Ongoing development - is OC failing?

I've been a mijoshop developer and site builder for a long time... I've recently made the decision to move entirely to OC. However, I find myself constantly questioning my decision and why I don't just join the rest of them and move to Magento.
I notice that the last OC release is now coming up to 5 months old.

My concern is... am I investing in a framework that will never reach it's full potential? I love OC and what it can do... however if the project becomes stale, then it will die.
I feel that it needs a true OpenSource community behind it with more developers so that Daniel is not relied upon so much.
Thoughts?

I find myself constantly questioning my decision and why I don't just join the rest of them and move to Magento.

Is OC not fulfilling your needs? What specific issues (besides version release frequency) do you have with OC?

I come from another framework where we have a new version release every two months. Most developers are going away from the framework I come from simply because it is hard to keep up with changes, specially when those changes break plugins compatibility. I don't have a problem for upgrading versions (patch releases or security fixes).

IMHO, I believe the version release cycle for OC is fair and good.

rjcalifornia wrote:IMHO, I believe the version release cycle for OC is fair and good.

It's actually not, and topic starter right at some point. 5 months delay is OK, when your product is polished, but OC is far from that. Instead on releasing bug/security fixes timely, they release major versions, which break extensions' functionality. This is exact situation you had with your previous framework, but with lower number of releases.

I find Joomla release rate is perfect. They rarely release major versions, but constantly release minor ones, which fix different issues. Plus its upgrade process is very smooth and extensions never broken.

So yes, I'd agree with topic starter more. Problem's just not with the rare releases, but with rare bug fixing builds. There're tons of issues with 2.3.0.2 reported already and most likely we won't see any of them fixed until version 2.4 comes out. Which, of course, will break all extensions. Again.

Sound like a good excuse to learn code.
Coming from osCommerce, I've grown quite used to not relying on devs to update the system.

OpenCart is quite solid and has a number of awesome features built in. With some time and effort, you can make it yours. Just open it up and get to work breaking & fixing things.

normdouglas wrote:However, I find myself constantly questioning my decision and why I don't just join the rest of them and move to Magento.

Have you ever tried Magento?
It is quite possibly the most bloated 'open source' software out there. Out of the box, it struggles on a basic shared server setup.

You would be far better off getting to work on your own shop versus migrating to another platform.

I notice that the last OC release is now coming up to 5 months old...

well, nobody really forces you, to use a latest Subversion of something, aware of, that it probably will change
soon again, to be replaced, because of faults and/or still missing things.

It's a rather similar behaviour, as known from the WINDOWS Upgrader Society, they cannot wait, to screw up again,
fully aware of, but still, they feel forced, somehow, to follow the Pack. Probably just because, to belong to the
First, I assume...

One should start, by learning to drive an old Bike... , my old Man used to say, and he didn't even mean Bikes
But still, I mostly followed his advise, probably one reason, I'm still playing around with with the last 'final' OC version,
and I don't even have to fear anymore upgrades again. This leaves much time, to concentrate on BASIC's, by
relying on a proven System, to play around and find out things, without bothering about yet unknown problems,
awaiting to be solved first, to make the rest of it work.

But I still work with my XP too, and it never let me down ever! So, possibly, I am just to old or lazy, to change,
just to learn something, I knew well before, to handle again. Still, as long as I still get my regular free 'Dope' from
Billy the Gates, my system is probably not less secure than anything else.

V.3 will make me wonder again. Probably...

But just don't take it seriously, I just felt, to add my 2 cents, before hidding the bed, it's 7am already !
Ernie