iDempiere enthusiasts share many examples of how iDempiere changed people’s lives for the better. Here we present to you our hero of the month for his contributions.

Bret Stern has demonstrated remarkable dedication and support to the iDempiere project, consistently making donations for an incredible 35 months in a row! His unwavering commitment and generosity have significantly contributed to the ongoing development and improvement of our community.

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Tell us a little bit about your childhood and where you grew up.

Went to high school with Bill Jolitz of 386BSD fame

How did you get into programming?

I fell in love with programming while working for a large cabinet manufacturer. During that time projects included interfacing large European cnc panel saws and associated production machinery; material optimization software and one thing led to another.

In the early ’90s, Jerry Johnson, Matt Gondoli and I wrote the BOSS fulfillment system, which handled fulfillment for 300+ of Silicon Valley’s largest tech companies, including Javasoft, NeXT, Intel, Tandem, 3Com, Bay Networks etc. During that time, I learned the ropes integrating to other order management systems and met some of the very sharpest minds.

How long have you been part of iDempiere?

Five Years

How and why did you get involved with iDempiere?

I support all types of Accounting systems from PICK/D3 to Sage 100. None of these systems has the breadth of features iDempiere has. Nothing happens overnight, but iDempiere is where I steer companies for long-term open system performance.

What is your experience in other OS projects?

I use and preach the great things about OS projects.
Incus containers, Libre Office, ThunderBird, Apache, LazarusIDE Pascal, Codeblocks C/C++, FreeBSD, Rocky Linux are products I use and run my business on.

Is there something that makes you passionate about open source in general and iDempiere in particular?

I feel my responsibility is to open people’s eyes to open-source products along with becoming educated about becoming trapped by large software enterprises.

What does your typical day look like?

I support desktop to data center. I handle calls all day, from POS to firewall, vpn’s, vlans and beyond.

If you have your customers for whom you implement or customize iDempiere, what are they like and what do they typically want?

Regretfully, I have no customers on iDempiere, but I am grooming them for the transition.
I work with Chuck Boecking and his ERP Academy to assist in the transition.
I use iDempiere for my business, and have a small vineyard where I put iDempiere through its paces.

How does it feel to win the Hero of the Month title?

I’m very thankful I can offer some support to a group of dedicated clear thinking individuals.