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A comment on Ask HN: What FOSS do you wish existed that currently doesn't?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: What FOSS do you wish existed that currently does... by smoldesu on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @01:55PM (#33166558)
Those are services, not software. They might have software frontends (which could easily be replaced by FOSS), but their actual value proposition is the fact that they hire hundreds of people to do human-people-stuff.
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Re:Ask HN: What FOSS do you wish existed that currently does... by jqpabc123 on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @02:33PM (#33167214)
Those are services, not software.

Most US businesses do their payroll in-house --- using proprietary software --- mainly due to cost reasons.

Companies that outsource payroll to a service provider are actually a minority --- mostly larger businesses.

https://www.civica.com/en-us/insights/managed-payroll-or-in-...

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Re:Ask HN: What FOSS do you wish existed that currently does... by smoldesu on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @02:36PM (#33167254)
Yes, and FOSS payroll software also exists. People don't use it because they'd rather pay for a service that offers support (another service) and absolves them of liability (another service).
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Re:Ask HN: What FOSS do you wish existed that currently does... by jqpabc123 on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @02:44PM (#33167395)
Show me some FOSS for US payroll and I will tell you why it's inadequate for a lot (if not most) businesses.
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Re:Ask HN: What FOSS do you wish existed that currently does... by smoldesu on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @02:54PM (#33167548)
It doesn't take a business degree to repeat what I told you in the last comment.
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Re:Ask HN: What FOSS do you wish existed that currently does... by jqpabc123 on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @03:10PM (#33167794)
I'm not asking for a repeat, I'm asking you to substantiate your claim that "FOSS payroll software also exists". There is next to nothing available and certainly nothing that I would classify as "adequate".

This is just one example --- specialized business software is almost non-existent in open source. And I see no reason to believe this will change any time soon.

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