Ask YC: What software is a must have for startups or small businesses?

Ubuntu: comes with Emacs, Apache, OpenOffice, Ruby, Erlang, Python, Java, the Gimp, Firefox, git... pretty much everything you need to set up and run your business, although the accounting software needs work. And it's all completely free and open source. How cool is that?

Google Applications - Free

The suite of applications that google provides for small businesses such as GMail, Analytics, Adwords, Calendar, Document Processing, etc are a must have. I use GMail to manage my small business' email and love it.

thanks. I'm thinking Microsoft Office Web Apps versus Google Docs. Possibly Salesforce CRM for small business. Any other apps? Web apps seem to be the preference.