Run your business on FOSS

Russell SearlePrincipal Consultant, Psicom

Melbourne Joomla! User Group27 March 2013

Maroondah Business Association7 May 2014

FOSS applications

• FOSS = Free Open Source Software• A free open source business app:

• Publicly offers at least one free edition or version• Publicly offers full source code for at least the free

edition• Is licensed under an Open Source Initiative license

• Established, reliable, powerful solutions• Well supported by very large global developer and user communities

Free?• Free as in beer

• Gratis [Lat] = free of charge, zero price• Many FOSS apps are free of charge, but not all

• Free as in speech• Libre [Lat] = liberty, few or no restrictions on use• Open Source licencing guarantees open access to source• Open access to source = you control it, change whatever you want

• Free ≠ cheap and nasty• FOSS apps compete with proprietary licenced apps• FOSS apps have largest market share in many segments• Proprietary apps often use FOSS code and components

Web hosting package• Web administrator control panel

• cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, Ajenti etc.

• LAMP• Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP / Perl / Python

• LAMP apps are FOSS by default

• Groups of tools:• Email management• File management• Domain management• Security control• Administration• Package installers

Web hosting package installers

• Commonly provided with most web hosting plans:• Fantastico• Softaculous• Installatron

• Run from web hosting control panel (cPanel etc)• Package installers provide:

• Rapid install, uninstall and version updates• Demos• Descriptions and links to product home site• Ratings and reviews

Softaculous applications

• Blogs• Micro blogs• Portals/CMS• E-Commerce• ERP• Education• Forums• Image galleries• Wikis• Social networks• Ad management• Calendars

• Games• Mail• Polls/surveys• Project management• Guest books• Customer service• Music• Video• RSS• File managers• Other• Frameworks

Softaculous demo

A few examples• Content Management Systems (CMS)

• WordPress powers 22% of all web domains (by some counts)• Joomla! runs 3.1% of all sites, Drupal runs 1.9% of all sites

• e-Commerce / Shopping carts• Magento, VirtueMart, OpenCart, many others

• Customer Relationship Management systems (CRM)• SaaS (subscription model) and proprietary vendors dominate• Worthy FOSS contenders: Sugar, CiviCRM, X2CRM, Zurmo,

vTiger

• Business systems (ERP)• Proprietary vendors dominate by inertia and default• Many worthy FOSS contenders: OpenERP, OFBiz, WebERP,

FrontAccounting, allocPSA etc

Real online FOSS businesses• Blogs / e-books / vlogs / podcasts

• Direct and/or indirect income

• e-Commerce / online shops• Directories• Social media / communities / membership• Auctions / trading• Job boards• News / media / digital distribution / internet radio• e-learning• Gaming / hobbies• Specialty publishing / art galleries

Q&A