Most people who even know the term, think of open source software as software you don't have to pay for. I'd like to use my tiny blog as a platform to help eliminate that limited and even incorrect view. I think the best way to explain the reality of open source is to give an example of what makes it different from other types of software.

For the longest time, I had no real invoicing system for my independent contract work. I just never found anything that I really liked and rarely found the inspiration to go looking. But recently, I got in the mood to find a long-term solution. What I found was a lot of hosted solutions, a lot of closed source 'for-purchase' solutions, and a lot of second-rate software.

• PHP Invoice looked nice, but its non-free and not open source
• cInvoice looked ugly and the licensing terms were unpleasant