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Unix Operating Systems Software

Ask Slashdot: Business Software for Linux? 202

Posted by Cliff from the new-ventures dept.
Delta asks: "I am currently looking into starting a company of my own and need a whole new area of software, to mange contacts, run billing systems, so I need software like SuperOffice and Point-of-Sale systems, but I want to run Unix! Can anyone recommend such software? And perhaps a good schedule prog? It's pretty obvious that I would need stability, I cannot have the system go belly up, as any bussiness would soon follow in such a case. Another advantage would be the ability to use the databases through a web interface, or being able to carry local copies on laptops and so on. All software under this topic is of huge intrest." Can Linux be used for those generic purposes in a sales-oriented business (read: Linux as cash-register?)
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Ask Slashdot: Business Software for Linux? More

Ask Slashdot: Business Software for Linux?

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  • write it yourself (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Take the Adabas database, talk to it with PHP, and use a web browser for the UI.

    I took an old Paradox for DOS database that had 25,000 lines of code, wiped out 3/4 of that because a web database doesn't really need any user interface coding, and had a much better app to boot.

    This is a quick and reliable way to go. Trust me on this.

  • wrong question (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    the operating system is there to support the applications... first find the applications you want, then picked the operating system on which those applications run. by picking the os first, you are putting the cart in front of the horse.

  • Applix a terrific product (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    There has long been a need for a suite less complex than Office, but more capable than Works.

    Applix fills this niche perfectly. MY PHB uses Applix every day, at my behest, because "I don't need Office, much too complicated.

    He has a dozen different mailing groups for his Board of Directors, it handles our capital campaign very nicely. The spreadsheet really excels (pun intended) at budgeting, the multi page/consolidation features are really well implemented.

    Just my opinion, but then again, I'm not a sweaty-handed college student.

  • No. Corel bought only Paradox for Windows. In their own words, this did NOT include Paradox for DOS. They are two entirely different products. It's unfortunate they have similar names. The official name includes the OS.

    That said, I'd like to point out that Pdox DOS uses relational calculus for its queries. The version of relational calculus that you are familiar with, SQL, is tuple (record) oriented. Pdox DOS uses the field-oriented relational calculus, Query by Example. I know both. Know one, know the other. QBE is a natural in the Linux market.

    PdoxDOS is barely 500k of C code, screamingly fast and dead reliable. Rewrite for Linux, keep the stuff that insures referential integrity, dump the modes, make it work with ODBC so I can use PHP, and WALAA, instant web database. Then call Zenreich and Kocis to reprise what is easily the best computer book ever written >Paradox Programmer's Guide PAL by Example.

    Anybody at Borland interested in recycling this wonderful workhorse? Anybody in Borland have any clue at all?

  • I do quit a bit of database development at work. My reasoning for ODBC is that it's not as tied to a specific vendor's database.

    I'd really like to understand what made you think that I was stating that the use of PHP and ODBC somehow obliterated the need for structure and/or rules, perhaps there's a misunderstanding? I'd appreciate if you'd e-mail me. (I'd e-mail you, but you're an AC)
  • Some sort of database backend done through ODBC so that you ditch most of the 'but we don't have somebody who knows that database' issues, then a whole mess of php or c or whatever is neccessary for the application.

    I'd be more than willing to help on the database/php side of something like this assuming it was well organized and such.
  • WHAT?!
    Enterprise Rent-a-car is the 2nd largest company in the world?!

    Man....this must be a bad dream or something...

  • If you find a product written in Acucobol (a very high number of packages in that field are written in COBOL), do remember that they have a portable bytecode system similar to what Sun later did with Java and that Acucorp has supported Linux for years. If the vendor doesn't directly support Linux, you could probably buy any version of their software and the Acucobol-GT runtime for Linux and be up and running.
  • It's not too difficult... the OFX specifications that MS Money, Quicken, and almost all brokers and banks use can be downloaded for free at www.ofx.net [ofx.net]. The certification is only needed for a server (i.e. the bank). I'm writing a similar financial app... it's really not difficult to add.
  • One thing to consider is using Linux (or some other Unix) as a file server and Windows/DOS for the workstations. There is still a lot of software out there that runs under DOS.

    We do this for our custom written POS/Accounting package and it works well. This allows our "cash registers" to run dedicated (on 386's with WFW3.11, DOS tcpip sucks) and the other workstations running 95 or 98 to access the software while still allowing the workstations to run Office, etc.

    Of course, the workstations crash periodically, but the servers run forever (or until you shut them down). In general DOS and Windows (less so) will run just fine if they are only running one app and it works right. We only require the "cash registers" and workstations to be up maybe 8-10 hours a day, so it works fine; a crash/lock up only causes minor inconviences.

