Try Using Linux for Small Business

There's no good reason that Linux for small business can't work. I've seen it happen over and over. Small businesses just up and quit Windows, and they do fine.

I’m a little shocked at how few small business owners don’t know about Linux. That or they believe the propaganda put forth by software companies that stand to lose if people make the switch. Linux for small business is a viable alternative to Windows. This is especially true now that many software companies are making their applications web, and in particular browser, based. If something can run in the browser of an Android tablet or a phone, it can probably run on a Linux box. And if you’re interested in dipping your toes, have a gander at Switch to Linux at your small business. 

Companies that make proprietary software don’t seem to be leaning toward these multiplatform solutions. To me that puts them in the “Not An Option” category. If I were a small business owner, and I were going to be forking out money for software and support, you can bet your buttocks I’d want the option of running it on whatever (within reason — I’m not going to dig out my commodore 64 or ADAM) platform I find handy. This certainly includes Linux on a pc or laptop. There is no good reason I can think of why a company can’t port their software to different platforms. If they’d write apps Java, there might not be a need for different versions to begin with!

Today I was dorking around with Openbravo (something that took all of ten minutes to install on a Linux box) and ran it ON MY PHONE!  I fired up a browser, typed in the server’s address, and BAM.  If a small business were using something like Apache OFBiz, they could be quoting prices, taking inventory, paying vendors, and who knows what else while running around with nothing more than a smart phone.  I’m guessing you can’t do that with Quickbooks or MS Dynamics.

So ditching Windows and using Linux for small business isn’t about just changing the operating system on your office computers. You’ve got to find alternative apps if there aren’t Linux friendly versions of what you use now. That, or you can try talking your software company into making a Linux friendly version. You might also suggest that you are looking for alternatives in case you don’t get any help from them…