Bend in the Weather

There are many reasons people are stuck on Windows.

For small businesses the main reason is their accounting software.
Like it or not, since the introduction of GST and BAS the days of the shoe-box accounting have disappeared. Every business that wants to keep accurate financial records requires an computerized accounting system.

In Australia, The introduction of GST and BAS has made it difficult for these same people to move over to Linux.
The two most popular Small Business Accounting packages are MYOB and QuickBooks. Both products support the Australian market and handle submissions to the ATO.

Many small businesses look for software that can handle base accounting (less then 25 invoices a week) and an integrated simple payroll module that can pay their employees (1-5 typically).

Both QuickBooks and MYOB operate as closed-source commercial software that runs on Windows (and on Mac - in the case of MYOB). They also integrate heavily into Microsoft Office.

Both business models expect customers to fork our between $500 - $800 for the initial purchase, and anywhere from $200- $500 annually to get 'updates'. For any small business this is a hefty investment just to keep up with the legal requirements of running their business. Calling for support can also attract additional fees on top of the yearly retainer.

As such, many are fearful to move on, but have a love-hate relationship with their accounting software provider. They feel cheated and ripped off (and rightly so). This duopoly has created a handsome cash-cow for both software makers.

The current extortion model used by MYOB and Quicken is best explained by Turbo Cash's explaination (a GPL Windows Accounting package). Unfortunately TurboCash is Windows software and contains no Australian payroll module.

Unfortunately, I am yet to see an OSS Linux accounting software that handles all the features required for an Australian business:

1. Handles Australian Taxation - including GST and BAS reporting/lodging
2. Handles Australian Payroll - including PAYG and Superannuation

The introduction of both these two options would see thousands migrate off Windows (it's often the only reason cited for not running Linux), and adopt a new accounting package.

There is both Ledger-SQL and LedgerSMB (a fork of the former) that handle accounting and can be customized to handle GST. Yet, they don't do anything to address BAS reporting/lodging or have a payroll module. As such, both are unsuitable for the Australian SMB market without further heavy lifting.

Their is commercial software like SAGE AccPac available, yet it's quite expensive and more geared towards a medium sized business and thus out of the price range for most small businesses.

One OSS project that did look indeed promising was SYMBOL (Surf Your Money Books On Line). It was written by an accountant from Western Australia and licensed under the BSD license.

I have been in Email discussion with the developer Edward Metcalfe, but it appears he has now moved on from the project and as such the project has stalled. Looking at the CVS repository the last update was unfortunately 13 months ago.

However, the software is indeed functional and delivers on the two items listed above (Australian Taxation/Payroll). Whilst you would need to update the PAYG tax tables (no real show-stopper), it should do the job admirably. ComputerWorld actually ran an article on SYMBOL in Februrary 2007.

Those interested in SYMBOL, will find it is a web-based application so accounting can be down via a regular browser (making it suitable on either Mac/Windows/Linux clients) It runs on a PostgreSQL backend and uses Perl/CGI for the front-end. It also is multi-user based. (One thing software like MYOB and Quicken charge an arm and a leg for!)

The fear of running SYMBOL though in it's current form is that it is unmaintained. It's likely the current government or subsequent ones will indeed look at overhauling the payroll and corporate tax systems (as opposed to just an implementation of the Goods and Services Tax). This would mean that any software a small business adopts would need to address these modification.

The ATO has worked to provide great documentation on the complex tax scheme we have in Australia for software developers. Their Software Developers Website gives test case scenarios and formulas to write compliant and competing software.

I'm in two minds:

1. Do I run SYMBOL and either start maintaining it or fork it?
2. Do I use a lot of the program logic, and spawn a completely new project?

Ideally I would love to see a AJAXed based web-version of the application with a modern interface using either the Yahoo UI or the Dojo Toolkit's Dijit and DojoX interfaces.
Either solution would provide an excellent interface and provide the user with an experience that matched a local fat client. Using a web framework like Django and a PostgreSQL database underneath, would make for a solid backend.

I think there is a market for an excellent OSS product to capture the market and knock off this duopoly. However I suspect it will take some committed individuals to pull it off. From the grumblings you hear frequently from small business owners there is a ready market to ditch their over-priced software once a viable and supported solution arises.

