Re: [school-discuss] Help!

[Jake Maul <jakemaul@cox.net>]

You didn't mention anything specific about the two proposed pieces of 
software, so I'm wondering if you can just substitute the MS-SQL backend 
for an opensource sql server (ala MySQL). If the front-end products are 
just speaking SQL or ODBC, this should be possible and would save a 
small fortune. If you can find out what kind of queries the frontends 
generate, you can check to see if they're supported at the MySQL website 
(there's very little MS-SQL supports that MySQL does not). Even if you 
go with these products, I think I'd at least give it a try before buying 
copies/licenses for MS-SQL Server.

Good luck!
Jake

ptietjens wrote:

> Anyone out there using commercial open source (free as in free speech) 
> software in their administrative functions?
>
> Specifically, I've just been told that after a year of deciding to ditch M$, 
> our district will be purchasing two (two!)  major pieces of software running 
> with M$ SQL backends;  financial and student management programs.
>
> I'd take DB2, Oracle, whatever!  At this point, I'm not even concerned about 
> open source (though that would solve some of the headaches we've had with our 
> existing apps for these purpsoses) as long as it isn't Microsoft!
>
>