  • How is having a staff of DBAs & dedicated servers or the redunancy you speak of any different than trying to run on WinNT? You don't want to run a business on questionable hardware anyway and you always want to make sure that you are backing up your data. That has nothing to do with linux. Burington may have already had a lot of their software written for a Unix platform (I seem to recall that they had their store servers on Solaris), so it wouldn't be too terriblly hard to port.

  • That's ridiculous. Guess what a lot of chains have used or are using for such activies? Xenix or SCO Unix. Get a bunch of POS terminals and hook them to a server via serial lines and run curses based apps that require the user only to pick a letter/number/function key or scroll up or down with the cursor and press enter. The users don't have to know what OS the machine is running, just how to operate the applications that have been set up for them. They aren't going to be running shell commands.

  • ya, one of the beauties of linux is its ability to run on Piece Of Shit (POS) machines.

    ;)

    -l
  • ... In Safeway we use a program called SuperSked which once you have it up and configured properly does in fact write do scheduling pretty well.

    If you are looking to run it on linux I am not sure if there is a linux native version but the version we use runs on SCO OpenServer so the ibcs (sp??) module *MAY* work. I know the DOS version of SuperSked needs one of them keys that attach to your parallel port, but, as for the UNIX version I am not sure if a key that is used. There once was a message up on the console about a "Liscense Daemon" being restarted so that may be used instead of the parallel port key.

    Now for the POS system: There was a review of a POS system in the Linux Journal a while back ( I think this year) called LinuxPOS which is mentioned in an earlier comment with URL.
  • I wrote my own accounting system with a Python front-end and a Postgresql backend. It was surprisingly easy to do.

    When I get some time, I'm gonna clean it up and GPL it. Right now, it's just a bunch of loose scripts custom-tailored to my own set of accounts.

    I'd like to graft an emacs front-end onto it too.

    Cheers,

    - Jim
  • Probably the top site for information on business applications for Linux is:

    http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/finances.ht ml [hex.net]
  • by picking the os first, you are putting the cart in front of the horse.

    No I don't think so.

    First case: multiple apps
    If you have an existing server curently running several applications such as SMB, FTP, HTTP or SMTP, and you are not ready to invesnt into a new server

    Second case: skills
    Your staff is equiped with ABC OS skills, so you look for an ABC OS package.

    Third case: cost
    If the app you want only runs on an AS/400, then the total solution cost increases dramatically since AS/400 hardware isn't cheap no to mention the OS which can cost up to $10,000.

    And finally most people run more than one app on their systems. If I chose a different OS for every app that I use according to it's performance, I would be stuck with Win98 because IE 5 is the best web browser, Linux because the X/Enlightenment is the best graphical environment and OS/400 because it has the best online help system.

    Rich
  • Well, this is along the same lines I suppose:

    I am a consultant/contractor and I'm constantly sending out proposals and other documents that require Gantt charts. What software is available for me to do this with? Currently I've been manually writing them and then drawing them up on the gimp. There's gotta be a better way.


  • I've done what you're talking about on both platforms, pal, and believe me -- it went a HELL of a lot more smoothly on *nix (did one DBMS / POS on SCO, another on Linux, a couple in Win/DOS).

    Don't speak up unless you've done it, please. It's an absolute pain in the ass to do something like this cleanly on Win/DOS, unless you just buy a turnkey setup, which still will probably bomb out on occasion.

    In fact, if anybody knows the Git-N-Go (tm) chains here in the U.S. (which run NT/9x), you're probably familiar with waiting in line or waiting to pump gas while the semi-literate sales clerk reboots the register. I see it about twice a month; waited in line 20 min.'s while they figured out the register was locked up today.

    In short, shutup.

  • Parasoft demoed their Magnate POS application and it looked very good and complete. It is a web server that allows an instant e-commerce solution too. The old url is still available at http://www.parasoft.com/products/magnate/ [parasoft.com], but the new site format dosen't mention the product as far as I could find. They have clients worldwide using magnate, so surely they still sell it.

    It had support for cash drawers, and most common barcode scanners, etc... IIRC.

  • Eljay General Accounting System Home Page at http://members.iweb.net.au/~steveoc/ERP/ [iweb.net.au] is another GPL work in progress.


  • "Has anyone used this product?"

    And, until that can be answered "Yes" by
    an accounting department of a PUBLIC corp.,
    it doesn't mean much.

    Publicly traded corporations are fairly limited
    in what accounting systems they may use. (This
    is the USA only, Delaware Corps only).

    I'd really like to know what RHAT uses for Accounting and Finance software.
  • its to bad inuit has no backbone to port thier apps to linux. sad..
  • That sounds so cool! I'm going to go download a demo of that touch screen monitor right now! How do I get it out of the computer so I can test it out? Or does it just turn my existing monitor into a touch screen for a limited time?

