If you support multiple desktops, which one gets top billing? Kind of like Lennon and McCartney (please tell me that most of my readers are old enough to get the reference…), it doesn’t really matter very much — there’s so much awesome in each one that it’s just not possible to detract from the choices with an arbitrary decision about which one should go first.

Aria Systems provides applications that let companies perform automated billing services.

Large Internet Service Providers are trying to force us into Usage Based Billing. This serious issue concerns everyone who uses the Internet.

New Zealand software company Amberdms has released a Web-based open source accounting and billing application aimed at simplifying business and customer management.

OTRS is an open source software system for managing a wide range of business processes, from Help Desk to Support Center to IT Service Management. Based on a set of functions built on a "trouble ticket," OTRS is built to allow support, sales, pre-sales, billing, internal IT, support desk and many other departments to react quickly and responsibly to inbound inquires.

OpenITWorks CEO Michael Grove contends that it is a mistake to think of commercial open source as its own business model. Instead, open source is one of many possible means to an end of making a single software business model successful -- that of selling value to customers through software. Businesses should focus their strategic planning on how to best monetize their value propositions, through open source or something else.

Unverifiable paperless voting systems are still considered normal in many states; The software that counts our votes is secret proprietary property of Diebold, Sequoia, et al; The system is unnecessarily difficult to use (or impossible to use) for citizens with disabilities; Election judges still strain to divine voter intent on a significant percentage of ballots

This document describes how to set up the Open Ticket Request System (OTRS) on Fedora 8. Taken from the OTRS page: "OTRS is an Open source Ticket Request System (also well known as trouble ticket system) with many features to manage customer telephone calls and e-mails. The system is built to allow your support, sales, pre-sales, billing, internal IT, helpdesk, etc.

Popular open-source software development site SourceForge.net hosted the equivalent of the open-source Oscars on Thursday evening, billing the event as a big party, not a painfully long and formal awards ceremony.