Easy, Cheap and Legal

By On April 25, 2008 · 4 Comments

It’s easy to get, you won’t be busted for it, and it’s pretty to look at. It’s the all open-source office.

This week we hit another milestone here at RightSite as we began the transition to the all open-source, no Microsoft office. Now, if you are not interested in technology, this might not be very interesting post. But if you are running your own business, you should be interested in technology, because it can cost you a lot of cash, and by using open-source solutions, you can save a lot of cash. Money that you could spend on more salespeople. Or beer.

The big switch occurred when we set up one of our new intern workstations with a Linux-only operating system, Ubuntu. No Windows, no MS Office, no Outlook, and no bootleg CDs or bit-torrented versions of anything. Ubuntu is an open-source desktop operating system that can take the place of Windows on your computer.

We have long been using open-source at the server level, running our fileservers on FreeBSD, a version of Unix. But that was something that only our tech folks had to open up and look at, or, in worse case scenario, I had to try to mess with.

What we did this week was present an untrained user with an operating system they had never seen before, and say, “this is your workstation!” And it worked. (After a bit of whining).

For setup, Ubuntu was actually easier than Windows. Now, rather than put in disk after disk to install Windows, then MSOffice, and maybe a mail client or a few utilities (like an anti-virus, maybe). We just pop in one disk and everything is installed. (“Start –>Agree–>Next–>Finish). Or something like that. So no more paying for upgrades. No more viruses or spyware. No more paying for software at all.

Another advantage of Ubuntu, or any Linux system, is that it requires significantly less substantial system resources than Windows. So we will not be buying more powerful machines just to run Vista.

Here’s a short list of the open-source apps that we are now using at RightSite that you might want to check out:

  • OpenOffice — text editing, spreadsheets, presentations and more
  • SugarCRM — customer relationship management
  • Firefox — web browser
  • Thunderbird — email client
  • Ubuntu — desktop operating system (version 8.04 just released)
  • FreeBSD — server operating system
  • SCIM — complex character (Chinese, Japanese, and more) input system

And next month we will start trying out OpenBravo, an open-source ERP system. (ERP is enterprise resource planning and integrates many CRM, finance and production tracking functions).

So with our open-source office set up, we can manage all of our business functions without having to spend on software or have a degree in electrical engineering.

Now that’s sexy.

Related posts:

  1. Google Smartens Up — Starts Copying RightSite
  2. Setting Up an Intranet with Open Atrium
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4 Responses to Easy, Cheap and Legal

  1. scg says:
    April 28, 2008 at 6:29 pm

    All good stuff and I warrant just as applicable to my own esteemed employer’s 12 person office. Let us know how it goes in terms of user friendliness and feedback highs and lows.

  2. Jen Bongar says:
    December 1, 2008 at 12:35 pm

    I’m a fan of open source-apps and I’m particularly interested with SugarCRM. How’s the Internet connection like in Shanghai? My colleagues in China say that their connection is slow so they are not keen on using SugarCRM. In Beijing, they tried different ISPs, but the speed is the same.

    The server is located in Hong Kong. Offices in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan don’t have the same trouble using SugarCRM. What could be the issue with Beijing and Shanghai?

    Your feedback is much appreciated.

  3. Ming says:
    December 1, 2008 at 1:24 pm

    Hi Jen,

    I think your issue is not so much with SugarCRM as it is with spreading an app like a CRM across the Great Firewall of China. Any kind of latency or slow response in a CRM that you use on a constant basis is going to be annoying, and I would fully expect account staff to kick and scream about having to use the CRM if it is pokey. And if you are hosting the app outside of China and sharing it with them in China, then latency will be a problem.

    Let me guess at your goals:

    * Want everyone to use the same CRM system
    * Want everyone to be able to share data across cities
    * Don’t want to spend a fortune on development

    I am not a real tech guy, but I would expect that you might consider setting up duplicate local installations of SugarCRM in each of your China offices, or a single China-hosted version of SugarCRM for both of your China offices to share. While this system would be separate from your outside of China system, you could set up a daily refresh that would share data from the Parent system (outside China) to the subsidiary system (inside China). The only problem would be sorting out which is the most accurate data if two people update the same data on the same day with different information from two different locations. But I expect you might sort this out by assigning an “owner” to each record.

    If you need help getting Sugar set up in China, let me know, and I can introduce you to one of my former staff who set up my SugarCRM system at RightSite.

  4. Google Catching Up with RightSite in the Workstation Platform Biz | Mingtiandi says:
    June 1, 2010 at 7:15 pm

    [...] software (FOSS) we applaud this move. But we also have to wonder what took them so long.  Virtually since day one at RightSite we have been using Ubuntu Linux workstations, and there is very little that would make [...]

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