Welcome

This message was sent from: Development
http://forums.oscommerce.com/viewtopic.php?p=171106#171106
----------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to the fold of people actually advancing OScommerce to the wider public.

Its simply ridiculous to expect ALL business owners who could use OScommerce to teach themselves it through these forums (as great as they are).  In fact under many situations doing so is a detriment to their business.  It takes away valuable time from the real business of their business - making money.

What?  Do you expect the small mom and pop business selling baked goods or the stay at home mom selling gift baskets on top of everything else to take on the added responsibility of "web developer"?  Do you expect that a couple running a small store and a large family to take away from either in the back room of their shop reading and doing searches on the forums?  But if they can't or won't do it must they forget OScommerce as a viable shopping cart option?  

The argument is absurd and counter productive to the future of a great program.  Someone else can do it for them and people in this community who step forward to provide help as a business shouldn't be castigated for it. 

Last time I checked there is no license fee associated with HTML.  HTML is not that hard to learn and once you know it is much more easy to work with than opening multiple files in oscommerce and modifying PHP code.  Despite that, no one argues that every business owner ought to learn HTML (and especialy not by doing searches on a forum).  Furthermore, should a business owner decide for whatever reason that he doesn't want to learn it,  it is quite acceptable for a Web designer to charge to do a page for him/her (even a simple one).  No one implies a ripoff.  So why the amazement if someone should dedicate their business to providing support to OScommerce.

There is a mentality created by some users of open source software (not the programmers) that is holding it back.  Its the the stand the world on its head philosophy that everything including time should be free if it relates to "free" software.  Everywhere else the mantra "time is money" is universally accepted.

For that reason almost no one provides support to Open Source software although Open source software specifically benefits the small business with limited resources who specifically needs the support because they are juggling more responsibilities and have even less time than most to work through forums.   Why will no one provide support to these people?  Because no human being that has the need for food, drink and a place to live can provide the service on an ongoing consistent basis without charging for it.

I guess the fear is that you will get rich off of a free software program.  Sure.  We spend hours answering emails, changing text, modifying headers, fixing colors etc.  Usually for less than $15 per month. A few refugees of the forums spend our time  explaining to them why we can't reprogram completely new features into their stores just because they pay for hosting (a very small percentage even ask us why they have to pay hosting at all).  In short once you say you provide basic support you more or less have to deal with every conceivable request one way (by doing it) or the other (by explaining why you can't). 

By the way, If you are reading this and you have a site - how many hours did it take you to learn and make the simple changes on your site - text , headers, stylesheet, poke around the admin etc.   Now multiply that by what you make per hour. Figure that out and Be honest now.  Maybe you will then understand that "free" in the GPL license does NOT relate to  monetary value as it specifically states.