[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Open Your Business to Open-Source Apps here

[Yert]

Businesses might go for free, but generally they will go for the better program because they have the money anyways.

I believe that most of these programs, while powerful, are very difficult to use compared to their less open source brethern. This I know from experiance. For example, Open Office is slower on some functions compared to Microsoft Office, but on the other hand, it is free. For businesses this means they might choose MS Office, but users at home who need their money more then all the features (Office apps are, in the opinion of alot of people, bloated) that MS office may provide will choose the one that is easier to obtain and use.

Additionally home users might pirate. I hope not, because if they want MS Office to price drop, they should use something else all together. Competition is good for the market.

[mrlee]

I was hoping to see an alternative to Microsoft Access or a more user friendly database program. I know that Open Office has one, but it is not very user friendly. Is there something similar to FileMaker that is open source or freeware?

[dragon69]

open office uses less resources than Microsoft office and it is free but it's bigger brother star office ( last time i checked it was 40 or 50 bucks for 5 licenses )
i have used open office on many different computers in the past and it works great and even though i have a boxed set of Microsoft office it remains in the closet unused ( i think it was like 279 bucks for it and i thought i needed it but tried open office instead and never installed it ( it is the version that was offered 2 years ago and that is when i bought it and lost the receipt

star office does have a data base function but i have not tried it


good luck and take care