Weekly Edition
Return to the Development pageSponsored link
Serve your customers, not your servers, with VERIO Linux VPS. Full-access test-drive here.
| Weekly edition | Kernel | Security | Distributions | Search |
| Archives | Calendar | Subscribe | Write for LWN | LWN.net FAQ |
Quasar Accounting under the GPL
| From: | Phil Tonnellier <phil-AT-linuxcanada.com> | |
| To: | pr-AT-lwn.net | |
| Subject: | Quasar Released in Open Source | |
| Date: | Thu, 13 Jan 2005 06:45:56 -0700 |
Dear Sir, Please find details of the Quasar Accounting release into Open Source. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, January 13, 2005 Linux Canada Inc. announces Quasar(tm) Accounting software is now "Open Source" available under GPL. ALBERTA, CANADA - Linux Canada Inc. proudly announces the release of Quasar Accounting into "open source". In addition, Linux Canada is pleased to announce the release of Version 1.4 of Quasar Accounting, Quasar Retail and Quasar Point-of-Sale. Quasar Accounting - Open Source Model For some time Linux Canada Inc. has been viewing and studying the open source code models. As strong believers and supporters of Linux and open source the company has recognized that it is impossible for one small development team to support business needs world wide in a closed source environment. It is also apparent, in these changing times, that source code is paramount to resellers and users taking a business application seriously. In the past two years over 30,000 copies of Quasar Accounting have been downloaded. And now, with the release of Version 1.4, Quasar Accounting is a solid and more complete product. The company feels the timing is right to move to open source with the Quasar Accounting application. Linux Canada Inc. will continue to develop Quasar Accounting and will make the source code available for download from our source code repository for resellers, end users and open source enthusiasts. Linux Canada Inc. has expanded its support program options and will also make commercial Quasar Accounting licenses available for those who require or desire such licenses. Quasar Retail and Quasar Point-of-Sale are available with a commercial license. Quasar Accounting, Quasar Retail and Quasar Point-of-Sale - Release 1.4 Version 1.4 now supports PostgreSQL, in addition to the Firebird and Sybase databases. There are substantial new and improved functions including new security controls, improved lookup and search features, and the addition of several new screens and reporting functions. The new automatic ordering function which is based on min/max levels and/or sales history, makes creating purchase orders very fast and easy. New day-end and cash reconciliation procedures enhance the day-end process for our retail customers. To download a copy of Quasar Version 1.4, consult the Linux Canada Inc. web site at http://www.linuxcanada.com. Linux Canada Inc. is a privately owned corporation based in Alberta, Canada. Its mission is to provide the world with the most powerful and affordable accounting, retail and point-of-sale software. Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. QUASAR(tm) is a trademark of Linux Canada Inc. For further information please contact: Philip Tonnellier President Linux Canada Inc. Suite #1230, 246 Stewart Green S.W. Calgary, Alberta T3H 3C8 - Canada Phone: (250) 344-3085 Fax: (250) 344-3086 email: phil@linuxcanada.com http://www.linuxcanada.com
(Log in to post comments)
Quasar Accounting under the GPL
Posted Jan 13, 2005 17:02 UTC (Thu) by azhrei_fje (guest, #26148) [Link]
Just FYI, I didn't realize from the article upon first reading that it was the Accounting package only that was being released open source. The Retail and Point-of-Sale products are still commercial license only. (Going back and reading the press release again after having visited the FAQ on their web site made that clear.)
Overall, I'm quite pleased to see the open source community gain the benefit of business software; this is one area that has been sorely lacking if we, as a community, are going to promote our favorite open source operating system as a solution to small businesses.
loss leader?
Posted Jan 13, 2005 18:26 UTC (Thu) by ccyoung (subscriber, #16340) [Link]
not necessarily criticizing, but it seems to me this is a loss leader to sell their retail and pos packages. the pos, btw, is $300 per terminal.
cups is doing something similar: a functional version free or you can buy the high class version of the same.
not trying to be a purist (not), but it is as if companies were using the GPL as an advertising ploy.
loss leader?
Posted Jan 13, 2005 19:02 UTC (Thu) by allesfresser (subscriber, #216) [Link]
If you don't need the retail functions then it's not that bad. Everything is set up using Canadian terminology (which is quite logical, considering their name...) :-) and it does seem like the software is oriented toward a retail management angle from what I've seen (although I'm certainly no kind of accountant... perhaps a CPA could weigh in on how it stacks up?)
