Straight To The Source Forget the hassles of licensing software. Feel free to play with the programming. And hey, there's no purchase cost.

Charging customers no money for a major product may not seem tomake much business sense, but that's exactly what a growingnumber of software companies are doing these days. They'rejumping into the so-called open-source market, where giving awayhefty and normally pricey programs is the norm, and profits comemainly from selling follow-up technical support, how-to manuals,and periodic updates and add-ons.

The open-source market is a boon to entrepreneurs, who can nowget for free what they paid hundreds, or even thousands, of dollarsfor in the past. Among the products currently available: Web serverand browser programs, e-mail packages, sophisticated graphicsprograms, financial-management titles, a variety of technicalprograms used mainly by programmers, and Linux (a full-blownoperating system for IBM-compatible PCs and other computers).

Open-source, as you might guess, is a truly Internet-drivenphenomenon. For one thing, these programs are made available fordownloading from the Internet; but unlike shareware, there's nomoral obligation to pay. More important, though, anyone can inspectand build on their source codes--the actual computer instructionsthat normally only a software company's programmers would beallowed to see and modify.

Easily the most visible of the open-source products out thereright now is Linux, which is based on a popular program calledUnix, with upwards of 10 million copies in use worldwide. It'smainly been popular among hard-core programmers and Microsoftbashers who relish it as an alternative to Windows. Can Linux helpsmall businesses? Most likely. So far, it lacks the polished lookand feel of the Macintosh and Windows operating systems, but thereare a growing number of office-oriented programs available forit--everything from word processors to spreadsheets and calendaringsystems. Most are available at no charge, though you will have topay for documentation and support.

One of the most promising new open-source apps is designed forboth Windows and Linux-based computers: a full-function wordprocessor from AbiSource Inc. (http://www.abisource.com). It'sthe first step toward a full office-productivity suite that willcompete with Microsoft Office. Try it--you just might like it. Andif you do, you'll want to buy the book.

John W. Verity reported and edited for 23 years atElectronic News, Datamation and Business Week. Since1997, he has been freelancing from his Brooklyn, New York,home.

Fix Me Up

The countdown to 2000 continues. Are your business'scomputer systems in order, ready for the millennium? Chances areyes, according to a nationwide survey conducted by Irvine,California-based Sage Software Inc. (http://www.sage.com). In May, Sage foundthat 55 percent of the small businesses it polled had alreadyironed out any potential Y2K problems in their systems, and another38 percent were working on the problem. So if you haven't yettackled Y2K, you can rest even uneasier, knowing your competitorsprobably already have. The average amount being spent on such work:$16,600 per business, including the costs of internal and externalemployees, software and hardware fixes, and overall companysupport. Says Dave Butler, Sage Software president and COO,"It appears that Y2K repair costs, once expected to cripplethe small-business market, are being kept in check." Let'shope so.

Next Step

Check out http://linux.davecentral.com foran up-to-date listing and smart reviews of many open-sourceprograms. Or, for a book-length discussion on the topic, you canread OpenSources: Voices From the Open Source Revolution(O'Reilly & Associates) at the publisher's Web site(http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/toc.html).And at http://www.linux.com, runby VA Systems, a supplier of Linux-based PCs, there's moreLinux news than you might ever need.