    :P
    (It's friday!)
  • I've done POS on SCO UNIX and our cash drawers hook up to /dev/tty2A (Com2) The character "8" opens the drawer.

    One Big problem I have had with PC POS was not having enought serial ports. Consider all the serial devices you need to hook up:

    1. Mouse (if it's not PS/2 Bus)
      UPS
      Modem (if it's not internal)
      CashDrawer
      BarCoder
      CardStripReader (if it's not built into the keyboard)

    SCO had a problem about sharing IRQs so just adding a extra COM board was little help.
    When everything goes USB, POS PC's will be easier to manage.
  • They have no backbone because they don't want to waste their money porting their software to support less than 1 percent of the desktop market? Jesus, some of you guys have really lost all sense of reality. Forget Linux, Intuit was thiiiis close to not even supporting Macs just a short while ago, before reversing their decision at the last minute. Add to the mix the major fight they have on their hands going up against Money 2000 (which looks pretty damn good -- c|net, for one, picked it over Quicken 2000, and we all know how much they love Microsoft.) Plus, can't Linux users access a lot of Quicken features over the web at Quicken.com? Add all those factors together and they'd have to be screwed in the head to port their apps to Linux.

    Cheers,
    ZicoKnows@hotmail.com

  • Yep (Score:1)

    by Zico ( 14255 )

    But they already have programmers who know the Mac, and they still almost shut that division down to move those customers to Quicken.com. It would be nuts to spend the resources to port it to Linux, which has less of a desktop share, when they're grappling with all those other problems that I mentioned previously. I'm talking Quicken here, not QuickBooks or their other small business products, which they don't make for the Mac anymore.

    As far as Intuit's products go, TurboTax is pretty vital to me, and potential integration issues with it are the only reason why I might end up not going with Money 2K instead of Quicken 2K. As to the biz products, I don't use them myself (although I do have first-hand experience with the nightmare that is PeachTree), but my accounting babe seems to be satisfied with QuickBooks instead of the competition.

    BTW, the thing that irked me about the post to which I replied was attributing Quicken's absence of Linux products to some lack of backbone. That's ludicrous.

    Cheers,
    ZicoKnows@hotmail.com

  • maybe. I enjoy DBM Files in perl. Easy to set up, easy to use, and easy to create a web interface.

    -Z
  • In my company, we use Lotus Notes R5 for everything except accounting. The server is coming for linux (you can get the beta now), already runs a some other *nix and works great at DB to Web conversion. Calandaring and Scheduling is build right in as well as many custom DB templates for document management and other things. And above all that, you get email, nntp, ldap, etc... If you know how to create a spreadsheet, you can program notes. Simple @functions do most of the programming issues. Lotus Script allows some lower level access to the systems, but is rarely needed. Java and Javascript as well as server side applets are fully supported and integrated in to the dev IDE. The DB is only a flat file, but it can access just about any ODBC DB out there. Even though I run my server on NT (dont know linux yet), I havn't had a crash yet (2 years). The client is a different story, but you only need that for development. As for accounting? We use peachtree. I'm the tech guy so I don't get much involved with that.
  • oops... forgot to say, an example of Notes in action can be found at the URL above (not a plug).
  • The specs for "the app I want" may very well put constraints on what os I can use. For example:

    "This must run on old 486s (cheap hw) and stay up for years (users can't fix a crash and there isn't time for rebooting)"

    Now this leave out quite a few os'es, no matter what the app is.

    I don't know if the 486 thing is relevant, (maybe in the third world) but crashing a cash register is bad for business. I have seen it happen at a small pc shop using windows, and I left. Why wait when there are other shops?
  • depending on how you want your point-of-sale stuff to work, CCVS [hks.net] might be appropriate for you.

    afaik it's oriented towards web transactions etc but i can't see any reason (barring a complete refusal on your part to do any software tinking) that it couldn't be used in conjunction with a vanilla magnetic card reader to make a 'real' POS machine.
    ----

  • > Intuit will NEVER involve itself with a serious
    > competitor to MS.

    Is that why they bundle a customized version of Netscape with their package? And don't be ridiculous, no company would "rather go broke than use Linux". For-profit companies always prefer making money to not making money. If supporting Linux was the only was MS could succeed, they would.
  • Wrong. You have a choice with both. If I pick applications based on feature sets, without looking at the whole picture (hardware + OS + application = total solution), I am likely to have problems down the road. In this case, one of the first concerns is stability and reliability. Since experience shows that Windows-based POS solutions do not exhibit this quality no matter what application software they are running, all solutions which require Windows are out of the running.

