Open source - free programs for your business [BT broadband office]

Open source - free programs for your business

Posted 8 February 2007 at 12:35PM by Alexa Williamson in Hints and tips

You've probably heard of freeware or shareware, but have you come across 'open source' software before?

For the typical SME, it has the same benefits as shareware or freeware - you can download and install the program for free. The only drawback is that there is often limited or no technical support for the application. The difference between open source software verses freeware or shareware is that you are allowed to read, redistribute or modify the original code of the application in conjunction with its open source licence.

During my Google explorations for this article, I came across two interesting sites which contain some great programs - such as database, networking and security software - for SMEs.

While Apple's Open Source site (see the Open Source project links section) caters for the Mac, SourceForge.net houses PC software.

A few of the things available:

Bonjour (Mac) - is a networking technology that lets you create an instant network of computers and devices without any configuration
Openbravo ERP - web-based ERP (enterprise resource planning) for SMEs that encompasses a broad range of functionalities including finance, project management and more
KeePass Password Safe (PC) - is an easy-to-use password manager for Windows in which you can store your passwords in a highly-encrypted database

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Comments

1. At February 9, 2007 1:51 PM, Jamie Wallace wrote:

Try the following open-source software packages - all free and debatably better than some existing leading brands...

www.openoffice.org (Similar to MS Office suite)
www.mozilla.org (safer web browsing and Email application)

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