * http://soapedia.mysoapware.com/ (Doc.com) To name a few...
I've been running backuppc where I work for a while and am nothing but pleased with it.
http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
It's web-based for file restores and I can grant permissions to inidividual system operators to restore files for only their systems. It connects using rsync so no other agent is required on the backed-up host. It's running on a 1-U server with 4 SATA disks in a software raid-5 and backing up 20 servers without difficulty.
It's disappointing that there's nothing listed for exchange. Zimbra is my first suggestion, but unfortunately I have no experience administering it or using it since my company went ahead with Exchange.
I used to run phpBB on a regular basis, over multiple domains, over the course of years.
For exactly the reason you mention, I will never, EVER use phpBB again.
Ah yes - forgot to mention the de-duplication in my earlier post. Thank you.
Any opinions out there on SMF? I know some people won't consider it strictly "free" in the GPL sense, but I'm wondering how its reputation compares to phpBB's
vB isn't open source by any common definition. Google Analytics and a few other products on the list also aren't open source. TFA speaks about Open Source and "Lower Cost Alternatives", but the slashdot headline fails to make this distinction.
It is good to see companies sporting the term 'open source' (SugarCRM) switch to actual open source licenses, but the suggestion that vB or GA are open source in any way is misleading.
This sig is intentionally left blank
"We are migrating a whole bunch of sites away from eRoom because it's so expensive .. [and an embarrassment in a business sense because of the costs]
.. but the guy who brought it into our enterprise is a huge proponent of open source"
Expensive, how so, licenses, maintenance, down time, explain Spock ?
[we're realizing substantial cost savings by migrating to a closed source solution.]"
What 'closed source solution did your company choose, who did the choosing, how is this solution saving your costs?
"I didn't know it was open source
This is curiously contradictory, while he was enthusing on 'open source' did he neglect to mention that eRoom was so expensive? Did you even ask about the license, even when the splash screen came up?
"He has rapidly lost interest in it over the past 12 months, mainly because it was a headache to administer"
What's he being doing over the past twelve months to earn his salary. Does he stil lwork there? How did you company manage preceding your migration to the 'commercial' solution. What is it about these 'open source fanbois', don't they have any business discipline?
What was it doing that caused the excessive administration. Generally, from what I've seen, and I've been in the business for over fifteen years, once a system is up and running, and baring hardware failure, it requires minimal administration, a bunch of scripts does it all.
"I'm amused by seeing it in an article about using open source alternatives to save money"
I'm amazed that Ford Motor Company seems to be able to get it working. What business are you in again ?
davecb5620@gmail.com
I wonder how anything with a non-zero pricetag can be more cost-effective than something that costs nothing.
Easy, free app takes too long to install, configure or just plain doesn't let the employees get the work done efficiently, while paid app pays for itself with increased productivity, sales. etc.
I LOVE FLOSS, and use it whenever I can, but there are times I tell a customer: Pay for app X, and you wont be sorry.
HexaByte - he's a square and a half!
You're pretty much on your own on these 2 things when it comes to so called "free" software, and the TCO ends up being more expensive than a paid application.
That is not true generally, although it can be if you really go out of your way to implement something badly.
It's a MS talking point and it conveniently overlooks that most of the time with proprietary software you're paying for a steep license fee AND pay for support or a support contract separately. We use majority OSS here and the TCO blows away proprietary alternatives.
If we need support on an OSS choice we choose to purchase it, so far we haven't needed any. The other bogus argument frequently raised is that there's a productivity hit on time you spend researching solutions for OSS issues. That's another one that never happens in reality and also ignores the hours proprietary admins spend pouring over knowledge base searches.
Most for profit companies are squeezing their workforce so hard for profits these days that service in many companies is worse than what you get from OSS.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
FreeBSD, Apache, Perl, Postgresql
Best decision I ever made.
WOW. That is VERY different from when I first started using them. Thanks for pointing that out. Looks like I'll be ditching them as well.
Collector's Edition
DRBD is a great open-source solution to accomplish high-availability and disaster recovery. It's a block level replication device that is compatible with virtually any application.
:)
8.3.0 will be released soon which includes 16TB addressing, 3rd node replication and enhanced sync algorithms.
And of course....it's free
http://www.linbit.com/
Full of free software for Winders.
I keep hearing about 'alternatives to enterprise software' and invariably the same mistake pops up over and over: Alternatives to enterprise software are non-enterprise software!
Seems pretty obvious, right? Let's look at what is commonly meant by "enterprise," at least by those who live in that world.
I want software that has been thoroughly documented, tested, and proven. It NEEDS a decently long track record! It NEEDS a formal support mechanism behind it.