Here are some interesting facts about the Australian Small Business Market:

• There are about 1.2 million small businesses in Australia employing around 3.3 million people.
• During the past decade, small businesses have created an estimated 660,000 new jobs.
• 42% of all goods exporters are small businesses.
• 25% of the Australian GDP (estimated in 2006 at $1 trillion dollars) comes from small business.

That's a lot of potential users of an OSS product!

I suspect a lot of OSS developers do a fair amount of moon-lighting and as such require a way to invoice for their work. (Consulting may be your day time job also to pay for the bills, and OSS coding your passion and after hours work!).

So what are your thoughts?
Is there enough interest in getting up an OSS Accounting+Payroll solution for Australian small businesses?

We can all dream!

How many times do you get sent MS-Word, MS-Excel or MS-Powerpoint files?
Whilst OpenOffice does an excellent job opening them all, I would prefer them all in an open format natively.

It appears the Dutch may come to the rescue and make that dream a reality.

Reading through IDABC website it appears that the Dutch Council of State are going to open-source an application they have written that allows you to convert flawlessly between Microsoft Office <-> Open Office. It can also convert -> PDF.

At present, the only minor hiccup is images generated to PDF are a little 'darker'.

Really, I am happy to just get MS Office -> OpenOffice.

Really the European approach to OSS is a beacon of light that hopefully is adopted across all regions. The days of proprietry file formats are quickly disappearing. For future generations and long term storage Open Standards in file formats in mandatory.

History will look back at the stand the EU has made against Microsoft and show that their stance was the under swell that pushed many in that direction.

It's great to see South Africa has also filed their appeal against the OOXML becoming an ISO standard. It does show there are some people left within ISO that still have a back-bone and conscience.

South Africa challenges the validity of the final vote that we contend was based upon inadequate information resulting from poorly conducted BRM. Moreover, we challenge the validity of a process that, from beginning to end, required all parties involved to analyze far too much information in far too little time, involved a BRM that did not remotely provide enough time to perform the appointed purpose of that procedure, and for which an arbitrary time limitation was imposed to discuss and resolve a significant number of substantial responses, despite the Directives for not requiring any such limitation as to duration.

It is our opinion that the process followed during all stages of this fast track has harmed the reputations of both ISO and the IEC and brought the processes enshrined in the Directives into disrepute, and that this negative publicity has, in turn, also harmed the reputations of all member bodies of ISO and the IEC.

Let's hope this appeal isn't squashed in a face-saving exercise by ISO. The entire ISO process surrounding the adoption was flawed from the start with many unethical breaches of conduct undertaken during the whole voting process.

I've just been testing SuSE Linux 10.1 in a VMWare machine to test it's capabilities and getting ready to run it on my new PC purchase (post on that in the next few days).

I took the opportunity to take some screenshots of the install and the running operating system.

Feel free to take a look:


SuSE Linux 10.1 is an extremely slick operating system - and offers some fantastic benefits to those looking at either upgrading their current Windows machine or looking for a WindowsXP replacement.

Best of all is that it's open-source and packed with all the software you will ever need!
Traditionally, those under Windows would need to buy additional software to provide:

• Office Suite (Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Database, Email, etc.)  (eg: Microsoft Office)
• Project Planning Software (eg:  Microsoft Project)
• Acrobat PDF writing software (eg: Adobe Acrobat)
  
• Raster Graphics Software  (eg: Adobe Photoshop)
• Vector Graphics Software (eg: Adobe Illustrator)
• HTML Editor (eg: Microsoft Frontpage)
• Video Editing Software (eg: Adobe Premiere)
  
• CD/DVD Burning Software (eg: Ahead Nero)

SuSE Linux bundles all this software.   Making life much easier and cheaper!
If you were to buy these equiv. software bundles under Windows you would be up for $3,000 - $5,000!

What's more you can pick and choose what you want to install.

One of the largest innovations is the introduction of Xen Hyperviser V3.02 - which allows you to run multiple versions of operating systems at near-native speeds!  VMWare and Virtual Server have provided 'Virtual Machines' for years, but have always suffered a performance loss, Xen removes this with their 'para-virtualisation' approach.

