New to OS questioning why this is free?

[Kevin Aldridge]

New to the community, I am in the process of moving my web sites from Network Solutions due to issues of late. I have been reading the reviews on hosting sites which all seem a bit contrived as the review sites seem to sell advertising space which of course is not a conflict of interest but it has lead me here. I have always used the proprietary on line shopping cart for hosting, I have a Christmas store www.canterburyvillage.com for those interested, which has a considerable number of items. With many sites charging for item count it makes it rather expensive, long story short how does os work, I assume I load to the hosting site, and how do they make money? I am always a bit leery of FREE. I have heard nothing but good things about the program.

 

I am also open to any suggestions on hosting sites, I have about 10 domains and 4 static sites as well as the one e-commerce site.

 

Thanks.

[♥kymation]

osCommerce is supported by donations and advertising. Many of us make money offering services to those who do not want to learn how to do things for themselves. You're welcome to do your own installation and modifications, or to hire someone to do it for you.

 

Yes, you upload the osCommerce files to your host and then run the included installer in your browser. There are instructions in the package.

 

For hosting services, check out the advertisements above. We don't discuss commercial products in this forum; it's for osCommerce and open source products only.

 

Welcome to open source, and best wishes on building your store.

 

Regards

Jim

[Kevin Aldridge]

Jim,

 

Thanks for the info, I will check out Pair, they seem to have a reasonable set up. If i am looking to get with some designers how is the best way to do that?

[♥kymation]

You can post in the Commercial development forum here. Describe the work that you want done in as much detail as possible to get good quotes. Of course you should check out any developers who contact you before accepting any bid.

 

Regards

Jim

[♥14steve14]

The latest version of oscommerce is also available with many hosting accounts via the cpanel, and offer one click installs. Web hosting is down to you, but beware cheap is not always good.

 

Oscommerce offers a base store. You will no doubt require some modifications and improvements to get your store as you want. If you are prepared to spend a bit of time learning php, mysql, html and a few others you will be fine. Most oscommerce addons included install instuctions and in many cases are just copy and paste.

[burt]

It is free as in you are able to take it and do as you wish with it aka "free software".

 

"Free software" does not mean "non commercial".

 

So, it is free for you to use as you wish. Using it may end up costing you folding money to do what you want to do with it.

 

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

[MrPhil]

The original post sounds like you're a bit confused. osC is a free application, which you install on hosting that you supply separately. There are hosting companies which are free, but they plaster ads all over your pages to pay their bills. You can get a quality hosting service (provides the bare site) for a reasonable amount of money. Really cheap hosting is usually a problem because it's underfunded, so get opinions about a given host before you commit. Make sure you own your site name (domain) so that you can take it with you if you decide to change hosts at some point. I recommend registering the domain with a separate company than the one that provides the hosting itself.

 

osC is free because some people decided to make a nice piece of software and give it away, rather than charge for it. They do not host it for you. As with other open source software, it can be a little rough around the edges, and there's no 24x7 hotline to call for support, but usually there's someone on the forum that can answer questions for you (just not immediately). It costs nothing to try out, once you have some hosting, or you can even install WAMPP or XAMPP on your PC and get a toy server to play with and install osC to try it out.

[sarah_k]

Kevin, if you're interested in learning about the history and philosophy of Open Source (aka "Free") software, I recommend the famous book: The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond. It's available for free online at: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/

 

This is the book that inspired Netscape to open source their browser back in the 90's and that eventually led to the development of the Mozilla Firefox browser popular today.