I've investigated this same issue for a while and I would like to weigh in with the little I've gleaned:
First, an observation: Separate notionally the idea of open source and the idea of running on linux/unix / not windows.
Essentially, for the enterprise you need a robust Database product, easily achieved opensource via PostgreSQL or MySQL with a plethora of interface design tools available.
Perhaps you would consider this bookmark:
http://www.dbexperts.net/
Here you are not compromising anything by going opensource! Implement your own CRM in this environment.
Open source is not there yet with an accounting package that you want to run your enterprise on. That does not mean you can't run your accounting on Unix/Linux and thereby eschew the Microsoft Domain. Until October 2003 the Silver bullet for enterprise accounting was Appgen. Alas they are in play. Refer to this website to get the latest dope.
http://www.aaxnet.com/product/appgn.html
This address is for a dedicated VAR who has been tracking the progress of the AppGen product. Worthwhile to click to his homepage while you're there. He speaks gospel.
Finally, you need your office product, and since you are on slashdot I am confident you know about openoffice.org. I kind of wish they would make an open office "lite" commensurate with ThinkFree Office in code size, capability etc. because the full open office suite can be overwhelming for some management and clerical types (and even geeks who would rather use other tools to do the esoteric stuff.)
Finally, for groupware, I find that although it is a content management system per se, Plone specifically and Zope generally can be used to inplement groupware via opensource. Otherwise use
http://www.share360.com/index.cbml
which keeps you off microsoft but accesible via Microsoft community.
There are probably some great project management products coming online based on opensource. Til then you could demo this product for project management:
http://www.webintellisys.com/index.html
Hope this stimulates you to fulfill the goal of weaning the backoffice crew from Microsoft SQL, MAS 90, Solomon etc.
I am very dismayed to hear of the retrenchment of Lego toward their traditional Product lines.
Qualifications: I have an Eight year old son Aiden, and 5 year old son, Tristan.
We love the Bionicles series! And We love the basic sets. I have been planning on a Mindstorms purchase for over a year. We also have duplo which we love.
But of special note to Slashdotters (and I was surprised no one else commented on this) the www.lego.com website is one of the three best designed and programmed sites in the world. My son Aiden logged hundred's of hours on the original Bionicle virtual island of Mata Nui on the website. It was a tour de force of shockwave programming and design. The pedagogical philosophy of Lego shown brightly on that site. It was one of the best adventure roleplaying games I have ever seen, challenging my son to be an anthropologist on a distant planet with an inscrutable robotic culture. He had to resolve symbolic decodings, and an epidemological problem that I can recall immediately.
The instructions that acompany bionicles are perfect for indoctrinating kids in the notion of RTFM. We have a special building ritual at my house for these lego systems. I use these products for systems teaching and they love it!
My youngest son Tristan can flop states instantly from the totally wide open creative play with these technics elements to the structured pursuit of the designed projects. Both states are desirable from my point of view.
I am poor as dirt, I don't have much furniture but I don't begrudge a single penny spent on Lego product. (I don't begrudge the premium I paid for our Macintosh Titanium either.)
Lego probably has undertaken a little to much this past year and the website suffers from mission creep and "improving" things that were actually better two iterations ago. Still, It is utterly a mistake for them to abandon the excellent technics products and their brilliant website. The basic system is great, but so is much of the product they have developed these last five years.
Oh and their CD Titles rock as well! Alas they don't play on OS X.
My sons develop with Robo Tech and Erector but please don't mess with our Lego!
(and Steve, when are you going to cut a deal with Lego to get all of the CD titles and Mindstorms Kid Graphical (LeJos and NQC are a little steep for my boys right now) programming interface running native on OS X? You know you want that mindshare!)
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
- Albert Einstein
"For every complex problem there is a simple solution that is wrong"
- G.B. Shaw
Re:Does anybody know...
on
OS X Hacks
·
· Score: 1
Nothing quite at the level as complete FreeBSD but two guys last name of Ray wrote the closest OSX book and it is published by SAMS. These are UNIX guys who spend a LOT of time on using OSX as a UNIX system - and presenting the aqua GUI to UNIX geeks.
Surprisingly, Todd Stauffer has written the other book that I can recommend the second best.
Finally, I havn't bought the Hacks book but I thumbed it heavily at B&N two weeks ago. The reviewer is right on the point that it has disparate hacks that don't all seem useful until all the sudden you are thinking about changing cell phone companies and would like to actually try making Blue Tooth work... or FTP transfers without downloading a client. I plan to buy the book although I felt like half of it was useless to me. I am so mercurial in my geekiness I recognized that there is no telling which useless datum this week will be gold (if nothing more than as a launch into some new investigation of the OS) a month from now.