If I buy something like backup software (with a support contract of course), The vendor has to be able to tell me, "It will work _this_ way." Not "it should..." or "we thought it would..." But hey, bugs happen, right? When I discover a bug that affects my enterprise, I have to be able to go to the vendor and say "fix this" and have it done. When something breaks in the middle of the night, I need to be able to get definitive technical support within a pre-specified time frame.
Enterprise software is only marginally about the compiled code you get on a CD. It's primarily about support, robustness, and guarantees of quality. It's about strict patch release management, and conservative changes.
If you want to run (say) Amanda instead of NetBackup, that's fine--it's a decent piece of software as far as I've seen; but understand that by itself it's not an enterprise tool. The support mechanism around it is what makes it enterprise software (or not).
It's a simple cost analysis--how much will your company lose if software "x" dies, and how much of an increased risk is there in using freeware vs. buying a commercial product from a given vendor?
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
you are also paying for support.
not all companies/products can effectively support large scale applications/setups even when they are good in SMB environments and you shouldn't trivialize it by looking at purchase cost alone.
Sure, there are exceptions but the overall question is suspect.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
vBulletin makes me want to put a bullet in my head.
Seriously, though, this list is bigger. And better. :P
Depends what you are doing and what the support would be for. When its something mission critical and you don't know the code inside and out for the application, you want to have a guru you can call. Support is like insurance. You pay for it so its there when you need it. Just make sure you keep a copy of the SLA you're paying for in case they blow it.
The question of comparing an open source solution to a big expensive app like Open View came up not too long ago when GroundWork published their cost comparison of GW Monitor vs HP Open View. Over three years, GroundWork Monitor was 82% less expensive than Open View. GroundWork is about $54/node and Open View is about $295. You can download the PDF here: http://www.groundworkopensource.com/solutions/tco-gwme_vs_hp-openview.html
This study caught the attention of Matt Assay on cnet when HP had a fit about their pricing being exposed. http://news.cnet.com
You probably saw it on slashdot right after Thanksgiving. http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/28/0857213
I'd like to set something up internal to IT (8-10 users, possibly more) to use as a Knowledge Base. We do not really have a formal place to put centralized documents for processes and a Knowledge Base would be very beneficial. I thought Mediawiki, but that requires MySQL and MSSQL (which is currently setup) is already enough of a headache to manage. What are other people using?
This is a "Free as in Beer" story. "Enterprise-level" apps that are plausible alternatives to the market leaders.
What do you mean? Just too many bugs?
Anyone know of a software deployment system similar to SMS/Landesk that is FOSS? I've seen a few crummy ones, but none that look very refined.
I'm honestly shocked that his list for web CMS options leaves out Drupal in favour of Alfresco and OpenCMS. Especially when he mentions that OpenCMS merely has promise to be great. Well, Drupal is already great.
Drupal has been making such great waves, that I haven't had to advertise my Drupal services for the last two and a half years. Potential clients just come directly to me specifically requesting Drupal.
I wonder how anything with a non-zero pricetag can be more cost-effective than something that costs nothing.
Total cost of ownership. It takes resource (time, skill-sets, etc.) to apply patches, provide support when thing break, help desk training, etc.
While the license may be free, there is a good reason why many organizations pay big bucks to have a company back a software solution.
I have not tried openmeetings, but it looks promising for a Webex replacement.
These are pieces to a solution - albeit valuable ones. But why ignore apps that address the total needs of an enterprise in one cohesive package instead of having to bear the cost of multiple apps with their associated integration costs and learning curves? I am referring to Apache's Open for Business Project (ofbiz.apache.org) and Compiere.
"ActiveCollab - Another open source tool that is also compatible with iPhones."
since when is the iPhone a criteria in a decision making process regarding the worthiness of enterprise software?
_ In Egypt Networks: Network Solutions with a Twist
NetworkAuthority Inventory for managing network device configurations. This app would replace Ciscoworks.
SVN as an alternative to ClearCase/Perforce...