For those people that still believe that they couldn't run Linux instead of Windows... take a look at these screenshots.  

Scarey wasn't it?! 

Linux is well and truely ready for the home user.  It's easy to use, free of viruses (Windows viruses don't run under Linux!)  and has a swag of support and a price-tag that is excellent on the family budget.

It's probably time to reassess your next computer operating system... particularly with Vista due out early next year.

Microsoft has released their upgraded product for their popular and useful AntiSpyware product.

Like MS AntiSpyware -- Windows Defender is free. 
So if you used the first, it's time to upgrade to Windows Defender. 



Some of the interesting points about the upgrade:

• Better User Interface - Making it easier to use and navigate
  
• Improved Detection and Removal of Spyware due to a new engine.
• Real-time protection has been improved.
• Can protect all users on the system... not just the one who installed it.
• Can be installed without Admin privileges... making life much easier for many.
• Supports 64-bit Windows XP x64 machines.
• Automatically downloads the latest definitions so you are always current.
  

You can read more from the Windows Defender website.

Microsoft are poised to announce the release of their next operating system later this year.  Windows Vista will have some fancy new features... that will give you the "ohhhs and ahhhhs" for all but 15 minutes.... but under the hood is still a lot of existing Windows features from Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

What's worse is the eye-candy that will be on by default that regular users won't know how to disable ensures they'll almost certainly require a new computer to get reasonable performance out of it.

Basically you should expect to have:

• Pentium 4 or AMD 64 processor or better.
• 512MB of RAM (though I would recommend 1GB - 2GB if you want any decent response).
• A high end video card (with at least 128MB of Video RAM - preferably with 256MB of Video RAM).

The majority of home computers won't make the grade. 

What's worse, is that Microsoft are likely to start the 'only for Vista' program that many patches and security updates have occurred for Windows XP. (For example some patches for Windows XP though vulnerable under Windows 2000 and Windows 98 were not made available -- Microsoft's stance:  Upgrade to XP).
Microsoft are touting that Vista will be the 'most secure OS to date'.   This might be true of Windows... but isn't so when compared to the likes of Linux or Macintosh Operating Systems.    I don't like Microsoft's chances... they have already had a security update to plug a vulnerability (and the product hasn't even shipped!) 

The most annoying feature is that all this eye candy serves little to no purpose.  The WinFS has long been scratched from Vista; which would have moved computing into new grounds.  

Also DRM will be built directly into the operating system.  So don't expect music or video you download to run on your computer unless you have a license!    Add to it 'Trusted Computing' where it can be used by software manufacturers (ie: Microsoft) to control your computer without your permission.   Under such schemes, users will not be able to stop Microsoft from scanning your entire hard-drive, and logging it's contents or even your Email and confidential files.  I certainly won't be allowing such an invasion of my privacy for the 'privledge' of using their software that I buy!

One thing that is bound to catch people out is that Microsoft are getting tougher on their licensing models.   Traditionally people who bought a computer, or new CPU/motherboard or the like would buy the OEM version of Windows and install that.  It is generally around $100-$200 cheaper than the 'retail' product.

However, Microsoft has stated they will force people into buying full retail product versions at these inflated costs.  You can still buy an OEM version, but if your motherboard, CPU or Hard-Drive gets replaced, don't expect Microsoft to let you use your OEM version...  nope...   it's a once only license.

So before you think you must upgrade to that shiney version of Windows later this year, ensure you read up... there are many pitfalls to this new version that are bound to catch consumers out. 

There has been a lot of debate whether Linux is ready to be a desktop replacement for Windows over the last 5 years.

Companies like Redhat (Redhat Desktop and Fedora Core), Novell (Novell Linux Desktop and OpenSuSE), and Canoncial (Ubuntu Linux) are doing a lot to make that a reality.

Novell is forging ahead with some major new components that will give Linux desktops the edge when it comes to eye-candy and stunning graphical displays.  Novell is working on both Xgl and Compiz that will turn desktops upside turn (literally!)

As mentioned previously I was going to inform you all how to create your own Windows XP Service Pack 2 installation CD.

This takes your original Windows XP CD and integrates the latest service pack into your Windows CD.
Doing so ensures you don't need to apply either Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 after you complete the Windows install.. as it's already part of it! This will save you countless hours of downloading and upgrading as a result.

