We have been using Open for business (http://www.ofbiz.org/ for some time which is gettting there. Some modules are much more complete than others and we've had to supplement it with SQL-Ledger (http://www.sql-ledger.org/ for financials to get most of the functionality we need but the accounting module is under development and the order management sections are stable. It also has a manufacturing module (we don't use), a content management module and some contact management and CRM functionality. There are a few other projects which have been spun off the main branch which concentrate on different aspects.
We've been using Open For Business (http://www.ofbiz.org) and it has been very good indeed. It is still work in progress but there are lots of stable elements to it and it supports a range of databases (Postgres being our choice). We are setting up a retail support operation based entirely on open source software and this is our core component. It is a J2EE/xml solution with a fairly high initial learning curve but there is good support and it is very stable. We also use SQL-Ledger which is very good although we haven't done the integration yet (which should be fun;) ).
Patents in medicine have actually harmed innovation and progress. An easy example would be stomach ulcers. For many years there was a 'treatment' available (patented and at a high price) that would keep the symptoms of stomach ulcers at bay. Several doctors believed that they were actually caused by bacteria in the gut and some even came up with cures for them based on existing drugs whose patent had expired. A massive amount of effort went into denying this, sponsored by the drug companies who provided the treatment, because a cure is,of course, much less profitable than a treatment (one is a one off payment whilst the other is a continuous revenue stream over the life of the victim). Within days of the expiry of the patent and the mass production of new, generic drugs the cure was 'discovered' and Zantac was no longer the worlds largest selling drug. An obvious extension of this is the AIDS virus. Companies can produce 'treatments' for this disease which guarantee them a good revenue stream over the life of the victim and have absolutely no motivation whatsoever to work towards a cure for this very profitable disease. Once the patents expire (and incidentally TENS OF MILLIONS of people have died) a cure will magically appear and we will move onto the next 'untreatable' disease. I have never seen an example where patents or copyright or any other type of 'intellectual property' have worked in the favour of the public at large. They are simply designed to protect the interests of large corporations who have the financial strength to enforce them. Medicine is a very bad example to use when defending IP. Try sticking to music.
I have been looking at SQL Ledger for some time which seems to be very good indeed. Most of the other accounting packages I've seent (open source ones) are not well designed. I tried to get GnuCash running but without success. I'd happily try again though. Has anyone else any recomendations?
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We have been using Open for business (http://www.ofbiz.org/ for some time which is gettting there. Some modules are much more complete than others and we've had to supplement it with SQL-Ledger (http://www.sql-ledger.org/ for financials to get most of the functionality we need but the accounting module is under development and the order management sections are stable. It also has a manufacturing module (we don't use), a content management module and some contact management and CRM functionality. There are a few other projects which have been spun off the main branch which concentrate on different aspects.
HTH
Ian
We've been using Open For Business (http://www.ofbiz.org) and it has been very good indeed. It is still work in progress but there are lots of stable elements to it and it supports a range of databases (Postgres being our choice). We are setting up a retail support operation based entirely on open source software and this is our core component. It is a J2EE/xml solution with a fairly high initial learning curve but there is good support and it is very stable. ;) ).
We also use SQL-Ledger which is very good although we haven't done the integration yet (which should be fun
Patents in medicine have actually harmed innovation and progress. An easy example would be stomach ulcers. For many years there was a 'treatment' available (patented and at a high price) that would keep the symptoms of stomach ulcers at bay. Several doctors believed that they were actually caused by bacteria in the gut and some even came up with cures for them based on existing drugs whose patent had expired. A massive amount of effort went into denying this, sponsored by the drug companies who provided the treatment, because a cure is,of course, much less profitable than a treatment (one is a one off payment whilst the other is a continuous revenue stream over the life of the victim). Within days of the expiry of the patent and the mass production of new, generic drugs the cure was 'discovered' and Zantac was no longer the worlds largest selling drug.
An obvious extension of this is the AIDS virus. Companies can produce 'treatments' for this disease which guarantee them a good revenue stream over the life of the victim and have absolutely no motivation whatsoever to work towards a cure for this very profitable disease. Once the patents expire (and incidentally TENS OF MILLIONS of people have died) a cure will magically appear and we will move onto the next 'untreatable' disease.
I have never seen an example where patents or copyright or any other type of 'intellectual property' have worked in the favour of the public at large. They are simply designed to protect the interests of large corporations who have the financial strength to enforce them. Medicine is a very bad example to use when defending IP. Try sticking to music.
I have been looking at SQL Ledger for some time which seems to be very good indeed. Most of the other accounting packages I've seent (open source ones) are not well designed. I tried to get GnuCash running but without success. I'd happily try again though. Has anyone else any recomendations?