Opensource Website Development - Open Source For Small Business

Opensource is widely accepted solutions for big to small businesses.
The lure for opensource is its price. Opensource software is software
that is developed by people with a real interest in developing
applications for everyone to use for free.It is free to use and
usually distributed for free. Some companies packages it up so it can
be easy to install and for this they charge small fees. While some
companies sell the product and give support for limited time.Most of
the opensource product develop for the Linux platform. Before
accepting Linux as operating system assure that Linux support is
adequate if needed. Taking support from the same person who sold you
the software is not a good sign after all. He'll end up owing your
business.Operating cost of opensource is extremely low. You need not
to spend anything on license fee or server fees. Voluntary nature of
developers further reduce the cost. There is no need of any secrecy
for the matter such as audits with the opensource. There are no pesky
encryption or activation code to download. You need not worry about to
pay for any upgrade or for improved version which is already free.If
you want to evaluate opensource for small businesses you have to
establish an evaluation system for opensource. The first step is to
set up a test bed server. This can be older server which can be
reliable and fast enough to approximate in real world results. Most of
the opensource software is Linux based so you have to decide on Linux
distribution. Red Hat Linux and Suse Linux are two of the best and
both are supported by the companies that distribute them.Now, you need
a development environment and a SQL server. MySQL is the best choice.
You need a distribution package. The best for Apache, MySQL and PHP is
XAMPP which can be downloaded at apachefriends.org. Just install in
piece by piece. Make sure that application you are considering has
external support. Also assure that application has user manual. Many
open source packages are released with nothing more than a few
sentences describing the installation process.