More on software
Since buying the iMac, I’ve been using a lot of different software packages to get various things done - lots of different newsreaders, office applicatons, image manipulators, browsers and so on - and so far have not had to buy a single piece of software; the concepts of open source, donationware and freeware are ones that I can whole heartedly get behind.
Most of the software that I’ve used has been excellent; designed to do a particular task, which it does well. If I’ve later replaced it with something else, that’s usually more down to the aesthetics than the functionality. As an example, I used Shrook as my newsreader of choice for many months but have recently changed to NetNewsWire - not because there’s anything wrong with Shrook, just because I prefer the layout of NetNewsWire.
I’ve also switched from using Microsoft Office on my old Windows laptop, to OpenOffice and now to NeoOffice; all do roughly the same job, with certain variations (no Outlook equivalent in Open or NeoOffice) but why pay hundreds for the Microsoft product when the others are available free? There isn’t anything that I used to do in Office that I can’t do in NeoOffice.
The one common thread that I’ve found in all of this software is useability. Its been easy to install, easy to configure (if required) and easy to use. This even though a lot of it has been “hobby” type software, developed by one guy in his bedroom, just to fill a software hole that he had at the time.
But over the last two or three weeks, I’ve been seeing the other side of open source software. I’ve been looking at software that is used on a mass scale, which you’d think would mean more developers, more of a professional attitude behind it and even greater usability for the end consumer. But you’d be wrong; if anything it’s the exact opposite.
Take the struggle I’ve been having with shopping cart software. All of the packages that we’ve looked at within the office are open source and available for install through Fantastico. Fantastico is a great little routine, because it lets even the complete novice install something like Wordpress or phpBB in about three clicks of a mouse. Where it falls down is that the ease of install is not matched by the ease of use of what you’ve installed.
Take OSCommerce, for example: after you’ve installed it and you point your web browser to where the admin section should be, you get a message telling you that you need to make a change to your .htaccess or php.ini files to turn on register_globals. Are you going to know how to do that (or why you need to)? Are you also going to know that by doing so you’re opening up a big security hole on your web server? You shouldn’t need to be hacking around in .htaccess files just to get the thing to run.
But even if you successfully install the software, the user experience is not necessarily any better. As I said in my earlier post on this subject, the backend for Zen Cart is just horrible. The functionality is all over the place - so far I’ve found at least two places each for credit card settings and postage settings: why aren’t they all in the same place? - and while you can do a lot of things from the admin panel you can’t do everything. So you have to start hacking around.
And this is what I don’t like; you shouldn’t have to go hacking around in a piece of software just to change the title text for a box, or to make it green instead of blue. And if you want to add a postage method, you shouldn’t have to create copies of files, edit them to change references and upload them through FTP. Alright, it’s not difficult if you know what you’re doing - but that’s the point; do you? Just because I haven’t paid for this piece of software, why does it have to be difficult to use?
At this point, you’re wondering why if it’s so bad I don’t just go and buy Actinic or one of those other commercially available packages and quit complaining. True, you do get a better user experience, but you also get a hefty cost involved. I see Zen Cart and it’s competitor products as entry-level systems; the solution for someone just starting out that doesn’t have the £800 - £1,000 to spend on Actinic because their business isn’t turning over anything yet - but it’s never going to if they can’t get the software to work.
I’m singling out Zen Cart here but that’s only because it’s the software I’ve been using most recently; I’ve spent a lot of time reading support forums for Zen, Wordpress, phpBB and lots of others and the over-riding message seems to be that the simple stuff is too difficult. And it shouldn’t be; this is software that is aimed at a mass market. This isn’t alpha- or beta-version stuff; the Linux-type hacking to get it running should have been developed out by now.
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I’ve re-written this post about three times and I’m still not sure I’ve really got my point - and my reasons - across very well. Maybe it’s just that after using so much good open source software on a personal basis, I’m just disappointed to see that the commercial stuff doesn’t live up to the same standard. I don’t mind hacking around when I’m just doing it for my own interest, but at work I’ve got time constraints: I need to get this done, I need it to work without all the faffing about.
Open source software
Since buying my iMac, I’ve become a big fan of open source software - mainly because all of the software I’d want to buy is too damn expensive, so if there’s a cheaper alternative out there I’m in. I changed from MS Office to NeoOffice (an development of OpenOffice) and all the little bits and pieces that I use on a daily basis either came as part of the operating system (Mail) or I found on the Net (NetNewsWire, TextWrangler, Adium and the most useful of all - QuickSilver).
So when I’m looking for software solutions for a project at work, I’ll look for an open source solution first. At the moment, we’re looking for shopping cart / database software for one of our websites. We’re starting from scratch on this one (this particular brand has never had a website before) and it seemed sensible to make it a database-driven site, to make it easier to change products, add new offers, etc.
The hosting service we’re using comes with Fantastico, which includes three shopping cart packages - ZenCart, OSCommerce and CubeCart. Today, I’ve been taking a look at them, trying to evaluate their suitability for our needs and I’m sorry to report that my faith in open source is starting to flag a bit.
