Open-source software for the small business

Posted by Doug on December 29, 2008

When you’re setting up a business of your own at home, it’s easy to overlook the cost of software–it can add up fast.  In some cases, you simply can’t get around the fact that you have to buy a copy of Photoshop or Final Cut Studio or ProTools (or whatever).  But there may be other applications you need for which you can substitute open-source alternatives and save a bundle of money.

Cost-saving example

Here’s an example of what we’re talking about:  suppose your bread-and-butter application, the one that you use most of the time, the one that you’re an expert on, is Photoshop.  You’re definitely going to buy Photoshop.  You also occasionally do some word-processing, maybe a spreadsheet now and then, and on rare occasions, you need to make presentations–that sounds like a job for Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint).  In addition, you need a way to manage your business finances, so you could use Quickbooks, or MYOB, or Quicken or something similar.  Occasionally you get work that requires you to manage a larger project, so from time to time you need something like Microsoft Project.  So you could be looking at costs similar to these:

Photoshop           $600.00
Microsoft Office    $300.00
QuickBooks          $160.00
Microsoft Project   $450.00

Total:            $1,510.00

Depending on what sort of computer you have, you might be looking at more cost for the software than you spent on your machine!  Now consider the same list with some open-source alternatives for MS-Office, QuickBooks and MS-Project:

Photoshop           $600.00
OpenOffice                0
GnuCash                   0
OpenProj                  0

Total:              $600.00

By substituting open source alternatives for the software that isn’t your main business tool, you’ve saved more than half of the potential cost, and that’s money that you can probably put into buying some great plug-ins or other add-ons for Photoshop, or maybe a new graphics tablet.

osalt.com–finding open-source alternatives

There is a LOT of free, open-source software out there.  Some of it is great, some not so great.  You can search the repositories like SourceForge.net and Freshmeat.net, but there a lot to wade through.  One of the best places I’ve found to search for open-source software is osalt.com.  At osalt.com you’ll find a directory of open-source alternative software, organized into categories such as business, graphic applications, multimedia and audio, and much more.  You can search for a commercial package, and if there are open-source alternatives for that package in osalt’s database, you’ll see a list.  Each entry provides you with a basic description of the package and its features, shows where to download it, and points to the application’s Web site.

OpenOffice, GnuCash, OpenProj

In the example above, I found all three of the open-source packages listed at osalt.com.  OpenOffice is a great alternative to MS-Office, and comes with a whole suite of applications, including Writer (for word-processing), Calc (for spreadsheets), Impress (for presentations), Draw (for drawing and graphing), Math (an equation and formula editor), and Base (a database tool that also builds forms and reports). Runs on Windows, MacOSX and Linux.

GnuCash is open-source personal and small-business financial and accounting software.  It will help you manage your income and expenses in all your accounts; keep track of customers, vendors, and projects; help you with invoicing, AR/AP, and even communicate with your bank (if the bank supports the OFX DirectConnect and HBCI standards).  GnuCash can import data from Microsoft Money and Quicken, as well. And it is available for Windows, MacOSX and Linux.

OpenProj is intended to be an alternative to MS-Project. It can import MS-Project project files, and does pretty much all of what you might expect–Gantt charts, network diagrams (PERT charts), and more.  Available for Windows, MacOSX and Linux.

Open-source caveats

Yes, I know some people will warn you to stay away from open-source software on the general premise that you get what you pay for.  There is some truth to this, to be sure.  Some open-source software is not well-supported, but I would argue that the communities that are involved with the development of the packages that have been out there for a long time, such as OpenOffice and Gimp (a Photoshop alternative), are very helpful and supportive.  This is true of all of the most popular open-source packages.  You might have to spend a little time in support forums asking questions in order to get the help you need, but the difference in price between MS-Office and OpenOffice more than makes up for that.

Not all open-source software is as mature and stable as OpenOffice, so you will occasionally run into trouble.  But if you stick with the packages that have been out there for a while, and around which there are well-developed support communities, chances are you’ll do just fine.

Some people like to remind us that “open-source” doesn’t necessarily mean “free”–while this may be true in some contexts, particularly where additional development is necessary, for the average user of open-source applications, “free” really does mean “free.”  If, at some point down the road, you decide that you really need the commercial software (and you might), you’ve at least saved some money for a while by getting by with something that was free as long as you could.

(If this has been helpful to you, Diggs and Stumbles are always much appreciated!)

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