I'm agree. Surely Andrei & Co don't want to became rich.....but the OpenSource philosopy in this context is a bit distorted. I'm studying the nopCommerce, it seem to be good product like other competitors,but not better than other OpenSource at the moment. Open Source has to believe in its community.
I think the it should better to going on developing a great product, with real "Enterprise" features ( B2B accourding with countries laws, thirdy parts software integration, a robust webservices API ) and ,why not, a real workflow design for the BRules and BActions and more mature AOP... just only to be named "Enterprise". Said that in my opinion nopCommerce is a great work.
Java world developers deal with really OpenSource solutions with a greater complexity and usefullness than nopCommerce ( ie. Hibernate,Spring ) and in the PHP we can found greater examples also.
I like to work under Microsoft platforms and I believe .NET framework at the moment rapresents a cut with the past very important...C# is a great language, clean,for some aspect more clean than java and supported by a robust and efficient and rich ambient like his framework. OpenSource community can help to diffuse this technology. I can't listen to java and php scares anymore :-)
Why, instead of source or product istelf, you don't sell your knwoledge or a well structured support ? Serious developers prefers to pay for knwoledge instead of code... ( I've bought your manual for instance )
best regards.
nopCommerce Enterprise Edition v2.00 released (UPDATE: There's no Enterprise edition)
- 226
- 1690
- 2/26/2010
- United Kingdom
I'm just toying with NopCommerce and was about to use it as my main platform, I can see why an EE has been made as this is how the 'overpriced' and 'overcomplex' magento's business model works.
However, personally I'd never add functionality to their products as I don't agree with charging for an open source product that 'other' people have put code in for free to make it a better product.
I'm not sure if you are aware, but Umbraco is an open source CMS built on the same platform as NOP and they do not charge for the CMS! And that has ALOT of functionality, the owner Niels even posted a great blog about making a profitable business through the free software
http://umbraco.org/blog/2010/3/26/profit-through-generosity
AND next year they will have an office in Denmark, USA & UK!! All with out having an EE of the software. They just have VERY useful addons and plugins that people are happy to pay for - Not to mention Umbraco.tv and the certification/training.
Just me 2 pence worth :)
However, personally I'd never add functionality to their products as I don't agree with charging for an open source product that 'other' people have put code in for free to make it a better product.
I'm not sure if you are aware, but Umbraco is an open source CMS built on the same platform as NOP and they do not charge for the CMS! And that has ALOT of functionality, the owner Niels even posted a great blog about making a profitable business through the free software
http://umbraco.org/blog/2010/3/26/profit-through-generosity
AND next year they will have an office in Denmark, USA & UK!! All with out having an EE of the software. They just have VERY useful addons and plugins that people are happy to pay for - Not to mention Umbraco.tv and the certification/training.
Just me 2 pence worth :)
- 45
- 309
- 8/13/2010
- United Kingdom
Sorry for this rant, but personally I find this thread a bit depressing.
Everyone really appreciates the nop Code... we are all making money from it - we get it for free and then we charge clients to build sites using it - we all make a living from nop's code.
And meanwhile the guys at nop aren't making enough money.
Surely that's not right? Do you all feel happy with that situation?
And then when they create a paid-for version of the software, everyone throws their toys out of the pram and says that they won't use it unless they can continue to have it for free. How many of us are giving our time to our clients for free? But we expect nop to give their time and their software to us for free?
Ultimately people can't live on goodwill of users, and they can't live on a few donations of $50 here and there. That won't pay the bills.
With forum software, many of the users might be not-for-profit organisations, or just clubs of users with a common interest, so there might be a motivation to programmers to provide it for free.
But this is ecommerce software - its used by people who sell things - not people who give things away. We use nop software to make money. Yet we aren't prepared to pay anything for it? That's just wrong.
I think the problem nop has is that they've given away something that is quite good for free. Once you do that, people come to expect that they are entitled to have it free by rights. I think nop should charge for the software - by all means give away a basic one for free, but good software costs money to develop, and this is business software - its used by people to sell things, its used by businesses to make money. Its about time nop got what is due to them. If people don't want to pay for it, fine, they can use something that is free - someone else can give their time for free.
I'd rather know that a good product will continue to be developed, and if that means a mandatory license for each install then so be it. We're businesses. Businesses don't exist to give things away for free, so why do they expect another business (nop) to give them free software?
Ultimately if the people writing the software can't make a living out of it, they'll do something else that will pay the bills. And then you'll lose what you have with nopCommerce.