The addition of PostgreSQL support is very nice, and it sets up fairly easily. Overall I'd say it's not a serious competitor to Quickbooks quite yet. Of course, your mileage may vary. Caveat emptor (in regards to my opinion, as well as the software.) :-)
loss leader?
Posted Jan 13, 2005 19:28 UTC (Thu) by Webexcess (subscriber, #197) [Link]
Not a ploy.. have you seen what competing software costs?
They've just GPL'd the product that they had been giving away at zero cost but with a restrictive license before.
loss leader?
Posted Jan 13, 2005 19:51 UTC (Thu) by peace (guest, #10016) [Link]
If Linux Canada is using it as a "loss leader" I don't see the problem. The accounting package is quite good and is GPL, which should satisfy any purist, so I'm not sure where your problem lies with them.
We use Quasar to manage our small business books and do sales quotes and invoices. It has been an excellent product, much better than what the anti-business GNUCash had to offer at the time. I know GNUCash has recently added business features but I haven't taken a look recently. Quasar is client server/multi user with permission management which has been very helpfull. It also has a redimentary concept of workflow which makes it easier to use and train on than some other options. Our accountant likes it too.
One thing that Quasar is lacking is good reporting though. I hope that the GPL'ing of their code will help with that.
I don't get the sense that they are doing this as a 'ploy'. I think it simply makes great business sense for them as it will get them onto to distro CD's where they can potentially get some market penetration in the developing Linux as POS system area. I have been wishing they would do this for several years. Thanks Linux Canada!
Kind Regards
loss leader?
Posted Jan 13, 2005 22:35 UTC (Thu) by allesfresser (subscriber, #216) [Link]
I'm not sure that I would describe gnucash as "anti-business", but I can assure you that I would describe it as "anti-sanity"--if you've ever tried to install it from source, you know exactly what I mean. Building quasar was a breeze... a most refreshing change.
loss leader?
Posted Jan 13, 2005 23:35 UTC (Thu) by peace (guest, #10016) [Link]
For quite awhile GNUCash resisted adding any business related features. they were quite vocal about _not_ wanting to include features specific to business users as they felt it would complicate the product for home users, which they considered their desired audience. I'm not faulting the developers or GNUCash but I think that that decision ended up hurting the project in that it isolated them from a very active, needy and committed user base. It was actually quite a strange thing for them to do as they would also state at the same time that one of the aims of GNUCash was to develop an "enterprise" class transaction engine for ERP type accounting. Anyway, for quite awhile it did feel like the developers were anti-business as they would activly discourage suggestions for things like invoicing and customer management. Things that GNUCash is now starting to include.
As for being anti-sanity I do seem to remember running into a lot of tricky library versioning issues when I tried to compile from source. But most distributions include it in their package system so it's easy to install. Hopefully Quasar will start showing up as well. Good to hear Quasar compiles cleanly though.
Kind Regards
loss leader?
Posted Jan 14, 2005 1:30 UTC (Fri) by jonth (subscriber, #4008) [Link]
Not necessarily criticising, but it sounds like you're after "free as in beer" programs, which is most emphatically not what the GPL is about. GPL is not a free ride - it's an opportunity to join and help a community.
It doesn't matter if they're doing this as a ploy (and I agree that it's quite probably a marketing ploy to attenpt to leverage their POS products) or not - the code is GPL, so we can use it without reprisals in other GPL products. Who cares why it's GPL as long as it is!
(And I don't know about you, but the functional version of CUPS works just fine for me)
loss leader?
Posted Jan 14, 2005 2:32 UTC (Fri) by bpepers (guest, #27237) [Link]
As one of the two people who decided to go the open source route and as the developer of 99.999% of Quasar I can tell you that the choice to go open source is a more complicated one than simply saying its a loss leader. There is a pride aspect of seeing your software used all over the world and I personally get a lot out of this. There is a feeling that the business accounting area has reached the point where its ripe for a good open source product to take over and I want my product to be that and not one of the ones that have to react to it happening. There is a desire to move to more of a support and consulting role rather than trying to sell our product because I think there is more money in this and that its a better model for our product and the market. There is a desire to give something back to the open source community for all I've received in development tools and other software. There is the desire to get more eyes on the code and more testers to make Quasar a better product. There is the feeling that Linux is such a wonderful fit for business operations and the desire to see it used more in this area. Its hard to decide which of these is the most dominant one since it changes over time...
