MerchantOS and PHP Point of Sale
by Justin Laing on March 27th, 2007.PHP Point of Sale is an open source project created by Chris Muench. I had the good fortune of talking to Chris about web based point of sale and open source projects. Chris has done a great job with PHP Point of Sale, especially considering he’s done it while attending college and holding down a part time job.
Comparing MerchantOS to PHP Point of Sale
PHP Point of Sale shares some things in common with MerchantOS: Both are written in PHP and use MySQL as the backend database. The biggest difference between PHP Point of Sale and MerchantOS is in what is required of the user. With MerchantOS all you need is a computer with an Internet connection and you can start using our service. PHP Point of Sale is for the more technically advanced user, it requires you to run your own web server and setup the application to run. I’ll be the first to admit that their can be advantages to both approaches. With MerchantOS you’ve got it easy, your data is safe, your system is always up and running on our servers, and we are constantly updating and improving the system for you (not to mention our excellent support, pre-loaded vendor catalogs, and huge set of features). Where PHP Point of Sale beats MerchantOS is when you want to customize the system. With enough time or money you could completely customize PHP Point of Sale to fit your particular needs.
Open Source?
Open Source means that anyone can take PHP Point of Sale and both use it and modify it. It also means that you can contribute your modifications and improvements back to PHP Point of Sale to improve it for everyone.
Will MerchantOS Ever Be Open Source?
We’ve thought a lot about making a version of MerchantOS Open Source. The main reason we haven’t done it is the significant amount of time it would take to get our source code ready. We’d have to make it work well for a single business to use and also take out some of our more powerful features. We can’t give away the whole farm! However, after talking to Chris about his PHP Point of Sale project I’ve got a lot more enthusiasm for moving in this direction. There are many reasons for making an open source version such as publicity and increased revenue opportunities. But a big reason why it appeals to me is because we use a ton of open source projects to make MerchantOS and it would feel great to give something back to the community.
What Do You Think?
Do any of you have experience with Open Source Software? What are your thoughts on making an open source version of MerchantOS? Is it a waste of time? Or a golden opportunity?
March 29th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
WebERP.org is a fine example of giving away the whole “farm” and their revenues have increased several fold in so doing. After all any company with decent revenues is going to have to spend $$$ on some employee to get it running - better go to the developers themselves or to serious contributors to the project from their locality and give them their due! Companies with low reveneue are not going to pay anyway - it is better to hook them for free so that familiarity will breed adoption and recommendation will grow - much like pirated M$ software forcing companies to legalise as their employees are accustomed to “only” it.
March 29th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
Skins, Themes, DB Admin Support, Mods, Implementation, Upgradation, Migration, Training, Integration are fantastic revenue streams of a multiple nature than the mere sale of code.
Code is FREE - It has to be the best of breed
People are not - You have to PAY
March 30th, 2007 at 12:13 am
Yes, it’s definitely a viable business plan to give away a great product that will lead to huge service/development contracts. Also there are people who won’t ever want to host it themselves (most small businesses). So for those people our subscription/hosted service is a great choice.
What I’m worried about is someone taking the code and duplicating our hosted version / subscription service. How can we protect ourselves from that while giving away the most powerful version of our source code? Do you just rely on the fact that people will tend to see you as the legitimate person to buy services from?
May 1st, 2007 at 6:15 am
I just came across your project whilst looking around for POS software for a friend of mine who is opening a pub. He therefore has a very specific requirement which you may not currently cater for (or intend to).
Open Source would allow folks from specialist/fragmented markets (like Hospitality etc) to fund/contribute into a large code pool, you’d suddenly have access to much wider markets. Just as RedHat sell many versions of their Linux for different market sectors, so could you. Just look at the many different distros of Linux currently available yet RedHat continues to grow.
You may also find openings in foreign markets which you didn’t anticipate. I’m sitting in the UK typing this, I could be in Egypt, Bangalore, Singapore….
Making the code freely available doesn’t necessarily mean you loose revenue.
Would you like to become the conductor, instead of having to be the whole orchestra?
May 1st, 2007 at 9:03 am
Kevin,
Thanks for the input! You make an excellent point about customization. We can not customize our product to fit verticals with highly specific needs.
We’re very busy at the moment re-designing our point of sale interface and process, so we won’t be open sourcing anything in the next couple months. But, we are definitely considering open source as a path beyond that!
August 25th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Sounds like a lot of computer programers want you to go open source, and there may lay the problem. Many “would be” great things out there today will not be there in the future. Don’t be in a hurry to give up what may be a great new adventure.
What everyone fails to understand is the customer base. You have to listen to “all” your customers regarding the little things. Keep it simple.
Sure you can get 100 people saying that they want this or that, but all we want is a simple system that gives us the information we need and is easy for everyone to use. If all the programers would just open up a mini virtual business and start selling all kinds of things in this mini virtual store, you would be able to see what everyone needs pretty fast.
you buy something at 50# and you sell that item as 50# but you also sell it out of that 50# bag by the pound, 5#,10# and 25#. But would you know this as a programer if you did not have your mini virtual store. I have a Feed and Pet Store, so everything is totally different than your conventional mini market or wall mart. That one example is what I am searching right now in merchatos.
I guess it may not matter if you are open source or not as long as you listen to the customers out there and not just your customers.
August 26th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Patrick,
Thanks for you’re suggestion we’ll take it under consideration.
Going open source might allow us to focus more on being simple and easy to use because we could allow value added resellers to modify our application for specific verticals. Then we wouldn’t have the need to add features that are only specific to certain types of customers. We could just concentrate on making a super awesome core product that would serve the needs of the majority of small retailers and not clutter the product with features that only a small minority need.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I believe you had best go over your code again.
As you stated, you used many open source packages to create merchantOS?
Is it licensed under GPL?
then I would read it again. Under GPL license if you use any ( any as in the smallest IF statement ) then your entire code becomes open source.
just a heads up.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Hi theguy,
Our software is not licensed under GPL. We meet the requirements of all licenses for any software packages we do use with our own software.
February 8th, 2008 at 3:10 am
Going open-source is a great idea…………… Hurry up and go open-source. I’ve got clients that would love to use that software here is australia.
Cheers. Great software Guys..