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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/
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.
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.
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:
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.
> 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.
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!
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
Interesting. Tell that to Flickr, Facebook, Wikipedia, Google, Nokia and YouTube. Or, how about Slashdot and Digg - capable of bringing down moderately sized web sites with the click of a million mice?
Check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySQL
http://www.mysql.com/customers/customer.php?id=281
http://www.mysql.com/news-and-events/generate-article.php?type=ss&id=slashdot
Just as a single example, what kind of scalability do most people need beyond Facebook and Wikipedia. I work for a very large internet company that has standardized on Oracle, and we have several well-paid DBAs who spend all day monitoring and tweaking our database servers. My previous job was a different large company that used MySQL as a back end for a very similar infrastructure (Java EE, Spring, Hibernate, Clustered in a similar way) with not a single full-time DBA (the helpdesk manager was the only real DBA other than the deployment engineers).
Now, I'm not a professional DBA. I'm just a programmer, but I was one of the maintainers of the MySQL server (I don't get to touch the Oracle servers here except on my local developers instance). I can tell you from personal experience that MySQL is easier to maintain and administer, faster to start up, and requires far fewer system resources to keep going. Judging by just the performance of Wikipedia and Facebook, it seems to perform quite well under heavy load. So, please tell me what basis you have to place MySQL out of the elite top-tier of database servers?
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.
Try xTuple.... Has a lot of the same user-friendliness as Quickbooks - but doesn't lack features like some other accounting/sales/CRM/inventory systems.
It's enterprise-class and you can buy support from the vendor.
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?
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.
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'
I don't even need to say which is the better alternative because everyone knows what it is.
MS Access?
Yeah, but none of those are very important. If a transaction fails when you're updating your Facebook profile, nobody gives a shit. I mean look at what happened to Slashdot when it got 24 million posts.
I would bet money that none of those companies use MySQL for their paycheck processing software.
I don't dislike MySQL, but I wouldn't consider it an "enterprise RDBMS".
Maybe not
Can everyone please give their opinion of Bacula vs Amanda? (The only thing that looks good TO ME about BackupPC is it's data de-duplication) Currently I'm using Retrospect, and it gets the job done, but has flaws and I'm not ready to pay the upgrade price (we originally got a free license) I'm a VERY mixed environment, we have: Win2k3 w/exchange Win2k3 for file/print Centos for: MySQL Apache Pen/VRRP load balancing MailScanner virus/spam gateway Vmware Server (all hosts are linux, guests are mixed) Vmware ESXi Right now retrospect does a good job on all of it except MySQL. Well, except for the fact that it recently lost a backup set at the same time the server hosting the files died, loosing 20GB of data :/
I have another handwritten backup script that rsyncs the most crucial data to exavault.
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
When they say the MySQL will not scale like Oracle they are mostly right. The exceptions where MySQL works are when you design a application around MySQL and use just one installation of MySQL per application. When you do this and it works what you are really doing is using mySQL is a fancy kind of file system.
With Oracle you can build an enterprise database that holds _everything_ and all you applications can access the same database. There are some great advantages when you do this
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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.
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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).
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.
"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
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.
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
Interesting. Tell that to Flickr, Facebook, Wikipedia, Google, Nokia and YouTube. Or, how about Slashdot and Digg - capable of bringing down moderately sized web sites with the click of a million mice?
As has been discussed many times over there are a couple points to make out about these examples.
(1) *ALL* of these sites buttress MySQL with support code. Take a look at what Slashdot has to do to enable MySQL to keep up with the sites needs.
(2) None of these sites are mission critical. Would you TRUST your bank transactions on MySQL? LOL, no way!
Now, I'm not a professional DBA. I'm just a programmer
I was a DBA, I am a software engineer. I have published articles about Windows kernel development and data acquisition. I was CTO at a dotcom, I am currently a consultant have worked directly or indirectly with AOL, Microsoft, Sun, and Yahoo.
but I was one of the maintainers of the MySQL server (I don't get to touch the Oracle servers here except on my local developers instance).
I have managed and developed on many Oracle systems. I have also done the same on Sybase, PostgresSQL, MySQL, DB2, MSSQL, mSql, SQLite, Advanced Revilation (Not SQL, but a database), and others.
I have a very good background on the subject.
I can tell you from personal experience that MySQL is easier to maintain and administer,
Than what?
faster to start up, and requires far fewer system resources to keep going.
Than what?
Judging by just the performance of Wikipedia and Facebook, it seems to perform quite well under heavy load.
You are not looking at MySQL, you are looking at an aggregate system whose performance is a product of the development teams ability to work around MySQL.
None of the sites you mention simply execute a query and display the results. Every single one of them requires a lot of extra programming work to serialize and cache load because MySQL sucks.
So, please tell me what basis you have to place MySQL out of the elite top-tier of database servers?
I think I made my point.
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".
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.
The problem wasn't entirely integer overflow. From the description here it sounds like they had a foreign key index using a different data type than the row it referenced. It shouldn't even be possible to do that.
Maybe not