What to tell client about future of osCommerce - 5, 10 yrs..

[happymagic]

I am proposing a shopping cart solution to a client to use the osCOmmerce system. How would you suggest answering a question.

 

"My only further question is about OS commerce. How long has it been

around...what happens if it goes away? We need to think of the future and

having this site last 5-7 years."

 

I checked the site and didn't really see anything about the future of osCommerce. Is there any info about the growth it has already experienced....

 

How would YOU answer this? I need to respond tomorrow. :)

 

Scott

[email protected]

[mattice]

It has been around since TEP days ( www.theexchangeproject.org )

It can't really go away.

It's here, and it is GPL licenced which assures you you can use what we have up till now forever. As for development... its a continues progress that will probably be around in some form in 5 years from now. I do think at that time the cart / code / applications it runs on will be different.

Like your computer, your car and my haircut in general ;)

 

Mattice

[[email protected]]

Your client is trying to assess their level of risk. Every solution comes with some level of risk so you should not give any iron-tight answer that says there is absolutely no risk, because there is always some.

 

I feel that osCommerce is the safest bet for low-end eCommerce solutions because it is clearly one of, if not the, most popular eCommerce package. This is demonstrated by

 

- The number of sites that publicly acknowledge running it. Look at the showcase. I bet there are many more that are not listed in the showcase.

 

- The active user community supporting each other and contributing some very good add-ons.

 

Couple the above with it being Open Source. Even if Harald were to take it private the osC development community is strong enough to continue supporting the existing code and someone else would run the project.

 

Also, there are no viable Open Source alternatives to osCommerce. This is common in markets and means the benefits of osC will continue (more sites will use it, more/higher-quality add-ons will be developed, the product will get better).

 

I wouldn't say that just because osC is Open Source that the risk is small. The risk is small because of the combination of it's popularity, broad support, and because it is Open Source. Of course, this is all made possible because of the high quality of the product itself.

[loxly]

LOL, we don't even know the state of the internet 5-10 years from now.

 

Once your company has the code they can keep it up to date one way or another.