SMS alternatives?

At work, Microsoft’s Systems Management Server (SMS) is used to distribute new software version, take over remote screens, make catalogs of all software running on each pc, etc… Somehow, I have always found SMS to be one of the most crappy MS products I have ever seen. SMS has its deficiencies but its competitors also have some others. So there is no motive for innovation. It just sells because it is Microsoft’s.

What bothers me about such a product is not as much that it has bugs — every product has — but more that you can’t do anything about it because it’s fully closed source. I thought no OSS alternatives existed in this area, so I had given up on any improvement until recently.. I stumbled across an open source alternative, OCS inventory NG. 🙂 OSS is everywhere 😉