Re: [Fsfe-uk] Re: An ignorant question?

[ian]

On Tue, 2003-06-10 at 08:35, Neil Darlow wrote:
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> Hi,
> 
> In response to Ian Lynch's statement that client-server and web browser are 
> the way to go for e.g. an accountancy suite, I would offer the following in 
> mitigation of a more dedicated solution.

> 1) A networked client/server model may be convenient but it is potentially 
> less secure than a locally run solution.

Well if banks are prepared to do on-line transactions I don't see why
you can't make it secure. You could of course simply run on your own
local network if you trust it or run on a single machine as
client/server. At least you have the choice.

> 2) Both KDE and Gnome feature object embedding technology that would permit 
> accounts data to be embedded in spreadsheets, word processed documents etc. 
> which a web browser based solution would have difficulty in emulating. I 
> don't discount a more traditional X interface (please, no more X-windows, 
> there is no such beast :) as provided by e.g. Lesstif.

To me that functionality is less important than flexibility. OLE is IMHO
less of a priority than being able to simply transfer data to other apps

> 3) Consider the case of an individual running SQL Ledger on a laptop with a 
> wireless network interface. Not only does he need to have apache installed 
> but he may also need to secure it for localhost-only access. Sensitive 
> accounts may require him to run an HTTPS server with the additional setup 
> that requires.

We would do it for him a lot less expensively than the cost of Sage ;-)

> 4) I accept that a SQL database is a good medium for accounts data storage 
> but 
> we should also consider technologies such as XML for data interchange and 
> what about encryption of the data for sensitive applications? Just 
> arbitrarily using a client/server database model might not be the most 
> appropriate solution in this scenario.

Ideally have both, but if we do finally extricate ourselves from Sage, I
will go for a web based system and SQL ledger already exists.

-- 
ian <address@hidden>