    This leaves DOS, UNIX (BSD/other) Mac and Linux as viable choices. Mac platform mostly hasn't had this type of software developed recently. DOS applications are often very reliable and proven, but they frequently lack necessary functionality because development has slowed to almost a halt on that platform. This leaves UNIX and Linux. Non-free UNIX is too expensive to use and get support for a small business. This leaves *BSD and Linux, both stable and affordable (TCO) operating systems. Don't know why *BSD was left out, but it is clear that OS choice _is_ relevant.
  • I never said anything about a GUI nor getting the code from BCF. My point was that someone has already done it and it's possible to look through the articles and find out which applcation they used for it or wether they wrote thier own. I'm not knocking your product by any means, just making a point. Of course when I mentioned web browser you assumed that was the GUI. Everyone knows a web browser. The time sheet app I wrote for my company now Is all text links with only 5 images for operations on the timesheet. I.e. a check button, double xx for delete all records, single records deleted via single x. Oh well. I'll go babble elsewhere for now ;)
  • Just as I submit mine someone has the exact same idea. Maybe a few of us should get together and work on something along these lines. Webenabled business software. Not that there arent other projects already though?
  • When did PICK get ported to linux? When I was with storehouse, the point of sale solution we went with was coded in PICKBASIC running on HPUX. If I remember correctly, It was called Universe/Unidata?
  • Heheheh. I was wo0rking on POS (point of sale definition) for Storehouse Furniture when I was sysadmin there. We used to joke that our current POS was a POS ;)
  • I'm writing a web based personal finance app [alexium.com] which runs on my Linux box. It currently uses Oracle and the ArsDigita toolkit as its backend. The only bit working so far is some of the ledger functionality, but you're welcome to take a look and send me feedback. The data model is actually better than Quicken (I support currencies and double entry bookkeeping), so it should be possible to adapt it for small businesses if I ever get it finished.
  • Errr...the request was for *UNIX* solutions. Access is not a Unix solution. (But I agree...Access is easy for writing databases, but there is currently no equivalent on Unix)
  • Star Office is great for generic office package. Its bloated, its slow, but it has MS Office compatibility which is a must in today's business world.

    As for databasing, you should probably write your own, if at all possible. The FSF has some great database routines for C programs. Couple that with a MySQL setup on the server ...and you're in business. Thats what most companies, including Burlington Coat Factory, which has a Linux-based solution, have done.

    Java or Perl and HTML might not be bad for a Web-based intranet client. However, IMHO, Web- based clients generally aren't robust enough due to security and other limitations...



    Lets not forget that FoxPro runs on SCO and (I think) AIX. And you can get a stripped-down version of SCO for free....



  • Tacobell uses good 'ol dos on their touch screens. they have a application written in a curses style library and it's really simple, and only locked up once or twice as i've seen (but that's when the central controller went down.. damned black boxes)
  • Home Depot is currently looking to replace their stations with linux instead of Windows due to ease of management and remote administration (there was an article in "Network World" a couple of months ago).
  • That's valuable information and all, but it makes me wonder, given the fact that these companies all have websites (who doesn't), if Delta (the originator of the Ask Slashdot article) couldn't have just done a web search and found this stuff without beating on slashdot with this request.

    Sounds a bit like if, given an assignment in school, you ask your prof/teacher for relevent references instead of just spending the 30 minutes to check your library index for an answer.

  • OK, a slightly different idea of how this could be done, integrating all-in-one.

    The company I work for is a reseller for SalesLogix [saleslogix.com], a sales automation tool.

    It's used to track contacts, accounts and oppurtunities for sales, includes a reporting tool (either Crystal or IQ Reports).

    The database uses either Oracle, MS-SQL or Interbase, so a Linux Oracle database is possible, but you do need a Win9x/NT to run actual server.

    It has features built in to syncronise changes with remote sites (other stores) and remote users (salesman on the road with laptops).

    As i said, all the client software is for Win9x/NT, but I'm sure if a lot of people want a Linux version, they'll look into it.

    There is also a WWW interface for it, but this needs MS-IIS and ASP to run.

    As for the POS side, it can be completly changed and new screens/code can be written for it, so it shouldn't be much to do that.

    Ah well, just my 0.02 euros.
    KevF
  • What I am looking for is a spreadsheet that has most capabilities and functionalities of Excel. Last time I checked StarCalc it was much less feature rich than Excel. One thing that I like in Excel is the DataAnalysis add-on pack (Inludes things like automized regession analysis, etc) Sure, StartCalc has some statiscal functions, but still Excel is better. Simple and powerful and easy to use(after you take a short look at its manual). Second, I want my Access. My definition of Access is a "Simple, Powerful, and EASY to use RDBS". If you don't need dozens of people connecting to the same data base, and you just want to be able to design it in a few minutes with automated reoprts , etc, Access is NICE. Alghouth MS OSes do suck, their other applications are usually good stuff (MS Office, IE, VC++..)
  • As for databasing, you should probably write your own, if at all possible. The FSF has some great database routines for
    C programs. Couple that with a MySQL setup on the server ...and you're in business. Thats what most companies,
    including Burlington Coat Factory, which has a Linux-based solution, have done.

