Open Source and Closed Source

Can open source play nice with Closed Source? Some would have you believe so, but I'm starting to believe differently. For the most part, I've had no problems having open source (OS) playing nicely with closed source (CS), but there hasn't been much actually contact between the two (at most, it was using the 'Terminal Server Client' in Ubuntu to remote into Windows 2000). But all of a sudden, I have to have PHP talk to a MSSQL 2000 database. PHP has been compiled with ODBC support, but without mssql support.

So what now? Yesterday I spend 4 hours trying to get PHP on my Fedora Core 5 server to talk to the MSSQL 2000 on Windows 2000, and no luck. The reason I need to, is for statistical information for the business I work for (their POS system is writtin in .NET 2.0 with the MSSQL backend, which is just fine for what they need, and what they use). Then I was hired on to the company (well, a side company) specializing in web development, and what better way to do that then use linux!

Now my boss wants statistical information on his primary business, and to have it accessible anywhere. The easiest way to do that is put it on the web (using SSH and secure password protection). There are a few other alternatives that we can do, one is writing a .NET application that will be able to access the MSSQL database and receive the statistical information, the other is to put a web server (with PHP) on the Windows 2000 machine. The only problem with the last option, is that the Windows 2000 machine is attached to the network, but it is denied access to the internet for security reasons (there are only a few computers that technically have access to the net at work)

So what do I do? So far it just involves manually exporting the data from the MSSQL database, which is a pain in the ass, because for this system to work properly, it all has to be automated. So it looks like I'm stuck doing it manually for now, until I can find a way to export the data manually. If anyone has any insight on how to do this automated, please leave a comment or post in the forums.