Free LIMS – An Oxymoron? Really

Re CSol blog post, 'Free LIMS an Oxymoron'. Uninformed, and very old misconception, but one we struggle with every day as users 'mistake themselves for paying clients'.


Who’s going to aid implementation? Volunteer help from the LIMS' community, or its certified professionals. See John Joyce's work on FOSS evaluation The author is correct re implementation costs, often double that of licensing, and the only saving with FOSS LIMS. It can be used by unlimited users, also sans DBMS or Operating System fees. Customisation, configuration, training, support and maintenance are the same In FOSS, labs are free to customise themselves, not locked to vendors, and have full ownership with a free upgrade path. Much reduced risk Less dependent on commercial services, hard-working labs are rewarded. IME, a 30% saving applies with everything delivered, but often see good really cheap installations by labs, cherry-picking the pro services they need *Whether there are any truly viable, full featured, open source LIMS available?* Speaking for myself *OLiMS recently launched to fill the void* Built on Bika LIMS, not us, last progress report 15 Dec 2015. (Update. Not following Open Source principles, Olims failed miserably early 2016) Pseudo-vendors utilizing the Free LIMS paradigm to make revenue? If the author refers to Bika, we adhere to the Professional Open Source Software model yes. *Via services provided. Full featured, broad based, open source LIMS provider available today* Indeed
Lemoene, 19 July 2016

Who’s going to aid implementation?

Volunteer help from the LIMS' community, or its certified professionals. See John Joyce's work on FOSS evaluation

The author is correct re implementation costs, often double that of licensing, and the only saving with FOSS LIMS. It can be used by unlimited users, also sans DBMS or Operating System fees. Customisation, configuration, training, support and maintenance are the same

In FOSS, labs are free to customise themselves, not locked to vendors, and have full ownership with a free upgrade path. Much reduced risk

Less dependent on commercial services, hard-working labs are rewarded. IME, a 30% saving applies with everything delivered, but often see good really cheap installations by labs, cherry-picking the pro services they need

Whether there are any truly viable, full featured, open source LIMS available?

Speaking for myself

OLiMS recently launched to fill the void

Built on Bika LIMS, not us, last progress report 15 Dec 2015. (Update. Not following Open Source principles, Olims failed miserably early 2016)

Pseudo-vendors utilizing the Free LIMS paradigm to make revenue?

If the author refers to Bika, we adhere to the Professional Open Source Software model yes.

Via services provided. Full featured, broad based, open source LIMS provider available today

Indeed

Lemoene, 19 July 2016