Where to start with open source software

Alan Lord from Libertus Solutions explains how to introduce open source software to your business without hassle

Hand holding mouseMost companies rely on computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, with Microsoft Office as their main office suite software, for tasks like word processing and spreadsheets.

These businesses might have heard that open source software can save them money, or offer other benefits, but they may be nervous about moving away from software they know.

Open source software: are you already using it?

Most companies actually already use open source software in some way. Perhaps you use one of the increasingly popular open source web browsers, like Firefox or Google Chrome.

Additionally, people in your company may indirectly use open source software when they visit websites or send emails. Approximately 70% of websites – including Google and Facebook – are built on open source software.

It’s not actually that hard to introduce open source software into your own business, but it pays to think through how you’re going to do it.

As with any IT project, problems can occur if you don't make proper plans, especially if you're moving away from software with which your staff are familiar.

The obvious open source choices might not be best

Don’t start by trying to swap workhorse desktop software like Microsoft Outlook or Office unless you’ve prepared well and are happy to invest in training. The ‘muscle memory’ of your workforce and years of experience with Windows means it can be disruptive and time consuming to replace Windows with an open source equivalent like Ubuntu, or to swap Microsoft Office for OpenOffice.org.

That’s not to say that this can’t be a longer-term goal. For instance, in 2009 the French Police force switched 85,000 of its computers to Ubuntu, saving around €2m a year in software costs. But it's a big undertaking, and not the best way to dip your toe in the open source world.

Open source for key business applications

Initially, it might be best to look at business applications you’d really like to implement, but thought were unaffordable. For instance, a customer relationship management system or project management tools.

As you might pay up to £1,000 for each user of a ‘closed source’ customer relationship system, open source software – with an equivalent cost of £0 - can be very attractive for these kinds of applications.

Besides, they often have web-based interfaces that you access through a web browser (like Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer). This means you can adopt the software without changing how individual computers are set up.

Here are some packages you can investigate:

  • For customer relationship management, try SugarCRM. It's a popular, tried and tested package and is available as a subscription service, saving you the trouble of installing it onto your own servers.
  • For managing projects, check out OpenProj. It has a similar interface to Microsoft Project, so if your staff are used to using that software, making the switch shouldn't be too painful.
  • For working with graphics and photos, the interestingly-named GIMP (it's an acronym) is very powerful. It takes a little time to master, but is ideal for photo editing, retouching, cropping and resizing.

There are thousands of open source tools available to help with all sorts of tasks. For instance, VideoLAN is a versatile video player, Audacity is a brilliant tool for editing audio files and UltraVNC lets you log in and control one computer from another - perfect for providing IT support remotely.

A good way to get a feel for the thousands of open source tools available is to browse the SourceForge website's library of software.

Ask the open source community

Open source software is built in public. This means there’s a community of people developing, supporting and using every piece of open source software. So adopting it isn’t the same as purchasing closed source software off-the-shelf.

When investigating open source options, look at the size of the community. How active are forums and discussion groups on the software’s website? If you ask questions there, do people reply promptly with answers?

Finally, consider your support options. It’s simply not true that if you adopt open source software you’ll have to cope with no support. There are successful businesses across the globe providing consultancy and support for all kinds of open source software.

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