[pianotech] [OT] Stuff Which Should Really Be on PTG-L

[Duaine Hechler]

Mark,

That is all well and good - BUT - there are less expensive and dare I say even - FREE - alternatives to be considered.

The Open Source movement is very popular and aggressive.

Pardon my French, but you can find damn near any anything from the Open Source movement to fit almost anything for FREE.

You just have to do some research, look for it - AND - get over the fact that it has to run on "Windows".

FREE Case in points:
Open Office (MS Office alternative), Firefox (Internet Explorer alternative), Thunderbird (MS Outlook alternative), VLC 
(MS Media Player alternative), Quasar (Business Accounting), and many, many more. Also, like eGroupware.

The last time I looked - over 80% of the web servers - world wide - are running Linux.

My take,
Duaine

On 07/05/2011 10:44 AM, Mark Purney wrote:
> Ryan,
>
> You're comparing apples to oranges. A piano technician typically has a very simple website, which exists only to 
> provide some basic information and look pretty. It serves the simple needs of one person who makes all the decisions 
> without committees, boards, or councils. Clients are usually kept track of with a simple spreadsheet or database 
> program, and the website and database have no need for online integration.
>
> The PTG requires tons more technology to support the needs of the Home Office and all the other groups that must work 
> together within the organization, and the membership tracking has to be extremely sophisticated and flexible. 
> Everything must work together on a server, and there is a huge amount of data that must go back and forth to make it 
> all happen. To a non-programmer, it may all look like simple stuff. But the reality is that even the most 
> basic-looking functions on a website like ptg.org took some programmer many hours to implement. And when all of these 
> simple-looking things must work together reliably, the server-side programming to support it all becomes incredibly 
> complex. It's more than we can expect inexpensive, consumer-grade tools to handle.
>
> The growing needs of our organization make it necessary to use much more expensive, sophisticated, yet generic tools 
> that don't necessarily do everything the way we'd like.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> The PTG needs to trac
>
>
> On 7/5/2011 7:40 AM, Ryan Sowers wrote:
>> You will also find piano technicians who manage over 4000 clients without having to invest in software that costs 
>> tens of thousands of dollars.
>
>


-- 
Duaine Hechler
Piano, Player Piano, Pump Organ
Tuning, Servicing&  Rebuilding
Reed Organ Society Member
Florissant, MO 63034
(314) 838-5587
dahechler at att.net
www.hechlerpianoandorgan.com
--
Home&  Business user of Linux - 11 years