Well, the functions that the software is supposed to cover are not that special. What is special is that different laws in different countries make it impossible to "write once, use anywhere". What I'm talking about is payroll and other financial software.
Much of the functionality in such software is determined by each country and states' different laws for labour and tax (and most likely other stuff as well. Finance and such is not my strongest side ;) ). Since this software much conform to laws and rule it is very hard to make OSS software for this. The ever changing laws make this type of software an ever moving target. Also, errors in the software might cause substantial financial loss to the organisation using it. To make such software one must know financial laws, as well as being a decent hacker.
I see two ways to solve this issue. The first is to have this kind of software delivered over the internet running in a browser. What one must avoid in such circumstance is to avoid any tie ins to OS or browser.
The other is for companies that make a living from FLOSS to chip in to a "financial software fund". It should be possible for these companies to "eat their own dog food" by setting up and running such a fund. Where the financial software is then "given away" under the GPL (or similar licence). Also, it would be wise for any government to rule that their own software for financial tasks, must be developed the same way. Thus saving some taxpayer, and industry, money.
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Microsoft Exchange and stuff
Entering a small or midsize company here in Norway you will most likely find an Microsoft Exchange server. Now, this is giving FLOSS a challenge. Several challenges actually. The two challenges one will meet first is finding a FLOSS client to connect to the Exchange server. (Paying for closed source plug-ins is not an option! It would just defeat the purpose of using FLOSS.) And secondly the removal of public folders in Exchange 2007. (It is not really removed, but it is hidden to discourage using it).
How is the removal of Public Folders have anything at all to do with FLOSS you might ask. well, it has very much to do with Microsoft pushing SharePoint. SharePoint is Microsoft way of trapping it's customers even tighter into the Microsoft world of document formats, document creation and editing plus document handling and publishing. In other words, SharePoint makes it even harder to break free from the Microsoft lock-in. When Microsoft Exchange is introduced into organisations today the organisations are told that Public Folders are disappearing. Then the sales representative from some Microsoft partner company tell them that the organisations must go the SharePoint way to keep and expand the PublicFolders functionality. (That there are a lot of half truths in what the sales representatives are saying is apparently not important...)
So, what can one to to conquer this using FLOSS? Does there exist systems that will behave transparent for the users giving them the PublicFolders, SharePoint functionality (I'm not claiming the Microsoft technology to be superior in any way, just that it needs to be replaced). If such software exist, and this software performs better than the Microsoft way, please tell me. I would market it where ever I can.
How is the removal of Public Folders have anything at all to do with FLOSS you might ask. well, it has very much to do with Microsoft pushing SharePoint. SharePoint is Microsoft way of trapping it's customers even tighter into the Microsoft world of document formats, document creation and editing plus document handling and publishing. In other words, SharePoint makes it even harder to break free from the Microsoft lock-in. When Microsoft Exchange is introduced into organisations today the organisations are told that Public Folders are disappearing. Then the sales representative from some Microsoft partner company tell them that the organisations must go the SharePoint way to keep and expand the PublicFolders functionality. (That there are a lot of half truths in what the sales representatives are saying is apparently not important...)
So, what can one to to conquer this using FLOSS? Does there exist systems that will behave transparent for the users giving them the PublicFolders, SharePoint functionality (I'm not claiming the Microsoft technology to be superior in any way, just that it needs to be replaced). If such software exist, and this software performs better than the Microsoft way, please tell me. I would market it where ever I can.
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
ActiveDirectory for Linux
We need SAMBA4 now! Why? Because we need to erode Microsoft's stronghold on the desktop.
You might wonder how AD is the key to loosen Microsoft's grip on the desktop. Let me try to explaine.
In my day job I make money by supporting Microsoft environments. From small "one server does it all" shops 'till huge server farms for multinational mega corporations. And let us just face it, Microsoft products are at the core of all these operations. So how ever much one might dislike Microsoft and the proprietary world Microsoft represent, we must realise one thing; You cannot avoid or ignore Microsoft. Where ever you look around Microsoft is the core of the IT systems. To conquer the desktop one must eat in to this already existing Active Directory.
What you cannot do today is to bring your stable virus free Linux laptop and just plug it in to the corporate network. Why? Well... It's a lot of hassle to get to the Microsoft file servers. To become a member of the AD you need to fiddle around a lot. Also the mapping of drives and folders is not an easy task. Things like off line folders does not work, and the GPO settings are ignored. (Remember that 95% of all users do NOT want to fiddle around in their OS). In other words, we need to adapt to the environment already in place. We need to embrace and extend the Microsoft Active Directory stronghold.
My dream is an Active Directory drop in replacement. I dream of installing, let's say an Ubuntu server, with an out of the box working Active Directory. Where all the XP, Vista and Microsoft Windows 7 think they are talking to a Microsoft Windows 2008 server. Also this server needs to support our beloved Linux laptops and desktops. It needs to work in such way that both Microsoft enabled and Linux enabled laptops can use "remote folders". It also need to work in such way that the Linux machines get their functionality extended with Active Directory integration, without crippling all the nice *NIX stuff.
I'm a bit puzzled to find that absolutely no Linux distribution is going down this track. The world have the opportunity of a lifetime to get a lot of 100% FLOSS desktops deployed at the expense of existing Microsoft desktops. And no one is even remotely trying. Why is this so?
You might wonder how AD is the key to loosen Microsoft's grip on the desktop. Let me try to explaine.
In my day job I make money by supporting Microsoft environments. From small "one server does it all" shops 'till huge server farms for multinational mega corporations. And let us just face it, Microsoft products are at the core of all these operations. So how ever much one might dislike Microsoft and the proprietary world Microsoft represent, we must realise one thing; You cannot avoid or ignore Microsoft. Where ever you look around Microsoft is the core of the IT systems. To conquer the desktop one must eat in to this already existing Active Directory.
What you cannot do today is to bring your stable virus free Linux laptop and just plug it in to the corporate network. Why? Well... It's a lot of hassle to get to the Microsoft file servers. To become a member of the AD you need to fiddle around a lot. Also the mapping of drives and folders is not an easy task. Things like off line folders does not work, and the GPO settings are ignored. (Remember that 95% of all users do NOT want to fiddle around in their OS). In other words, we need to adapt to the environment already in place. We need to embrace and extend the Microsoft Active Directory stronghold.
My dream is an Active Directory drop in replacement. I dream of installing, let's say an Ubuntu server, with an out of the box working Active Directory. Where all the XP, Vista and Microsoft Windows 7 think they are talking to a Microsoft Windows 2008 server. Also this server needs to support our beloved Linux laptops and desktops. It needs to work in such way that both Microsoft enabled and Linux enabled laptops can use "remote folders". It also need to work in such way that the Linux machines get their functionality extended with Active Directory integration, without crippling all the nice *NIX stuff.
I'm a bit puzzled to find that absolutely no Linux distribution is going down this track. The world have the opportunity of a lifetime to get a lot of 100% FLOSS desktops deployed at the expense of existing Microsoft desktops. And no one is even remotely trying. Why is this so?
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