    Bah! Screw this! Writing a databse in C or any low level programming language is like going back to 70s! If you just take the Access manual and rtfm for an hour, in 10 minutes you will be able to build a relational Access Database with queries and automatic reports and stuff. This is an excelent database application for simple and strightforward needs. Otherwise, use a real SQL server like Oracle if you need to develpo a fairly big DB with lots of simltaneous connection, etc. But for simple needs Access is just fine, no need to reinvent the wheel!
  • SAP R/3 has a Linux version. Is that overkill? That's a large company that supports Linux as a back-end OS.
  • A GUI POS is only usefull if you are doing touch screen. For most business uses, a GUI is overkill. As soon as I see a good console based accounting package, I'll work on getting my company switched over... Until then the accounting department insists on staying with the DOS based program that has been in use here for a LONG time.
  • I work at Home Depot. The sale registers may be Linux-based, but the returns registers use Win95! And yes, I have seen them crash, though not as much as you might expect from 15 hours of continuous use.

  • POS (Score:1)

    by Rupert ( 28001 )
    I've been trying to push Linux at POS here for a while. The problem is we do a number of things in weird ways, and we definitely wanted to keep our screens a lot like the existing NT app. The linux POS systems I've seen tend not to be very customizable as far as UI goes. So we chose a very extensible system that's win32 only.

    However, the big problem with Linux at POS is devices. Printers, 2x20 displays, flatbed scanners, handheld scanners, MSRs, pinpads, bizarre keyboards in odd ports. If you're pushing a free OS it doesn't make a lot of sense to have to buy all new hardware with everything USB (not that Linux supports that too well) to make it work.

    It will take the big hardware vendors, IBM, NCR and Fujitsu/ICL to get behind Linux before Linux at POS becomes viable. Right now the number one OS shipped with POS hardware is still DOS. Win9x/NT/CE are distant 2nd-4th.

    Rupert
  • Hear, hear. Our users only know they're running NT because it says so at the top of the BSoD.

    Rupert
  • Check this out.

    http://www.appgen.com [appgen.com]

    My CPA sent this to me a few months ago and hi-lighted the Linux plug. Seems that they are providing what you are looking for.

    Has anyone used this product?

  • I use Quicken for Business and I think it's getting worse. Didn't ADP just acquire that product line?

    ADP DOES NOT know how to design programs. I've used PCPers and HRizon. Blah!

    I'd suggest again that you look at Appgen.

    http://www.appgen.com [appgen.com]

  • I don't believe Home Depot is using Linux yet... read the article [slashdot.org] here. The article says "pilot-testing is being done this summer."
  • Actually, I know of one!

    At university, their "sanctioned" POS system seems to run on.... WINDOZE 95!

    Several times, I've seen "Press F3 to return to POS, any other key to quit back to Windows 95".

    Then, there's always the cash register that displays the distinctive "Welcome to Windows 95" 'tips' dialog... (complete with My Computer, Network Neighbourhood, Inbox, Briefcase, etc icons!). I guessimate the tiny 6" monitor is running around 320x240 or something like that, but it's windoze alright (no apparent mouse... standard POS type keyboard ["Sandwich, 1.85" etc]). Wonder how they shut down "Oh. Press Drink, $1.50 and HotDog, $3 together, then press Taco, $3 until the bar reads 'shut down', then press Ice Cream, $1. Again Press Taco $3 until there's a dot that says "Shut down" and hit Ice Cream, $1 again." Hmm. Hungry Ctrl-Alt-Del's.

    Then there's those POS that do run a Un*x variant or other...
  • Any Microfocus Cobol application will run on Linux...Just use the SCO runtime. I think MF has a Linux runtime now, but I have several systems running accounting packages with the SCO runtime since 1997. It works great.....

  • There is a reason why there are so many narrowly focused applications. It's the way this software works. You can't take a Hotel management application and use it in a supermarket... Domain specific knowledge is the value these packages offer.

    So no, there is not "one single integrated solution for all of them". Not on Linux, AIX, Windows or a Palmpilot.

  • MS? (Score:1)

    by twixel ( 30362 )
    And what business software does MS produce? I don't know of any MS package that does accounting, stock control, POS.