ZenCart was the first one I tried, as we’d seen that in operation on other sites and it looked OK. But, man, the backend is horrible. Really poorly designed, the functionality is all over the place and it’s just not intuitive to use at all. It seems to have all the functionality we need, but it’s going to be a pig to get everyone up to speed with it.
CubeCart seems better; certainly the backend is better designed and with the various bits of functionality well grouped. Unfortunately, it’s got a couple of rather major problems (the way it calculates tax, for example) that have pretty much ruled it out.
OSCommerce has been an absolute nightmare; it doesn’t seem to like being installed via Fantastico, but I finally managed to get a newer version loaded manually (and had to get a MySql problem fixed along the way) and what a disappointment. Almost exactly the look as ZenCart (they have tried to fix it up a bit, but it hasn’t really worked) but with less functionality, and if you want to do something that should be simple (like change a template) you have to hack about with files at an FTP level.
I’m disappointed, to say the least, because I would have thought that in three options I’d have been able to find one that was good for our needs. So, this is a plea for help: I’m looking for a piece of shopping cart / database software that has at least as much functionality as ZenCart, is easier to administer and is preferably open source (ie free). Anyone have any suggestions?
Working for the Apple dollar - Updated
I wrote a post about the UK pricing of Leopard the other day, complaining that the price of £85 was way above the $129 being charged in the US. Since writing that, I’ve read in a number of places the argument along the lines of “the £85 includes VAT (sales tax) but the $129 doesn’t, so when you factor that in, it’s the same price”.
On the face of it, this seems like a fair argument but the numbers don’t really work out. At today’s exchange rate, $129 is £62.87. VAT (sales tax) runs at 17.5% in the UK, which is £11, making a total of £73.87. So, £11.13 cheaper than the £85 RRP, which is an extra 15%. OK, so it’s only £11 but why does it have to be even £1 more expensive?
Of course, this is all probably just sour grapes because I’ve had to spend the money I was hoping to spend on Leopard on getting my bike fixed instead and I feel like I’m missing out!
Working for the Apple dollar
I’m a fan of Mac OS X and I love my iMac. When I was using a PC at home, my favourite app was iTunes - by far the better media player for that platform. I like the look of my iMac; I like the ease with which I can do things with OS X; I like the look of the 300+ refinements and new features that are coming in Leopard (finally announced for 26 October).
What I don’t like is Apple’s pricing.
Don’t get me wrong; I think $129 is a good price - especially when you consider that this gets you everything, including the 64-bit version (Leopard Ultimate, if you will), unlike the Windows experience where if you want the 64-bit version you basically have to mortgage the children. $129 is a good price and I’d be happy to pay it.
If I want Leopard, though, I’m going to have to pay more like $172 because here in the UK the price is going to be £85. At today’s exchange rate, I should be able to buy it for around £63 but because of the way Apple price their goods I can’t. And this is what I can’t understand; it’s the same product - probably the supposed “regionalisation” of the UK edition could be achieved by changing a couple of system preferences - so why is it a third more for us in the UK? It’s a global product, so why isn’t it a global price?
Well, you might say that we’re talking about a physical product here, which needs to be manufactured and shipped out to the various different markets. You may have a point there - but I work for a company that ships products all over the world and the price in our local market is the same price we charge for every market in the world. If it sells for £4.95 in the UK, it will sell for the dollar equivalent of £4.95 in the US. If we, as a small company, can manage it then why can’t Apple? And we don’t have to be talking about a physical product in this case; this is software. It could be made available for download - in these days of broadband connections, it’s certainly feasible. Linux distros do it all the time, so why not Apple?
But Apple don’t just alter the price when it comes to physical products, they do the same with iTunes. US downloads are $0.99, which equates to £0.48. UK downloads are £0.79, which equates to $1.60 - a US iTunes user gets three tracks for less than the price of my two. And with iTunes, there is no physical product. I can understand that they have separate stores for different countries because of the way that the content they offer is licensed, but why different prices?
Of course, Apple are not alone in this practice but - because of the current frenzy about Leopard - they are probably the most high profile example. If we’re all living in a global village, shouldn’t we all be able to shop at the same global price?
Leopard escapes from its cage
According to Amazon UK, Leopard (the latest version of the Mac OS, scheduled for release sometime this month) is now available. One of their Marketplace sellers has a copy for £65. Hurry, though, there’s only one copy up for grabs.
Of course, there’s no word on the legitimacy of the product so caveat emptor, as always.
Update: according to the Marketplace seller, he’s just listed early - he won’t be shipping the software until it’s officially released. Even though it’s listed as “in stock”.
Update 2: after raising the price to £75, our erstwhile seller has either sold the copy he had, or been asked to remove his listing because it’s no longer there. Still no word from Mr Jobs of when the big cat will officially be allowed into wild - currently expecting it to be around 6pm on Hallowe’en.
Wolfs Stuff
Wolfs Helpers
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