Open Source Business Systems
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I figured here's the best place to list and discuss the many Open Source Business Systems that can and likely should (need) to be implemented for SMB's who are looking to cut cost everywhere.
Either they are starting out, or are simply wanting to dump Microsoft's licensing model for Open Source Alternatives. This list may not include everything you've used. It may even have software on it that you'd never want to implement.
Lets discuss the options though.
- First off would be business systems, domain functionality, Email & Calendar, Spam Filtering, FireWall.
To fill the above, I'd recommend Zentyal. It's an all inclusive Open Source Distro that is easily configured. It's installable to baremetal (not recommended) or as a VM (highly recommended) comes with HA support (dual Domain Controller VM's on separate host) and pretty much every bell and whistle you could need.
If you need an even more robust firewall solution, pFSense is definitely the way to go.
If you'd like to add more content filtering and Spam filtering DansGuardian and SpamAssassin are great choices as well.
- The second item I would implement is a ticketing solution to track jobs, create invoices, billing and payroll systems.
OTRS for tickets is an open source alternative similar to SW, maybe not the best for client projects. But it's definitely a contender.
SimpleInvoices or BambooInvoice are both great options for creating business professional invoices.
For payroll, I'd look at PayMaster from Treshna, add employees, their hourly rate etc etc. It's not web-based though from what I've seen.
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For Email... I can't recommend Zimbra enough. Probably has one of the best email interfaces I've ever encountered.
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A great option for Invoicing, accepting credit card payments (small fee per transaction) tracking expenses and also able to do payroll (small fee per transaction). Is WAVE all web based.
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@coliver said:
For Email... I can't recommend Zimbra enough. Probably has one of the best email interfaces I've ever encountered.
For those looking around for Zimbra there are two versions a paid solution and an open source one.
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@DustinB3403 said:
@coliver said:
For Email... I can't recommend Zimbra enough. Probably has one of the best email interfaces I've ever encountered.
For those looking around for Zimbra there are two versions a paid solution and an open source one.
The paid solution used to only give you activesync and Outlook integration. Not sure if they added more to it now.
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@Minion-Queen said:
A great option for Invoicing, accepting credit card payments (small fee per transaction) tracking expenses and also able to do payroll (small fee per transaction). Is WAVE all web based.
And for those looking into WAVE.
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@Minion-Queen said:
A great option for Invoicing, accepting credit card payments (small fee per transaction) tracking expenses and also able to do payroll (small fee per transaction). Is WAVE all web based.
I don't think that's Open Source though.
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It is not listed as open source however for a full accounting system it is as close as it gets. And if you reach out to the development team they will work with you to build in new options, in my experience.
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ERPNext is a decent open source ERP system.
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@johnhooks said:
ERPNext is a decent open source ERP system.
For those looking at ERPNext Open Source. Oddly it says you'll need VirtualBox to run the OVA. Which just isn't true.
Testing an import of this into Xen in about 30 minutes.
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I'm an idiot.
Of course there's XenServer for open source virtualization. NAUBackup for Full Image backup systems and Xen Patcher for scripted updating of your XenServer Hosts.
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@DustinB3403 said:
@johnhooks said:
ERPNext is a decent open source ERP system.
For those looking at ERPNext Open Source. Oddly it says you'll need VirtualBox to run the OVA. Which just isn't true.
Testing an import of this into Xen in about 30 minutes.
So importing the OVA into XenServer is incredibly simple.
Just like importing a backup of any other system you've virtualized.
it's very simple to do.
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@coliver said:
For Email... I can't recommend Zimbra enough. Probably has one of the best email interfaces I've ever encountered.
Zimbra guy here, too. Years of experience on that. Great platform.
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@Jason said:
@Minion-Queen said:
A great option for Invoicing, accepting credit card payments (small fee per transaction) tracking expenses and also able to do payroll (small fee per transaction). Is WAVE all web based.
I don't think that's Open Source though.
It's not. It's just hosted.
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Is Zimbra worth even looking at any more with options like RackSpace having email for $1/$2 a user?
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@DustinB3403 said:
I'm an idiot.
Of course there's XenServer for open source virtualization. NAUBackup for Full Image backup systems and Xen Patcher for scripted updating of your XenServer Hosts.
And KVM as well, but I generally prefer XenServer still.
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And I'm up and running with Erpnext on XenServer as a VM in under 30 minutes of "work" (actually looking at the screen)
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@Dashrender said:
Is Zimbra worth even looking at any more with options like RackSpace having email for $1/$2 a user?
In those rare cases where on premises email is needed. Which can be political, lack of WAN, etc. But it would be extremely rare. Mostly only cases where email can be acceptably offline lots of the time.
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@DustinB3403 said:
And I'm up and running with Erpnext on XenServer as a VM in under 30 minutes of "work" (actually looking at the screen)
Maybe a full thread on you reviewing that would be good? I've not used it, would love to see a run down on what it can do.
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Linux Mint is an awesome desktop option but far from the only one.
PC-BSD is excellent too.