Performing Installations, upgrades & maintenance could be called a LAPPdance.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
Check also Jasper Reports and iReport (http://jasperforge.org/). It's a Crystal Reports killer. It's Java, but I managed to write a small servlet which receives the jrxml path/filename and other parameteres via HTTP and it spits out the report in PDF, XML and other formats. That way I can integrate it with PHP or any other framework able to communicate using HTTP. Another interesting tool is OpenLazslo (http://www.openlaszlo.org/). It is a RAD (rich internet application) framework posed to compete with Macromedia Flex and Microsoft Silverlight. Unlike these two, Openlaszlo is multi-runtime, generating applications in DHTML, Flash and (potentially) even Silverlight.
drop your hardware tokens and go with http://www.wikidsystems.com
I agree that Citadel looks very promising. I actually know people that used to use it back in the eighties--but, of course, it was a much different system back then. Still, it's one of the few proposed alternatives to Exchange that has actually been around longer than Exchange, and seems to offer more-or-less all of the same features (email, integrated calendaring & scheduling, groupware, IM, etc.). Of course, since its roots go back to before there was an Exchange, I suspect it's probably less of a drop-in replacement than other more recent systems--but those other systems still seem to be playing catch-up, while Citadel looks like it's more than caught up already.
All that, and it's GPL'd.
My biggest concern is that the IM doesn't seem to be based on XMPP (Jabber). Which is too bad, but then neither is MS-IM. :)
How is vBulletin open source? This license doesn't look like open source at all to me.
I think OpenLaszlo is going to eat Flex and Silverlight lunch because it's multi-runtime.
The same code generates identical apps in DHTML, Flash or potentially any other runtime.
Bugtraq isn't where you list bugs. It's where you list gaping security vulnerabilities, of which phpBB is one of the biggest offenders in the world.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
When you open the files, you see source. As such, it's open source. What it isn't, is OSI-compliant licensed open source software. Contrary to the dogma they feed you, the english language had the words first and the meanings of "free" and "open source" were already defined long before OSI and Richard Stallman decided they wanted to use them.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
http://www.osalt.com/ is a good resource to look up the proprietary program, and find an OSS replacement for it. Also, here's a good list of 50 replacements for various programs http://whdb.com/2008/the-top-50-proprietary-programs-that-drive-you-crazy-and-their-open-source-alternatives/
Warning. This response will make people who love microsoft go booo hooo. Please read no further.
I wonder how anything with a non-zero pricetag can be more cost-effective than something that costs nothing.
Poorly written yet expensive point and click software that looks pretty + part time tech support (that just calls the seller's tech support when something goes wrong) + managers that are technological morons = non-zero software is better. How do you think windows made it?
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
phpBB? uh yeah...
How about SMF instead?
http://www.simplemachinesforum.com/
I would like to see use of the "open source" term before it was conceived to mean what it means now. Your explanation ("When you open the files, you see source.") is ludicrous.
It is not rational to compare Open Office to Ms office. MS must have spent billions over the years refining and expanding Office. There is a lot of functionality inside office. Just the programming aspects, with integration of .net and the new collaborative features inside Office and SharePoint makes Office a huge platform for information processing. OpenOffice has no such functionality. OpenOffice is not current in its features. It is like 10 years behind.
It is not ludicrous in the slightest. It is perfectly valid vocabulary. Open source, in English, means the source is open to you. It does NOT mean "able to be distributed at will to third parties without requiring permission". Your explanation, that a product must be OSI approved to be open source, is ludicrous.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
My explanation wasn't that a product must be OSI approved to be open source. In fact, I haven't explained it yet, so here it goes: "open source" is what complies with the Open Source Definition.
By the definition you're apparently working with, any source is open, as if it can't be opened, it can't even be compiled. This makes your definition meaningless. Unless you can provide a meaningful alternative definition to the term "open source" that has actually been ever used by anyone but you, I'll be forced to believe that you're trolling me.
Not sure why this wasn't mentioned.
http://www.virtualbox.org/
What a horrible list that is completely inaccurate. File this under trash.
I prefer BackupPC due to the web interface to restore files. I only wish they had the VSS option fully working.
Oh? You're still wrong. An example of open source would in fact be... well, vBulletin. With the software, you are provided the source to it and you can use it however you like - you can run a forum, you can eat it, you can even print it out and use it as toilet paper. The only thing you can't do, is give it to non-customers. That makes it open source in the technical sense. What it ISN'T, is OSI approved (and OSI uses the definition you linked, so technically your first and second sentences contradict each other - but that's just being picky).
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
The one being wrong is still you. You're the only one who calls being able to see the source code of a program you purchase a license for "open source". I'm sure getting the source code of a program that's written in an interpreted language (PHP in this case) must be a novel and great thing to you, but rest assured it isn't for the rest of the world. "Use it however you like" and "the only thing you can't do, is give it to non-customers" contradict each other.
Also, you've failed to show any evidence of anyone but you using this useless "definition" of the term.