And there are also negative aspects to the open source route. There is the fear that you will lose all control of your product after many years of very long hours to get it where it is. There is the worry that I've done something really stupid in the code so it can be daunting to have it all hanging out there for review. There is the worry that you will be misunderstood in the effort to try to balance open source with making a living. There is the fear that while this may make Quasar very popular it might kill the revenue stream that I depend on to allow me to continue working on Quasar.
I hope to help build a community around Quasar and to see it grow into a giant of the business accounting world and of course I hope to find a way to make a buck along the way to stay in business!
loss leader?
Posted Jan 14, 2005 14:01 UTC (Fri) by headsman (guest, #17057) [Link]
Weel, I wish you good in all this!
I've also read the FAQ about the licencing, and I'm very glad to see that you understand just right the use of the GPL; because I tought that you would do something similar to MySQL, which I believe to be wrong about their licencing understanding (but someone can tell me I'm wrong here).
Best regards.
Quasar && QB
Posted Jan 14, 2005 22:48 UTC (Fri) by a_hippie (subscriber, #34) [Link]
Bravo bpepers for making your decision to GPL this part of your package. Since this company was so kind to respond to an earlier querry from me regarding a package that is enough QB like to help migrate my wife over from vintage MS98. I think you have made the right decision personally. I hope to see the package(s) appear in some of the well known/used distro's.... that would get the exposure going and begin the feedback process.
I really hope you make it happen! Good luck to you are your partners there.
loss leader?
Posted Jan 14, 2005 8:24 UTC (Fri) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]
Even if it's so - it's two-edged sword: such a move will quite severely limit their ability to abuse paying customers.
Any free software needs initial "seed" - minimal yet functional version. GPL version if functional can easily act like such a seed. So it makes much harder for them to abuse users in the future - even if it's marketing ploy it gives users real benefits so why it's a bad thing ?
loss leader redux
Posted Jan 14, 2005 20:32 UTC (Fri) by ccyoung (subscriber, #16340) [Link]
apologize for the phrase "not necessarily criticizing" - ill-considered.
1) what interests me is how companies are trying to use the GPL to further their business goals and the compromises made within the company in doing so.
a common means, such as cups, interbase/firebird, and quasar, seems to me to release a standard, usable subset of their product, hoping this will help attract richer clients to their higher level products.
in the case of cups, other apps, eg kde, have built on the base cups package, filling out a lot of functionality. how has this has effected their business plan?
in the case of quasar, what if someone were to write a foss pos module that would use their accounting? how will this would effect their business plan and the careers of the initiating employees?
2) overlooked is the amount of work to gpl one's code. for example, there are two of my projects which would be minor canidates, but the the amount of work to make the source public presentable is simply more than can afford.
3) great to hear from the quasar programmer. absolutely agree with him about good accounting packages needed. and will absolutely be joining with him if agree about his product.
loss leader redux
Posted Jan 14, 2005 23:58 UTC (Fri) by bpepers (guest, #27237) [Link]
Moving to open source certainly takes a lot of work (as I now know first hand 8^) since you need to make sure your code is presentable and easy to build and that any third party proprietary dependencies are removed. This aspect took *much* longer than expected especially since it had to be done on the side so that there was still a regular revenue stream paying for it.
What will happen if someone writes a FOSS POS module that works with Quasar? Well thats certainly a question we've considered. We are trying to make it so that most people can benefit and enjoy Quasar without cost but I don't think its such a bad thing for a retail company that wants to use it to run their store to pay us a small amount (and our pricing is really peanuts in comparison to anything else out there). Also writing a good POS system is much harder than most people realize and ours has some nice advanced features (for instance it can run disconnected from the database and then resync up when attached again so if the server goes down it doesn't hurt your sales operations) so personally I think it would take a while for someone to get a POS system to the point where large retail operations would use it (and ours is used for large combined grocery, gas bar, dry-goods, and hardware store operations). If it happens then it does and we would have to decide what action to take then.
A surprising thing about our decision to have a commercial license to our code was that we had resellers calling us up explicitly to ask us to do this. The retail market has a lot of little niche markets (ski hill operations for instance) that require a lot of customization of a package and they want some protection for their investment of time and development to go after that niche market. Many resellers feel they couldn't compete if their changes were available for free and they want the option of buying a commercial license instead of using the GPL which we respect.
Its an interesting balancing act to get all this right and I hope it works out in the end!