smartBIZ Powerstation Computer by openSYNTHESIS

 Comparison of Select Proprietary and Open Source-based Business Application Software

1. Office Productivity

The proprietary approach: A newly, unwrapped box of Microsoft Office 2010 Professional that is geared at small businesses, is priced at $499 MSRP. A slightly cheaper version of Microsoft Office Home and Business (minus Publisher and Access) is priced at $279 for the box version. Depending on the number of employees you have or if you are upgrading from an older version, the financial impact may be significant.

The open source alternative: OpenOffice 3 is a fully-functional and integrated office productivity suite that is a capable alternative to Microsoft Office. The OpenOffice suite offers applications for word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, database, graphics/drawing and plugins to extend functionalities. OpenOffice is supported on various operating system platforms (Linux, Mac and Windows) and wide range of languages. OpenOffice is compatible with Microsoft Office file formats, which means it can open and save documents in the .doc/.docx or .xls/.xlsx. Best of all, OpenOffice saves documents in an international open standard format such as OpenDocument Format (ODF) that enables the documents to be opened by other compatible applications in the future.

2. Accounting

The proprietary approach: QuickBooks 2010 is widely used accounting package for small business. An online version which is simpler with less applications and services became available recently as well. QuickBooks Pro for the desktop costs $159.95 (reduced from the original $199.95 MSRP) and the QuickBooks Online Plus version costs $34.95 per month ($419.40/year)

The open source alternative: GnuCash is a financial accounting application that is geared at small business and individuals as well. It enable small business to track bank accounts, expenses and incomes. It offers double-entry accounting, invoicing, and more. GnuCash is supported on various platforms (Linux, Mac and Windows). It also facilitates the import of files from Quicken and MS Money.

3. Graphics & Drawing

The proprietary approach: Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium, includes Photoshop CS5 ($699 MSRP if bought separately) that is widely used by professional graphics designers in enterprises that can afford to shell out $1,899 MSRP per user license. Unless you are certified for this application and your livelihood depends on you working on Photoshop every minute of your work time, there is very little incentive for a small business to fork out so much money for a software program.

The open source alternative: Gimp is an open source alternative to most of Photoshop and some of the other components of the Adobe Creative Suite with similar user interface. Gimp provides image composition, image authoring, photo retouch/touchup, and more. Gimp is available for various operating system platforms (Linux, Mac and Windows). It is perfect for small businesses that want to create web graphics, retouch photos, or create marketing collateral.