The process I followed is documented here. It's well worth taking the time to create your own slip-streamed CD and you'll be thankful the next time you need to reinstall Windows (we all need to at some stage!)

Whilst this will bring you up to date with Windows XP, it doesn't mean you'll have all the critical updates available from either the Windows Update or Microsoft Update website.

You'll find that even though you have got a Windows XP SP2 machine, there is some 250MB of updates still to go!

There are a few methods to speed this up.

1. Download each update individually and create your own 'Updates CD'.
2. Use the Windows Update or Microsoft Update site and manually do it.
3. Use an automated tool.

I have gone with Option #1... but I know what I'm doing. For everyone else... I would recommend Option #3.

A great tool is available called AutoPatcher. It basically grabs all the patches and applies them in one swoop without user intervention.

AutoPatcher updates monthly... so it's easy to keep on top of it.

You can learn more by reading through the AutoPatcher forum and FAQs

So happy patching and slip-streaming!
Let me know how you all get on.

What a day!
I headed down to Geelong first up to pickup our new coffee machine. Pauline stayed home as we were expecting the delivery of John's (her brother) replacement machine to turn up, and she was going to build it.

So off I headed... on a very nice, extremely hot and windy day!

I Emailed the buyer late last night to say I was coming tomorrow (hence Friday) but as he didn't read it til Friday morning he understood it as Saturday!


I just rang Pauline to tell her it was a no-go after knocking on the door 3-4 times (in case they were out the back) when they pulled up in the car! I managed to pickup the item as a result.

I dropped by my folks on the way home just to say howdy. Didn't stay too long as I needed to get cracking on John's new machine.

By the time I arrived home, Pauline was putting the finishing touches to the machine.

It was over to me to install the OS, drivers and patches.

I tried our original version of XP with John's CD-Key... no go.. couldn't find the SATA hard-disk. No drama... put them on a USBKey and read them. Windows picks up the drivers lists them, but can't install them (for some brain-dead reason they need to be on Drive A:).
The problem was... we didn't have a floppy drive in the machine.

After many hours of trying various options.. even Slip-streaming Windows XP Service Pack 2 into the CD... we still couldn't get it going. (More of SlipStreaming tomorrow!)

Pauline scrounged around and found a spare floppy drive.. so we stuck that in. That's when the fun began... sometimes we would see the drivers to select, then they would refuse to install, sometimes we couldn't see them at all. After several hours of mucking around... we ditched that floppy drive and stuck in another.
Worked first go! Seems the first floppy drive was faulty.

It took about some 4 hours.. but I was finally able to start the Windows install.

Lesson: Always have a floppy in a machine... no matter how little you use it. It's bound to be required when you don't have one.

The good thing is that I had Service Pack 2 on the install CD.. which saved me installing that seperately.
I added Office 2003 to the build and then applied the Office 2003 Service Pack 2 Updates to the Office build (I had them on CD).

Now... Windows Update... It seems our newly build machine needed some 39 critical updates for Windows and 4 for Office!

I got a bit smart then... instead of just downloading them... I took note of their KnowledgeBase numbers and downloaded the lot from the Microsoft Download site.

This will mean in future when I build another machine, I can just use these instead of wading through Windows Update and chewing up my valuable download quota!

Some 250MB worth of updates later and it's fully patched!

I've now burnt a DVD-RW with all the updates one needs to bring a SP2 machine upto a fully patched state as of 20/01/2006.

Now... to learn to automate applying them directly after SP2 and it should really cut down the time to deploy a machine. (I know with some of the automation tasks for admins this is possible... just never needed to do it!)

John's machine is now ready and raring to go! I think we'll probably drop it over on Sunday for him if he's free.

As for the coffee machine, it comes with a coffee grinder so we can bu real beans and grind them. Pauline's still playing, but we've had a few coffees already and it's quite good! It's much quieter than our last machine, though it seems to take a little longer to heat the water. All in all it was really cheap and ensures Pauline's able to make her froth again (our frother was broken on the old one... and they wanted $60 to look at it).
It's worked out not much dearer buying a new one.. that includes a coffee grinder. Talk about a throw-away society!