    So truly, MS doesn't know how to write business software. Last I looked they ran their business on AS/400. and jotted down sales numbers on little scrap of papers (DOJ trial)

    Do you really really think that MS accountants "balance the books" in Access?



  • You can get StarOffice from Sun [sun.com]. I've used it on Linux and Solaris and it does what you need an office suite to do -- for free, since you only have to pay if you bundle it or integrate it with something you sell.

    Caveat: I work at Sun, so if you believe in conspiracy theories and so forth, perhaps you should get a second opinion.


  • That is correct, there is not, and you made a valid point here. But how many different people run small businesses over the web that include hotels and/or supermarkets? Typically, those are very well capitalized businesses where they have the resources to fund their own apps.

    ON the other hand, there are probably a faily large pile of people out there running small businesses on the web, where the most commonly encountered activities are selling/supporting a product or service that they wish to ship themselves.

    The most common tasks associated with that are contact management, accounting, correspondence, POS, perhaps label making and package tracking. If it's strictly a web based business, you can drop the POS, although the author of this "Ask /." has requested it.

    I myself would like to be able to accomplish all these tasks using Linux, but right now have to copy/paste from a bunch of Windows apps. So, who is going to get it right first with a single, well integrated application? Will it be someone who develops for Linux, or someone who develops for Windows?

  • Didn't you read the original statement? He wants to use UNIX, not Windows. There is nothing in that statement that implies open-source solutions.
  • I'm currently coordinating an open-source project to develop web-based accounting software. We're moving along quite nicely, though still pre-beta ("beta is a state of mind"), and are looking for people to help design and develop the software. There is a mostly working version of the software that's rough but that you're welcome to (attempt to) use.

    For more information, visit the project website at http://www.webaccountant.org/ [webaccountant.org].

    There's currently a wide gap in the realm of open-source web-based accounting software, and it's just waiting to be filled. I'm sure small business will benefit from the products that emerge as a result.

  • "Press F3 to return to POS, any other key to quit back to Windows 95".

    or another way of putting it would be:
    "Press F3 to return to POS, any other key to quit back to a POS"
  • Hmm, now how many cash registers or other POS run windows? Most users of POS devices never see the OS. Now imagine a busy supermarket where a register goes down and the lines start backing up. Or a small buisness that has only 1 register and it goes down, they can't make any more sales until they can get someone in to fix it. Stability is extemely important to fast-service places like fast food, convienince markets and impulse-purchase stores.
  • Claiming that Linux is a waste of money while MacOS is not is ludicrous. The fact is, like it or not, Linux is a presence in more businesses than MacOS is, whether we're talking about desktop or server use. To marginalize this OS on _business_software_, particularly for small to medium sized businesses, is a dangerous move. Like it or not, for that segment of the market, MacOS is a _much_ riskier proposition with a _much_ bleaker outlook than Linux.

    That said, I've never been a big fan of Intuit's products anyway. I'd much rather see Computer Associates port their low-mid end packages (like Simply Accounting) over. I'd also love to see Canadian tax-prep software on Linux as well... Oooh. I think I smell an open source project coming on...
  • In my experience, most electronic cash drawers use a simple serial interface and open in command to something like 07h being sent. No real need for special devices here.
  • Reminds me of AOL4.0 hehe
  • I use the MySQL database, with time card and invoicing software written in C (using MyC). Works great, and it's a lot faster than perl :-P
  • "Anybody at Borland interested in recycling this wonderful workhorse? Anybody in Borland have any clue at all?" Maybe they do. Didn't they just re-release turbo c++? I would love to have some of my bygone dos programs re-released or better yet GPL'ed so that they could be updated. I could trade lotus megellan for the windows explorer any day!.
  • Hmmm. I've been trying not to post to this thread, but some folks do use CCVS for POS applications.

    Thanks for the plug.
  • Wal-Mart, the most technologically advanced (or at least that's what they keep telling us) retailer on the face of the planet, uses *NIX on all of it's systems, including POS and inventory and accounting. There are 2 NT boxes in the back office...but i don't know what they use them for, nor do i particularly care. So, yeah, the software *is* out there...someone has tread this path before, so how difficult can it be to follow? ;)
  • I work at compusa as a cashier (please no comments about that) and they use unix terminals called televideos that are hooked up to a server in the back. It is a proprietary system however. Both the cash register and register tape printer are controlled through this.
  • Actually, I'm halfway through writing a distributed Point of sale system. This includes Linux boxes running on comodity x86s and Java Database Servers. This system includes report management, timeclocks and asset management. It does contain some NDA stuff. This is however for another client and is modular. It can easily be replaced with your own proprietary modules.
  • I was using the acronym pos in a different way =p
    "piece of ...crud"

    Apologies for a twisted sense of humour...
  • Well, depending on _what_ pos, you might want to look into windows Seriously, all you need to do is take a database system and spend a little while coding a frontend. Basically, it needs to input barcode, output price, amt left, etc., sum prices, and print a receipt. But you probably already knew that...
  • My wife works in retail management and had a funny experience the other day. A couple of guys came in trying to hawk their Linux-based cash-register systems (she works for Bath and Body Works) and started to tell her how much more stable and robust they were than the existing Windows-based systems.

