[Jewelry making - Article 00940] - Re: [Orchid] Open source software for jewelry business

[Daniel Culver]

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Hi Andreas,

    Interesting question. I use open source almost exclusively. I
    purchase Apple OSX for my operating system which is based on open
    source and plays happily with many programs out there. The main
    difference between proprietary software and open source is the
    libraries. Proprietary has most if not all libraries enclosed in it
    own wrapper, where as open source uses publicly available libraries.
    A blessing and a curse. For power hungry work like graphic arts or
    cutting edge work like magazine business open source is fantastic if
    you can stay abreast of the continuos up grades in these libraries.
    There is help out there. For libraries there is help; For Mac users
    there is Fink

    http://www.finkproject.org 

    and Darwin Ports 
    http://www.macports.org or http://www.darwinports.com 

    and others. For Linux there are many more places to go. For pc I
    don't know but google can help. 

    I use LaTex for all my paper work, and this would take some getting
    used to, at least a few months. I use Gerbins i-installer

    http://ii2.sourceforge.net 
    http://www.tug.org/texshowcase 

    and Texshop GUI 

    http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop/texshop.html 

    very user friendly. You will need to add a couple style files from
    CTAN to get what you need for invoices, TCO Browser 

    http://tcobrowser.sourceforge.net 

    makes it a little easier. I use invoice package from Oliver Corff, it
    is letter style invoices and has french translations easily
    available. You would be able to email Oliver and he will help you
    within a few days usually. I take it from your email that you are in
    France and LaTex is very good for french language work. There is a
    LaTex forum for Mac that you should check out even if you are on
    other systems. They are very friendly. MacOSX-TeX AT email.esm.psu.edu
    and 

    http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex 

    I keep templates of invoices and packing list ex-cetera, with all the
    items I sell on the template that are commented out. I can then just
    activate what I need and run the document through LaTex and it is
    finished. If I don't add a personal note I can do an invoice with
    three clicks plus the number of items I am putting in the invoice. I
    then get a pdf for email or printing. For email pdf are nice because
    they are redacted and locked so less chance of being scammed. 

    I use Scribus 

    http://www.scribus.net

    to organize my output from LaTex for any news letters and NVU

    http://www.nvu.com

    can help build web content with out knowing html. 

    For bookkeeping I tried a few and have never really been happy with
    any so I use a older version of Quicken I got in a bundle and am
    happy. I use MySQL 

    http://www.mysql.com

    for inventory and mileage records. It can be hard at times and I
    don't care for the effort, but, most commercial databases are fairly
    out of date by time they are released and you are tied in for life,
    where as MySQL can be migrated to newer versions and other DB's such
    as Postgre. 

    For graphic art Inkscape, Gimp and Blender are all well documented
    and are as easy to as their counter parts. My daughter grew up with
    Inkscape and she had to recently work with Illustrator for school
    and found them to be equal. My son is animating some of his school
    work in Blender. All info is available in ASK or Google. 

    I have many other open source programs to numerous to mention for
    other small tasks. Once you get to a couple of forums for the areas
    you are most interested in you will find everything you need. Open
    source is difficult to start with, but, most forums and archives are
    good and you will be comfortable within a few months. 

Daniel Culver
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