http://www.theage.com.au/news/breaki...538959905.html

This short article talks about a study of linux in the Australian business world. "(The study) aims to provide a snapshot of Linux usage in Australian business in 2004."

Contrary to popular belief, cost is a factor when it comes to making a descision for linux. In fact, the businesses surveyed said they would use Windows more if it had a more friendly lisence agreement or cost less.

Companies have found that developing a stuff for linux saves them a lot of time and effort- and with more and more linux-skilled IT workers coming into the market, a switch has never been easier.

This is a positive linux story that doesn't take too long to read.

anyway.

And when this company

http://www.accpac.com/products/finan...ccpaclinux.asp

gets around to releasing this product in Australia
( I searched everywhere - but windows versions only in Oz )
then I would suspect that the rate of change would increase
very rapidly

The heart of any reasonable sized business is its accounting and management systems, and the windows version is already well known in Oz

floppy

Yep, the lack of decent accounting software that can be customized for Australian conditions, is the biggest barrier to small business adopting Linux.

Linux is now easier to install, more stable and with a more feature packed desktop. Most business functions can be accomodated in Linux, but the ball has really been dropped in the area of accounting and management reporting (eg. ERP). I suspect that the reason for this is that most players in this field want to commercialize their product and extract money from business, and therefore misses out on the skills available in OSS to fast track good software.

osCommerce is an example of a piece of business software that has benefitted from OSS being fully customizeable, and easy to localize to any region's business requirements. Now some accounting software with a similar feature set, but designed to run on a local machine is what is needed. I know there are a handful of packages in this space (sql-ledger, gnucash, etc) but none are easy to customize for local requirements.

Hi Frands you have to now osCommerce in commputers avery thing is posipole
and it the saime in food
A) Obrayen i now you drink aloot off vb can's
vb is not "victoria biter"
B) Glan Opra From bondi now sarfing in opra it is is winwin sitwiason
Linux is not so big thing wan you are not gating payd same in windows and lindows

roiuuu - please reread your post before you hit submit. Simply mashing the keyboatd does not produce useful posts.