I attended the launch of Kalkulate at IBM WebservicesLive, and to say the least, I was quite impressed. The price was quite affordable, the features looked sufficient(and Sudhir promised that the gaps between Tally and Kalkulate would close in the next few months), and the promise of free upgrades for the next year sounded nice. I am looking forward to the issue of 'IT' which will come out with a copy.
Yes, it was closed source, but unlike other closed source Linux apps vendors,I really appreciated that an actual serious effort was made to reduce the ill effects of close-sourcing a lot - making the whole functionality available through APIs, storing the data on Postgres and making it available to other apps. This effectively means that they have taken the commendable step of making the exit barrier come down. They should really be lauded for this brave step! To my knowledge, NO other closed software on Linux has even made such an effort. And it comes with a full Linux distrib! A complete solution for SOHO and other segments! Yes, it is closed source! But face it. Would you rather have a pirated copy on Tally running on pirated copies of Windoze all over India, or legal copies of Kalkulate running on Free Linux? Who knows? With so many people who might be using Kalkulate in the future, there might be a new wave of widespread interest in other Linux apps too? What do you want? There is no other similar product in the market! Tally claims that they have a Linux version costing Rs. 20,000+. Kalkulate costs Rs.2,000 for single organisations! GNUCash is nowhere near on features, and is not relevant to Indian accounting anyway. So what is it is closed source?It is HERE right now. Are you going to wait for a FA software to be made and THEN use it? Or are you going to use what is available RIGHT NOW. Don't make the mistake of the GNU folks with Hurd - their claim of perfection. Linux is here, with all it's imperfections, but IS HERE. And it is making a difference. Closed Source is not the embodiment of evil. It is a just different point of view, which clashes with the ideals and objectives of the OpenSource world. You don't like it - don't use it. Better still, go ahead and make an OpenSource alternative if you can. If you can't, don't stop progress, don't prevent people with an alternative view of business, and most importantly don't stop the customers from getting something that is certainly going to benefit them(even though we all wish that the benefits could have been much more,...much more fundamental). In short, if I want to get something done, between "no pleasant choice", and "a choice which stings a bit", I would go ahead for the second one, thank you. - Sandip -- Sandip Bhattacharya sandipb <@> bigfoot.com http://www.sandipb.net ================================================ To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe in subject header. Check archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd%40wpaa.org
