Can open source replace your office servers?

When http://www.networxpc.com decided to startup the first thing we talked about was providing small businesses with open source alternatives. What we found was surprising and a bit annoying at the same time.

Not only did we easily find alternatives for almost every single Microsoft based server in the small business sector, but we also found alternatives that worked better with more features.

Here is a small run down of what can be fairly easily replaced with open source software. And yes Networx pc supports them all.

• Microsoft exchange (Alternative offers a great web interface, desktop app, or even use Outlook)
• File server (No surprise since Linux and open source have been doing this since day 1)
• Active Directory with or without roaming profiles (This was a big surprise for me, people spend thousands on MS based AD servers, and a similar alternative is available for free)
• Backup server (No matter if its a single file or an entire drive the Open Source community has this one under wraps with very easy and stable setup)
• Groupware (Sharing information is big in most businesses. weather its calendars, notes, files, or documents. We found several alternatives that leave customers asking "Why did I spend so much on our solution?")

A big reason many of these "Alternatives" are not used is because most IT based businesses can't see any way to make money on them. However, if you look outside the mid west you will find dozens possibly hundreds of businesses making very good money from supporting open source. The money doesn't come from selling some junk software that needs constant hand holding. Instead it comes from offering support and configuration of the system and selling of hardware the system will run on.

Not only does this make customers happy, but the business providing the support has far less out of pocket expense getting a customer setup then a similar business using proprietary software. The servers themselves are also more cost effective due to no longer needed constant updating and rebooting, or an anti-virus solution to protect the server from rouge malware.

With all of this said let me assure you that open source may not be the right solution for every situation. Some businesses rely very heavy on Microsoft or system specific software and possibly hardware. With time these businesses may get an alternative that suits them. But for now its best to take great care and do plenty of research before implementing any open source system.

We see great potential for what we offer, and we hope our customers will to.

Jeff L. Richtman

V.P. Networx PC LLC

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Island Paradise Fishing Helper.

Its a nice day outside and you want to go out and do something, but your Island Paradise game needs tending. What do you do?

Let it fish for you. In a span of about 10 hours of no interaction our little app was able to catch around 700-800 coins worth of fish and junk (Wood, Cans, boots etc) All by fishing for you.

How it works:

The script sits watching your island for several images. First the whirl pool, this is where fishing begins. Once the script find a whirl pool it move the mouse over to click on it. This throws down the net. It then automatically click the Save button for you. The script also click the "Skip" button on most boxes that pop-up. So no interruptions caused by wanting you to play other games, or notify your friends of you catch.

Once time has expired and a fish pops up. The script will move the mouse over to click on the new fish. All without you doing anything.

Bugs:

Its not perfect just yet. With glitches in the game and problems with facebook the script can move your island over to one side of the other, making it only possible to catch fish in one area.

Anything under the save button such as land, grass or even your avatar will make the save feature no longer work. Since it is looking for an exact pixel match in the image.

Other windows that may pop up such as Windows updates, or third party software can also cause problems as the script continues to run no matter what is on the screen.

Conclusion:

Its for these reasons why we are not actually releasing the little program for download. We don't want people complaining about damage done to their data. There is little worse then a rouge mouse clicking on random things.

If you would like to try it out however, please contact either myself or kat. If you don't know how please email webmaster at jeicrash dot net and I'll send you a copy.

You will need Autohotkey in order for the script to work, I will not be giving out compiled exe's of this script.