Lowering Small Business costs with Open Source

I have always agreed with those that say that 'there's no such thing as a free lunch', especially in the business environment. But using Open Source applications to lower your small businesses operating costs, is as close as 'free' gets. In the last decade we have witnessed the evolution of the Open Source movement. What started as an elite group of idealist programmers has become a global movement and today is a force to be reckoned with. When small businesses select their software infrastructure they often look for hassle free integration with their hardware, compatibility, intuitive interfaces and continued support. In the past this requirements have been the weakness of Open Source developments; but not anymore. Today we have a slew of software that have nothing to envy the big ticket 'closed system' programs.

The change from licensed software to the open source alternatives has been somewhat slow in the small business community and although it may not be for everyone to make the leap, I believe any possible reduction in costs is worth exploring. For starters we may want to turn to the Linux environment to replace our operating system. Ubuntu is a very solid alternative to XP and Vista. Open Office does an outstanding job at replacing MS Office, and GoogleDocs is also worth looking at. For those looking to substitute Quickbooks or similar accounting programs, SQL-Ledger ERP is a double entry accounting/ERP system that satisfies most of the needs of any small and even some medium sized businesses. Bigger businesses may want to take a look at Compiere, a very complete Open Source ERP and CRM solution that is truly first class.
If you own your own business server and haven't heard or tried LAMP yet, you may be missing out. LAMP is not a single application, but a group of technologies (Linux+Apache+MySql+Php)that run your server.
The previous are just some of the alternatives that I suggest every small business owner should pay close attention to. There are innumerable Open Source applications for your business and even the most specialized segments would be pleasantly surprised to find an Open Source solution for their needs. It is just a matter of finding the right 'free' product, so go ahead and do your own research.