Business Link Surrey kindly provided the venue for our May meeting, held at their offices conveniently located in the centre of Woking.

After the structured networking session held for early starters by Paul Cawthorne, we prepared for the main events by more relaxed networking over the splendid buffet again provided by our hosts.

Richard Leads Off

The main presentations were kicked off in front of a good turnout despite the absence of those watching Liverpool versus Chelsea on television. First Richard Butcher gave us a fresh overview of the main services that Business Link offer to businesses in the County. These include the more well-known starter sessions which many SBC members attended at the beginning of their new businesses. Richard also touched on the advice clinics that are available when businesses reach a hurdle or need fresh input to deal with a problem or opportunity. Your editor used just one of these advisers a few weeks ago. Business Link's Supplier Matching Service was also highlighted and it was interesting to note that several club members are registered on it and some have had business from it and some not, probably as one would expect. Business Link are keen to promote this service and to have it more widely used - it clearly has potential. See SBC's earlier article on this subject here.

The Source is Open

After a short break, Paul Introduced Tema Hassan of Gravity Internet as our second main speaker. Tema's presentation covered the potential use of Open Source software in our businesses. The principle behind this software is that it is originally written by people for their own use, but then offered on the web for others to use. The software can then be developed further by others but they must again make it available for all. The key is that in this way, software has been developed which does the same job exactly as that written by the major players, but which is free of any purchase or licencing costs. Examples of this include Open Office, which does the same job as Microsoft Office, with the exception of the Outlook part. Microsoft Office costs around £300 while Open Office is free. So if anyone is tempted to use a pirated or unlicenced version of Microsoft Office, with the risk of a visit from the authorities and a heavy fine, then either buy the proper thing or get Open Office.

Similarly with operating systems, there are open source versions available. Linux is a free cut-down version of Unix written in the sixties, and now you can use Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora or Opensuse too. Tema tells us that Google use Ubuntu on all their in-house PC's and showed us other examples including the Spanish using open source operating system software on all school PC's in particular areas saving millions of euros in the process.

Another benefit we were told of is that Ubuntu for example is much more stable than good old Windows, and will also work on PC's with a lower specification. To prove his point, Tema gave out Ubuntu CD's for people to use for example on an old PC they had previously given up on - with the health warning that they would lose all data on that machine when they installed it!

And Finally

So all in all, Tema pointed out that he was not knocking mainstream software vendors, merely demonstrating that the choice was there to use free software that was compatible, stable and used by the big players too. We finished the evening at the local Wetherspoons, discussing open source software, solving a couple of the world's problems and discovering what Chelsea can do when presented with five penalties in one match!