Magento

Zen-Cart, Whats your next move?

So as I watched the Magento tour vids, I was blown away by the function of both the front end and back end.

I currently develop a lot of zen-carts for both shopping carts and showcase sites.  I love the zen-cart team and the community.  I think they are all great guys/girls(Kim), but when I see Magento, the feel is just great.  I am really suprised to see it as open source, as it feels more commercial.  I just wonder what the Zen-Cart team will do to step up to the challenge of Magento.  Will Magento be able to hang with Zen-Cart when it comes to security?  Will Zen-Cart step up its functions and design to match or exceed Magento? 

Either way, I have to do what is best for my customers and support who gives me that best option.  Only time will tell, but until then, its time to get my hands dirty with Magento and see what it can and can’t do. 

Also Zen-Cart Japan has, as I feel, taken the wrong direction and almost developed themselves into a corner of sorts.  For a while we had planned on trying to turn the Japanese development of Zen-Cart in a different direction, but with projects, and trying to develop a language pack that can work in Japanese and be easily installed by people who don’t deal with code, that well, has been a challenge( more of time than, ability).  Our customers come 1st and so our development for all the users of Zen-Cart has come to a halt. 

I think its great that Magento has provided the ability to creat groups like this, where more than one group of developers can get together with the same focus to get things out there for everyone to use.

Until next time,
Shaun Ward
CKD