    She said they just about fell over when they found out that not only did this dumb retail bimbo know about Linux, but that she knew a lot of specifics about the advantages of the Linux OS...
  • My local Home Depot uses a Win95-based system. Believe me, I see it almost every time I shop there...when they have to power-off and reboot the registers. I'd say 3 of the last 10 times I've been there I had to wait until it booted back up to get checked out.
  • I haven't used applix. The freeness of SOffice is nice, and its MSOffice abilities are astounding and most necessary. Particularly for the business customers.

    -awc

  • Ask HomeDepot... (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    They are using linux-based cash registers. The UI looks like curses-based stuff, pretty simple and functional.Go check it up.
  • CompUSA uses a system called Forte under IMS/BASIC by IMS for it's Ordering, Registers, and other functions. It runs on every system in the store, and rarely has a problem. The only catch is, it runs under AIX v4. (I'd imagine it's possible to recompile it under another *nix, but the kicker would be getting the source.)

    The company is Information Management Systems, Inc. [infoms.com]

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

  • Yep. CompUSA was originally going to switch all of it's systems to JDA, but they decided on SAP instead. (GUI. Bleh)

    Regardless, IMS is still a viable option if CompUSA uses it or not. :)

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

  • I'm no Java fan, but from where we've seen so far J-Commerce's JStore series may be just what you need. Check it out at:

    http://www.j-commerce.com

    It has a complete POS setup that expands from mom and pop stores to good-sized chains. Best of all, it's got great interoperability, with ODBC and JDBC support, with other systems.

    Steven, Senior Technology Editor, Sm@rt Reseller
  • Wow is that dated. The newer versions (presumably after microsoft strong armed them) of quicken install IE4 automatically, and are not usable without it. For no good technical reason, Intuit has deeply tied their product to IE. Remind you of somebody else yet?
  • Well then I can set up a mailing list and we can get a thread going on this if ya want. You can figure out how to email me ;)
  • Yes, as a customer I've noticed Unix messages on CompUSA registers. However, they are replacing their software with SAP. See CompUSA chooses SAP [sap.com].

    Of course we remember the recent announcement of Linux SAP R/3 [sap.com].

  • I've been using Applix and it's a far cry from where it should be. UI is not so smooth and there "MS format" compatibility is RTF!??!

    Come on. A little more development work me things.

  • This is a common problem for many people. The ideal specification would allow the company to share data across the various apps. I am talking about doing your order input, billing, business correspondence and package label printing all from the same app. There is no such thing.

    But since Linux is used primarily for servers and is getting more popular for the desktop as well, you'd think someone would have a mind to develop and market an app which can seamlessly take data from the e-commerce side of a site, verify a cybercash deposit, into order fulfillment, over to write correspondence, UPS shipping labels, then add in a UPS functionality that allows you to feed the data back to the site so that customers can track thier package. This currently requires too much damn copy/paste using windows apps or re-entry of data to be fun. I haven't learned of any Linux apps which do all these functions and sorry if I'm ruffling feathers here, but I'm not going to switch back and forth between OSs to accomplish minor tasks related to completing the same job. The minumum shared data is of course, the customer demographic.

    Is there even an accounting program out that just includes UPS label making as an integrated function?

    Someone will slap me down here, either for asking for too much, not being a programmer, or expecting too little. I don't see a viable solution on the horizon for such a product, but I'd pay as much as $600 for it if it did all that. I wouldn't pay what the large companies want, which is in excess of $2500, plus a % of sales.

  • That's nearly always the case with questions asked in Ask Slashdot. Everything can be looked up. The real use of this forum is (in my opinion) that one can get answers from ppl who have real-life experience with the issue. That is valuable information one cannot get by reading those websites.
  • I was not aware Borland had GPL'ed Paradox! Don't waste your time bending someone elses code if you can't distribute it or use it commercially. Most all commercial/retail licenses prohibit any re-use or re-writing of code.
  • At Linux Expo, I talked to a company called Proven Software, Inc that sells/supports an accounting package called Proven CHOICE, I believe it has POS capabilities too. Their web site is http://www.provenacct.com
  • Let's consider this for a moment.
    We need the following:
    • Accounting software
    • Contact management
    • Cash Register
    • Point-of-Sale System

    Probably a few other things, too, but I'm sure you'll think of them and give suggestions as see fit.

