Carla Schroder

The biggest impact that open source software offers small business in 2014 takes place in the cloud. Open source software powers the cloud—where you can take advantage of both hosted software and services, and hosted IT infrastructure (e.g., servers). We’re already used to hosted services such as Web and mail hosting. They’re convenient and cheap, […]

Your small business needs a good website, so you’re looking for a good Web hosting service. You want reliability, good support, and good performance. The Webhosting Talk forum is a great place to learn which companies are reliable and which to shun. But beyond that, you need to know how to get the most bang for your […]

Doubtless you’ve heard of Linux, free software, and open source software. It’s important for small business owners to understand the finer points of these, because knowing what they are, and what role they play, is crucial to developing a smart business strategy. Let’s start with a quick overview: Linux is a computer operating system, like Microsoft Windows, […]

Small business owners need great looking images on their websites and for their printed materials. If you want to make your images look their best, but you don’t want to spend a ton of money to do it, you’ve come to the right place. Read on. One of the best open source graphics programs is […]

The National Security Administration has been in the news a whole lot lately, and it’s been a busy little snoop, spying on virtually every form of communication used by humankind. Those of us who care about our privacy—and small business security—can turn to good, strong open source tools to try to protect our information from […]

Your customers and potential customers hunger for information, but they don’t always want to deal with salespeople. That’s why podcasts and videos make such great promotional tools for your small business. You can showcase your products, demonstrate how to use them, and serve up ingenious tips and tricks. I encourage you to invest some serious […]

Small businesses encompass a wide range of occupations, and some of them are less common than others. They often require niche or specific software. Fortunately, there’s a lot of great open source software to support these businesses. In this roundup we’ll learn about great open source software for some of the more unusual professions: music […]

Tracking money, managing payroll and tracking stocks are just some of the financial tasks small business owners need to handle. And although one size doesn’t fit all, open source software offers a great range of financial software to suite just about any small business. Here are five of my favorite packages. Simple Finance Managers Not […]

Did you know that when you delete a file on your computer it isn’t really deleted? Your computer marks the space the file uses on the hard disk as available, but the file is still there. The good news is that you can easily recover the deleted file — if you catch it before your […]

Most of us need a similar basic set of software: Web browser, office suite, financial software, graphics editing, and backup software. You don’t need to fork over big money for any of these — instead, try these excellent free-of-cost open source alternatives. Some of these titles are cross-platform, some run only on Linux. (Please read 5 […]

In 5 Top Linux Computer Vendors for Small Business and 3 Open-Source Point-of-Sale Systems for Small Business, I discussed the Linux operating system as a reliable, secure alternative to computers running Microsoft Windows, and we profiled some of the best Linux vendors and support options. In this article, I take a look at some of the excellent Linux video-creation […]

A lot of small businesses are reluctant to try Linux because they think it means moving away from Microsoft Windows, and you can’t blame them. Change is disruptive, and while a lot of software applications are cross-platform, most aren’t, so leaving Windows often means leaving favorite software behind. However, the choice is not either-or, because […]