Sure if they start charging nop will lose some users. But those will be people who were takers not givers. People who were happy to take free code to make money, but weren't prepared to pay anything for it. A business doesn't need customers who won't pay. Sure those people can go elsewhere and use a free cart if $399 is going to bankrupt their business. But to me that is still value for money. If people don't think nop is worth $399 then they should go and find something else. Go and use LAMP and then you don't even need to pay for windows.
I'd happily give a donation to nop. But then I read so many other people on this forum claiming poverty and that they can't even afford to give 20 dollars and I think "whats the point?" Why give my money when so many others will not. My money will go farther paying for a paid for solution where everyone else using it is also paying for it - those developers will have more money, and thus more resources to develop better software. I know it will be an unpopular sentiment, but I'd rather have better software for my customers that I know will continue to be developed than risk losing it because the developers decide they can't make a living doing this anymore.
I think nop got scared off from charging by all the cheapskates and freeloaders shouting the loudest. No one likes paying for things that they got free. But I'd rather pay than lose them.
Everyone really appreciates the nop Code... we are all making money from it - we get it for free and then we charge clients to build sites using it - we all make a living from nop's code.
And meanwhile the guys at nop aren't making enough money.
Surely that's not right? Do you all feel happy with that situation?
And then when they create a paid-for version of the software, everyone throws their toys out of the pram and says that they won't use it unless they can continue to have it for free. How many of us are giving our time to our clients for free? But we expect nop to give their time and their software to us for free?
Ultimately people can't live on goodwill of users, and they can't live on a few donations of $50 here and there. That won't pay the bills.
With forum software, many of the users might be not-for-profit organisations, or just clubs of users with a common interest, so there might be a motivation to programmers to provide it for free.
But this is ecommerce software - its used by people who sell things - not people who give things away. We use nop software to make money. Yet we aren't prepared to pay anything for it? That's just wrong.
I think the problem nop has is that they've given away something that is quite good for free. Once you do that, people come to expect that they are entitled to have it free by rights. I think nop should charge for the software - by all means give away a basic one for free, but good software costs money to develop, and this is business software - its used by people to sell things, its used by businesses to make money. Its about time nop got what is due to them. If people don't want to pay for it, fine, they can use something that is free - someone else can give their time for free.
I'd rather know that a good product will continue to be developed, and if that means a mandatory license for each install then so be it. We're businesses. Businesses don't exist to give things away for free, so why do they expect another business (nop) to give them free software?
Ultimately if the people writing the software can't make a living out of it, they'll do something else that will pay the bills. And then you'll lose what you have with nopCommerce.
Sure if they start charging nop will lose some users. But those will be people who were takers not givers. People who were happy to take free code to make money, but weren't prepared to pay anything for it. A business doesn't need customers who won't pay. Sure those people can go elsewhere and use a free cart if $399 is going to bankrupt their business. But to me that is still value for money. If people don't think nop is worth $399 then they should go and find something else. Go and use LAMP and then you don't even need to pay for windows.
I'd happily give a donation to nop. But then I read so many other people on this forum claiming poverty and that they can't even afford to give 20 dollars and I think "whats the point?" Why give my money when so many others will not. My money will go farther paying for a paid for solution where everyone else using it is also paying for it - those developers will have more money, and thus more resources to develop better software. I know it will be an unpopular sentiment, but I'd rather have better software for my customers that I know will continue to be developed than risk losing it because the developers decide they can't make a living doing this anymore.
I think nop got scared off from charging by all the cheapskates and freeloaders shouting the loudest. No one likes paying for things that they got free. But I'd rather pay than lose them.
- 21
- 165
- 3/25/2010
- United States
I totally agree with Sandman 100%. I would rather pay $300-$500 for every nopcommerce installed license to my end users if that would ensure future enhancements and the long term success of the team at Nop. What this product does is downright incredible. Sure there are "better" solutions out there but they cost alot of money. There are also several other "worse" solutions out there that cost alot of money as well.
What totally amazes me is people that have the audacity to actually complain about the product when it is free. That is usually what happens when you do not have to pay for something, it is taken for granted...............
I say charge for installed licenses and let the complainers go try to buy something better at even $500 a license.
What totally amazes me is people that have the audacity to actually complain about the product when it is free. That is usually what happens when you do not have to pay for something, it is taken for granted...............
I say charge for installed licenses and let the complainers go try to buy something better at even $500 a license.
