What distro to run a business
 

This question might be a really hard one but I'll ask anyway.

What would be the most suitable distribution ( In your opinion) to run for a business like an Art Studio?

Do clarify: what services and applications are specific to running an Art studio?

Applications that will assist me with the printing out of receipts for customers and clients. Also applications that will help me to keep track of the business import/export; accounts that pertain to assets and liabilities as well.


Services are those that are in regard to what I would be commissioned to fabricate and produce a finished painting ; hours spent standing for services rendered. Stretching and building the cotton duck canvas onto the prefabricated pine bars as well.
Providing clients with original sketches, blueprints...etc.

The cost of ( a carrier) for deliveries made locally and internationally.

Sorry so lengthy-

Not at all: the more information the better. Generally speaking the answer would be "any current, maintained and supported (mainstream?) (Enterprise?) Linux distribution would do" except that some applications may run better (more recent versions may introduce bugs but may also fix bugs and introduce new features) on some distributions. If you want to delve into this deeper then I suggest your next step would be to find the most suitable software package for each application and service you listed and check if it is current, maintained and supported (bug tracker, mailing list, forum, vendor support, etc, etc) and what platform or Linux distribution it was developed on (wrt dependencies like system and application library versions). This should give you a matrix of applications and distribution choices to which you can apply any formal business criteria ("must have, could have"), likes ("Ubuntu: no, RHEL: no") or whatever else you come up with. IMHO such an approach, doing research and making informed decisions based on research, is rewarding, cost-effective and efficient. *That doesn't mean we're not here to look over your shoulder to see if we can comment on and improve your decisions but with your research results at hand that'll be way more efficient.

Advise taken; I'm (theoretically speaking) rolling up my sleeves and initiating research- Thank You
Efficiency is essential....I agree

Just to try to make your thinking more clear - you can print from any distribution than I can think of, the real question is how the receipt gets created.

Do you want, for example, some system where there is integration with, eg, a time tracking system, a bill of materials system, could you do something with a simple spreadsheet without the integration (eg, enter a number of hours in one cell, an amount for materials in another cell and have the outcome be a professional looking receipt) or even just make up a number have have nice receipt for that number (with or without whatever tax implications are implied by that). You may even have standard parts, or parts that you charge by area (the frames, for instance) and which you want to be able to include in some pre-set way.

Which way you go on those makes a night and day difference to the difficulty of system implementation.

Most of these things can be done with a spreadsheet (which could run on all sorts of systems, including ones that are not Linux) but that may present you with maintenance problems that you wouldn't have if you used a real database for some of the source costs...or, you might find that the sophistication that this implies is unnecessary for a business of your nature.

In some cases, with a system that doesn't deal with 'volume' manufacture, a very simple system might be your best thing, because the increased accuracy of a more sophisticated system can never pay back the increased cost of creating it. For a high volume manufacturer, getting the cost right to quite a high degree of accuracy is fundamental to whether you can stay in business, and so you just have to do it.

For a distro, you want something that is reliable, doesn't change too often, and has plenty of helpful users (or commercial support). For commercial support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux or SUSE Enterprise Linux. For a free system, CentOS.

There's plenty of software available. A quick search for "Linux accounting software" came up with suppliers like Open Systems Inc in the USA and CGram in Britain.

Your advise for a distro that is reliable is noted. I will look into Red Hat....Thank You
On the other hand:
Simple spreedsheet's might work however; I would not want to have increased costs to my business ( a new business ) unless there is no other way but to have a sophisticated system.

I'll continue to research to make the most sound decisions

All have given me great advise and made me more aware of things that could potentially be an issue if I'm not wise in the decision/research areas. I will be less quick to jump and err more on the side of caution to the new process I am building.

Prior preparation that I practice now will prove good so that future performance will mirror success.

Wise counsel has prompted me to think more critically; Thank You

On the subject of accounts, for a small business the free Gnucash might serve. I use it for my own four bank accounts and I know it can handle things like invoicing, payroll and tax:
http://svn.gnucash.org/docs/guide/index.html

"best" depends on just WHAT you are going to be doing
and the type of tech support
and so on....

Debian stable in the deb group

RHEL6 in the rpm NOT FREE ( one desktop $299 PER year - server -you might need up to 3 grand per year )
with 24/7 tech support
CentOS6 (in the rpm group)- free rebuild of RHEL -- YOU are the tech support
ScientificLinux 6 (in the rpm group)- free rebuild of RHEL -- YOU are the tech support

open-erp is a program that handles this type of business stuff. any lamp server can run it.

I'm glad that Gnucash works with multiple currencies.Thank You

I will look more into this program....Thank You