As for my first and second sentences, you aren't being picky -- you are being dense. A prerequisite for OSI approval of specific licenses is conforming to the OSD, but this doesn't make these two things equal. Approval is an actual process involving the examination of a license; conforming to the definition follows from licensing and its practical application. (Software patents might apply, for example.) To make it easier to understand, a license might conform to the OSD and yet not be OSI approved; and hopefully all OSI approved licenses conform to the OSD -- which makes "OSI approved" a subset of "open source".
It's a MS talking point and it conveniently overlooks that most of the time with proprietary software you're paying for a steep license fee AND pay for support or a support contract separately.
Something the Dijkstra noted and is worth repeating. When people say you need to pay for an application and support. You are often saying "You are paying for an application that likely does not work as described in some way and us to come fix it".
This isn't maintenance in the classic sense. There is little in the way of wear and tear on software. It's insurance against a broken application.
That said it's often not even very good insurance. Unless you are in an organization with some real pull with your vendor (that is to say you are very big or they are very small). You are really paying for the vendor to fix it when and if they feel like it. Worse you are, in most cases absolutely forbidden to fix the software yourself.
This leaves me asking the question. Who would pay for this kind of "support". The answer seems to be "People who don't or can't hire skilled IT"
Again there is a kind of support (often lumped under the same name) that can be helpful and this is deployment support. However again if you are running a shop with skilled IT people. This is often a fifth wheel.
I can't count the number of times we have had some vendor in to "train" us and sat through a demo which was essentially "Clicking on this button does pretty much what you would expect". When it came time to ask questions ("What happens during a network failure", "That schema element is already used how do we reconfigure your app to use another") they were clueless.
In fact my team has spent more time helping vendors install their product into our environment than the other way around.....don't even get me started on vendors who resell another vendors product and have signed a contract to do all the first line support for it or third-party system integrators. Most of those people I've met could be thrown in a woodchipper and nobody would miss them.
On this topic, can anyone suggest a Linux alternative to Quickbooks? I need a Linux based application that can be accessed by multiple people and preferably import data from Quickbooks. (So GNUCash doesn't fit :( )
MediaWiki (the software behind Wikipedia) can transform a company's culture from "nobody ever documents anything" into "Is it on the wiki yet??" It's the "swiss army knife" of intranet applications, super-extendable and easy to use. Even non-techies can master wikitext syntax with about 15 minutes of training.
AFAIK, LedgerSMB might be worth looking at. The people working on it had to clean up an awful lot of stuff and the last time I looked documentation wasn't too high on the list yet, but those problems appear worth conquering as it's multi-{user/company/currency}, low on resources and with a web interface. I think the bit that made me pause was the LaTEX based forms (and that I had no time), but I'm going to look at installing it in the new year..
Insert
None of your project management "alternatives" is free software. Actually they are all Software as service model.
Only activeCollab offers you source code if you pay up, and even then, I doubt it will be opensource as they charge 399 plus 199/year maintanence.
This is not really slashdot worth.
Losing the GUI? What about BAT?
You are not the customer.
From what I see, I can't redistribute, so it's not open source; right ? do they use an OSI approved license ?
Also, it seemed several other products had the same issue :) they are available for free, or very cheap, but they're not open source
I have very rarely seen any closed source applications which didn't require patches, support for when things break and training in how to use it...
On the other hand, with open source the authors are less concerned about controlling distribution, so patching is easier (use a centralized repository, downloads easily obtained), and with closed source i have often had the additional burden of dealing with license compliance, sometimes license servers need to be set up and managed and sometimes codes have to be stored and entered into each installation.
There are two sides to every coin, some smaller open source apps have fairly flakey or highly manual install procedures, but for the most part things are fairly slick. A lot of OSS will actually come preinstalled with a linux distro, or on ready to run virtual images etc.
While most closed source is harder to obtain (cant just wget a url or apt-get install) harder to install (often has its own binary installer instead of using package management) harder to remove (same reason) and a whole heap of other problems...
You also have issues, at least on linux and bsd, where precompiled binaries from another system may not run at all, which often makes closed source apps an even bigger hassle, open source apps can be recompiled if there isnt a binary available with your distro.
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try boxbackup http://www.boxbackup.org/
Badly wrong, sorry. There actually is no specific word to describe a software distribution model where source code is available to customers on a non-OSI-approved licence. Founders of OSI created the term 'open source' and they defined it with rules taken from DFSG.
And there is a lot of different meanings of the word 'free', but in educated circles 'free software' = FLOSS = software with an OSI-approved licence or a DFSG compilant licence. Free as in 'free beer' is another example of a different meaning of 'free' that does not apply.
http://forum.aspseek.org/ (compiles with gcc-2.95)
I'd like to buy homeland for our 10 million people. http://twitter.com/mahadiga