Slashdot Mirror
I've investigated this same issue for a while and I would like to weigh in with the little I've gleaned: First, an observation: Separate notionally the idea of open source and the idea of running on linux/unix / not windows. Essentially, for the enterprise you need a robust Database product, easily achieved opensource via PostgreSQL or MySQL with a plethora of interface design tools available. Perhaps you would consider this bookmark: http://www.dbexperts.net/ Here you are not compromising anything by going opensource! Implement your own CRM in this environment. Open source is not there yet with an accounting package that you want to run your enterprise on. That does not mean you can't run your accounting on Unix/Linux and thereby eschew the Microsoft Domain. Until October 2003 the Silver bullet for enterprise accounting was Appgen. Alas they are in play. Refer to this website to get the latest dope. http://www.aaxnet.com/product/appgn.html This address is for a dedicated VAR who has been tracking the progress of the AppGen product. Worthwhile to click to his homepage while you're there. He speaks gospel. Finally, you need your office product, and since you are on slashdot I am confident you know about openoffice.org. I kind of wish they would make an open office "lite" commensurate with ThinkFree Office in code size, capability etc. because the full open office suite can be overwhelming for some management and clerical types (and even geeks who would rather use other tools to do the esoteric stuff.) Finally, for groupware, I find that although it is a content management system per se, Plone specifically and Zope generally can be used to inplement groupware via opensource. Otherwise use http://www.share360.com/index.cbml which keeps you off microsoft but accesible via Microsoft community. There are probably some great project management products coming online based on opensource. Til then you could demo this product for project management: http://www.webintellisys.com/index.html Hope this stimulates you to fulfill the goal of weaning the backoffice crew from Microsoft SQL, MAS 90, Solomon etc.
I am very dismayed to hear of the retrenchment of Lego toward their traditional Product lines. Qualifications: I have an Eight year old son Aiden, and 5 year old son, Tristan. We love the Bionicles series! And We love the basic sets. I have been planning on a Mindstorms purchase for over a year. We also have duplo which we love. But of special note to Slashdotters (and I was surprised no one else commented on this) the www.lego.com website is one of the three best designed and programmed sites in the world. My son Aiden logged hundred's of hours on the original Bionicle virtual island of Mata Nui on the website. It was a tour de force of shockwave programming and design. The pedagogical philosophy of Lego shown brightly on that site. It was one of the best adventure roleplaying games I have ever seen, challenging my son to be an anthropologist on a distant planet with an inscrutable robotic culture. He had to resolve symbolic decodings, and an epidemological problem that I can recall immediately. The instructions that acompany bionicles are perfect for indoctrinating kids in the notion of RTFM. We have a special building ritual at my house for these lego systems. I use these products for systems teaching and they love it! My youngest son Tristan can flop states instantly from the totally wide open creative play with these technics elements to the structured pursuit of the designed projects. Both states are desirable from my point of view. I am poor as dirt, I don't have much furniture but I don't begrudge a single penny spent on Lego product. (I don't begrudge the premium I paid for our Macintosh Titanium either.) Lego probably has undertaken a little to much this past year and the website suffers from mission creep and "improving" things that were actually better two iterations ago. Still, It is utterly a mistake for them to abandon the excellent technics products and their brilliant website. The basic system is great, but so is much of the product they have developed these last five years. Oh and their CD Titles rock as well! Alas they don't play on OS X. My sons develop with Robo Tech and Erector but please don't mess with our Lego! (and Steve, when are you going to cut a deal with Lego to get all of the CD titles and Mindstorms Kid Graphical (LeJos and NQC are a little steep for my boys right now) programming interface running native on OS X? You know you want that mindshare!) "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein "For every complex problem there is a simple solution that is wrong" - G.B. Shaw
Nothing quite at the level as complete FreeBSD but two guys last name of Ray wrote the closest OSX book and it is published by SAMS. These are UNIX guys who spend a LOT of time on using OSX as a UNIX system - and presenting the aqua GUI to UNIX geeks.
Surprisingly, Todd Stauffer has written the other book that I can recommend the second best.
Finally, I havn't bought the Hacks book but I thumbed it heavily at B&N two weeks ago. The reviewer is right on the point that it has disparate hacks that don't all seem useful until all the sudden you are thinking about changing cell phone companies and would like to actually try making Blue Tooth work... or FTP transfers without downloading a client. I plan to buy the book although I felt like half of it was useless to me. I am so mercurial in my geekiness I recognized that there is no telling which useless datum this week will be gold (if nothing more than as a launch into some new investigation of the OS) a month from now.