Opinion: Put The Power of Linux Into Your Business

Linux never seems to address the needs of the small business people I deal with. The corner store owner, the Mum and Dad business that delivers water for the water cooler, and soft drink to the home. The Architect who works from Home just down the road, the small business that makes up most of my community.

Yes there are applications they can use, but none of it compare with waht's available for Microsoft operating system, and none of it is, from the point of view of the small business person a simple install and run, and in some cases, for legal reasons, it won't play nice with what their accountant uses.

Where's the real small business package?

Nothing to see here people, move along, move along.

tracyanne -

Shame on you for expressing a legitimate concern in the land of Beans In Your Ears.

I wait for the day when I can routinely advise (very) small business people to use Linux.

Check out this article I came across..he hits the nail on the head I think.

http://www.disinfo.com/site/displayarticle19463.html

>Check out this article I came across..he hits the nail on the head I think.

Hits the nail hard enough to knock a screw loose before he bolts.

Varicad might work for the architect. It looks like there's quite a bit of CAD stuff, both commercial and free. (Although I'm not qualified to judge them.)

Point taken on the very small business, especially concerning accounting apps, but I think things have improved. At least now you do actually have choices. Appgen might be a good place to start.

(I don't know about the "install and run" issue. rpms and debs seem easy enough to me, although I guess there's a learning curve with anything new.)

jrm -

I don't think Linux is that far from being able to serve small businesses. A few more web based apps -- like SugarCRM (or even Sales Force) or Cvent, etc, maybe a few QT ports of apps -- gack!! .Net things that can run on mono, who knows?

Linux itself is just fine.

I was talking about a new or Novel dog.