Most free-libre accounting applications that ship with GNU/Linux distributions are for personal accounting only: they manage one person's finances. Corporations and accounting firms need far greater functionality, however, such as the ability to maintain a complete sets of multi-company accounts, tally final accounts automatically, generate MIS reports, and function synchronously across multiple offices.
Though there are some free-libre applications with such functionality, such as SQL Ledger and Ledger-SMB, the lay user may find their installation complicated, as it can involve manual configuration with the PostgreSQL database, possibly the programming language Perl, and the remote access software Samba. And these accounting apps are not installed by default in any distribution. But OpenLX is a distro with an accounting app.
The India-based OpenLX distribution comes with the KalCulate accounting package (not to be confused with the Kalculate calculator). The application is closed source and proprietary, though bundled with a free-libre operating system. Therefore, KalCulate is clearly positioned on pricing and usage advantages, not on freedom. Bundled with OpenLX it costs 500 Indian rupees, or about $13, making it more affordable than similar software from large, monopolistic operators. This price gets you a two-month trial version of KalCulate; after that time, you must enter a license key.
