RE: Template System

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http://forums.oscommerce.com/viewtopic.php?p=220279#220279
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[quote="iiinetworks"][quote="Falconer"]I guess multiple modular options are just around the corner, and its only a matter of time.  I will be very happy when this aspect of osC comes to life.  I know that as it matures, it will pummel the commercial market such that, commercial products will work much harder, and produce less crap.[/quote]It's also worth noting that it is quite possible to be commercial and open source.  MySQL and ReiserFS both manage to sell their product at the same time as they make the source publicly available.

Cheers,
Matt[/quote]

Actually, I'd already thought about that.  I figured the osC team would be crazy if they did not go commercial at some point.  And, by building a community up front, it will have an installed base to work with if/when it goes commercial.

I think too that if osC is to become a trusted name in the e-commerce business, over the long haul, it needs a paid staff and a paid support team.

All the sites I maintain are non-profits.  One, of which I am a paid staff member, would be particularly interested in osC if it were modularized.  The others don't do e-commerce (yet).

Here are some things you might think about from a non-profit viewpoint:

1. Bill Gates sells almost all his software for under $100 to non-profits.  His philanthropy, in this respect, is unparalleled - however, it is sad that you never read about it in the news.
2. Blackbaud.com is the accounting software choice for a huge number of non-profits.  If osC were to partner with Blackbaud, with a front-end store that integrated into Blackbaud's accounting software, it could be an overwhelming success story.  Blackbaud is very integration minded.  They might see osC as filling a niche they haven't covered yet.  I don't work for Blackbaud, but the company I work for uses its software.  It would be nice to integrate our store front with our accounting software.

I hope that if/when osC goes commercial, it would be very reasonable, since I think that volume sales is the way to go for saturation.  I mean, who could compete with that kind of feature/pricing structure.  The bigger the community, the less market share for competitors.

Well, I rambled some here.  I guess I'm excited to watch the growth of osC and really hope it works out the kinks and does well in the long haul.