    Accounting software: Needs Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, needs to be able to figure out who owes what and what is owed to who; print capability would be nice. Sounds like it shouldn't be too hard, but this is a pretty simle view; I probably left a whole bunch of stuff out.
    You might want to integrate time tracking and sales commissions into this, but then it gets more complicated. Do things the Unix way: Write a program that does one thing and does it right.

    Contact Management: What you do with this depends on how you want to manage your contacts. You'll probably want company-wide read access with a more tightly controlled edit access.

    Cash Register: We need a mini-HOWTO on how to implement /dev/cash_drawer. :)

    Point-of-Sale system: This is probably going to be the biggest pain. It needs to know a lot of things. Info about the inventory (How many blue guitars do we have in stock?), the price list, the tax rates in each area where you operate. Plus, depending on the business, you might want it to work with touch screens. (Then again, you might not need that.)

    -Ender

  • Burlington Coat Factory (Score:3)

    by tweek ( 18111 ) on Friday September 03, 1999 @05:56AM (#1705864) Homepage Journal
    check around for articles on slashdot and other sites about Burlington Coat Factory rolling out linux to all POS machines in the company. If i remember right, at the time it was the largest mainstream coporate rollout of linux into production environments. Course, as usual, i could be wrong. the point is that it has been done. i remember seeing at ALE last year a company that has CC proccesing software (similar to ICVerify) for that particular purpose. Back to burlington, I think they wrote thier own package though. It wouldnt be too hard to write something like this in php3 or whatnot and have it private network webenabled. If you do that, you have a host of contact management web apps to read and borrow code from or get ideas from. Just a few ideas.

  • Linux Business App (Score:3)

    by wsandman ( 22418 ) on Friday September 03, 1999 @06:05AM (#1705865)
    Check out AppGen. Costs some $$$ but is generally a well built application. Has modules for General Ledger, Accounts Recievable, Billing, etc. Basically any business function needed. And it runs on Linux!

  • Linux Financial Stuff Summary (Score:3)

    by SEWilco ( 27983 ) on Friday September 03, 1999 @02:58PM (#1705866) Journal
    I think Browne's list of Finances and Linux [hex.net] is a good starting point for this kind of info.

    I think #2 lists almost everything mentioned thus far and includes the simple things up to the big boys with lots of modules. It needs more work, as AppGen gets no description while others get more reasonable detail.

  • Re:Linux Business App (Score:3)

    by spartan ( 30665 ) <joe@NETBSDsamolian.com minus bsd> on Friday September 03, 1999 @09:35AM (#1705867)
    Most all the entries say the same thing as this one, with respondents replying with check out this POS or that Accounting SW. I think he was requesting a well integrated application that did Contact Management, Correspondence, Accounting and POS.

    While it's easy to chime in with easily identifiable solutions, most of these sound to be narrowly focused and that is the problem that the author laments. You're probably telling him what he already knows, that there is an abundant supply of narrowly focused applications for a broad number of tasks, but there is not a well integrated solution for all of them.

    Can anyone provide direction as to a program that does it all, or of anyone who has integrated other programs to address all these tasks? If yes, then you can answer this guy's question and would be a help to me as I have been looking at the same problem.

  • GNU Enterprise (Score:4)

    by Jonas Öberg ( 19456 ) <jonas@gnu.org> on Friday September 03, 1999 @05:54AM (#1705868) Homepage
    For the economy aspects of running a business, please check out the new initiative, GNU Enterprise [gnu.org].

    This is only vaporware at the moment, but we're duscussing business software and the needs around it on our mailing list. If you're interested in that topic, please join us.

  • Linux POS (Score:4)

    by bsapot ( 60594 ) on Friday September 03, 1999 @06:06AM (#1705869) Homepage
    There is a company from Canada that wrote a Point of sale system in tcl/tk. The company is called Linux Canada Inc. at http://www.linuxcanada.com.

    There is is another company that did the same thing but I have not been able to find the for about 1 year.

    Good Luck
    Bryan
    Get a life get Linux

  • Point-of-Sale Software (Score:5)

    by palpatine ( 94 ) on Friday September 03, 1999 @06:21AM (#1705870) Homepage
    As for the POS software you're looking for, there are quite a few options available.

    Samco [samco.com] has an extensive offering of business accounting applications that work with Linux, including POS. Check out the screenshots [samco.com] of their POS module. J.S. Software [js-software.com] provides accounting and POS software, and they support Linux. LinuxPOS [linuxcanada.com] from Linux Canada is also available.

    Funny how all three of these companies are Canadian. Don't worry about accounting tax differences too much, though--Canadian companies (have to) create software with other countries' tax laws in mind.

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