Drew Robb

August 25th was supposed to be the end of the free world as we know it. Editors spent months preparing headlines such as: A million small businesses go under in one day; Corporate America at a complete standstill; Internet criminals and hackers run amok as normal security features are immobilized; and Death to Microsoft — […]

Linux has earned a mostly deserved reputation for being overly technical. While the IT guys may think Linux is all easy to install, it’s not unusual for the average SMB owner to go blank after reading the first few lines of the set-up-and-install instructions. In order to gain broad support in the consumer and small […]

Forms, forms, forms. The scourge of the small business owner. The enemy of the entrepreneur. The curse of the creative mind. Can’t live with them, can’t do business without them. Despite the hype about the paperless society, Americans fill out 100 billion forms every year. According to analyst firm CAP Ventures, each form costs about […]

Making the switch from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice can save you a lot of money on licensing fees, and it isn’t difficult — most people get used to the changes quickly. But if you’ve been using MS Office for the best part of a decade and learned a few of its tricks along the way, […]

If you’re thinking about buying the latest version of Microsoft Office, it’s going to cost you $399 for each PC you own (or $239 if you qualify for an upgrade from an older version). If you need at least five copies, you might qualify for some kind of volume discount, but even then you’ll probably […]

A file server is a specialized PC that holds large numbers of files that many people on a network can access. It “serves up” files to everyone instead of each person having files on his or her own PC. The good news is that you don’t have to be a network guru to set up […]

Many small businesses are turning to Linux as way to swim against the tide of rising software costs. Are you thinking about diving into Linux for your small business? From the outside, Linux can appear to be a deep ocean of strange jargon in unchartered waters. Who has the time to wade through all that […]

Building a data storage and backup system is a lot like buying an insurance plan. You know your small business should have it, but you hope you never have to use it. For small businesses — often without dedicated IT staff responsible for storage and backup — having that insurance policy is critical. And just […]

The Open Source community is loudly proclaiming that the Linux desktop is ready for prime time. As a result, many small businesses are considering the move, hoping the switch will mean that with a miniscule investment in software, they can run much of their company on Linux. Here, then, are a few of the pros […]

Everywhere you turn it seems there is another ad for Vonage — a VoIP-based phone service (define) that uses a broadband connection to save money on calls. Even the traditional telephone and cable companies are starting to push the service. The technology of VoIP itself is not new — telephone companies have been using it […]

Not so long ago, Linux was only for the technically adept. Then large enterprises claimed it as their own — only they possessed internal resources aplenty to confront its complexity. These days, however, more and more small- and mid-sized businesses are moving to the fastest-growing Operating System (OS) for good, solid reasons — and they […]

There is no doubt that choosing the wrong software path can place severe strain on a small company’s operating budget. Many have tried to make do with commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS), only to find after a prolonged battle with the program, that their specific needs demanded professionally developed software. Others insist on reinventing the wheel […]