Just recently I’ve devoted my extra time to finding and implementing open-source alternatives for common proprietary business applications. So far I’ve had great success in getting the solutions up and running, and I’ve been nothing short of impressed on how much community support they receive.

I will start writing comparisons on the Commercial VS. Open-Source solutions I’ve come across and tested, but for now i’ll simply list a few that i’ve been very happy with:

Commercial / OSS Alternative

Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes / Zimbra Collaboration Suite

Microsoft Live Communications Server / Asterisk + Openfire

Microsoft SharePoint / Alfresco (Not yet implemented)

Microsoft CRM / SugarCRM Community

Microsoft Office / OpenOffice or IBM’s Symphony

There’s still a few things that I cannot go without, which is Active Directory. SAMBA 4 will come with DC emulation built-in, but it’s still not out. Until then i’ll keep working on other OSS alternatives to see if i can completely eliminate Microsoft or otherwise commercial software in a small environment.