For small businesses, the move to a free desktop is hampered by the lack of viable accounting software. Whatever the benefits of switching away from Windows, most businesses can't ignore the convenience, management information, and reduced accountants' fees they enjoy by using the likes of Sage or QuickBooks. While free software fans are able to restrict their software choices in the pursuit of ideological purity, the typical small business owner has to be more pragmatic.

Today there is at least one top-tier open source accounting package. TurboCASH, from South Africa's Pink Software, claims superior functionality to its closed source rivals, is licensed under the GPL, and has a user base of more than 30,000. It even integrates directly with the OSCommerce and Zen Cart ecommerce applications. However, as a Windows-only application, it hasn't solved the free software desktop problem for small business -- until now.

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