Comments on: What is crippleware? Why aren’t all add-ons free?

By: Artistech welcomes concrete 5 as a stable open source CMS solution. « Artistech Newmedia

Mon, 31 May 2010 17:50:07 +0000

[...] An article I found particularly interesting can be found here: What is crippleware? Why aren’t all add-ons free? [...]

By: Oliver

Oliver — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:57:58 +0000

Great write-up on your philosophy regarding add-ons. Many a time I’ve been investigating Drupal modules and WordPress plugins, trying to find the one worth depending on to solve the specific problem. Often, there will be many many options; some recently updated, some not recently updated but highly rated, etc, which makes it very difficult to choose. And then, as you mention: The next thing you install might break the previous, putting your back to square one.

So, I’m very happy to have found Concrete5, and will no doubt base my next client projects on it, and blissfully choose from a select, stable bunch of add-ons, that play nicely with each other.

Thanks for being different!

Oliver

By: Fayetteville Video

Fayetteville Video — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:18:24 +0000

I’ve been using C5 for just a few weeks now and really love what I’ve found so far, and I seem to find something new every day. (today I found a cool Twitter block).

Anyway, keep up the great work, can’t wait to see what’s to come!

By: Franz

Franz — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:04:51 +0000

pretty urls do require some server specific settings to happen in an .htaccess file so it’s not entirely shocking you had issues getting it to work. And our subversion hosting isn’t through our own cms, so you do have to connect to it on it’s own. This is a pretty old comment I’m just getting to replying to anyway – so I hope you’ve managed to get those issues and spend some more time with the project. We’re working on improving documentation now so that should help with the learning curve as well.

best wishes.
-frz

By: Franz

Franz — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:00:49 +0000

we actually set this blog up a long time before the developers who built a blog in concrete5 had done so. At the time it was the right decision to make. Wordpress is a great blog, and all we wanted this to be was a blog. If you need a CMS to actually power a more complex website, concrete5 is a much better choice..

I don’t use a hammer to drive screws either.
-frz

By: Nathan

Nathan — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:38:22 +0000

I totally agree with everything you said Franz, and I like concrete5 particularly because you offer ‘one solution’ to a need. After years of installing and customising different CMS’, believe me I’ve been there, trying to fix someone else’s code, or trying to contact long gone developers who once put together something half baked.

long live Concrete5!

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:36:23 +0000

I enjoy reading your rant.

Bottom line: People need money to survive, at least I do. There are lots of things I do for free, but I do need to get some money from somewhere.

Might I offer a semantic change. Instead of stating that you are charging $55 for the module, change it to a $55 development fee or consultancy fee. It changes the feeling from purchasing something that is opensource and should therefore cost $0, to getting something for $0 but paying the development time.

I am just getting into Concrete and I am enjoying it. Thanks for your time.

By: James Ross

James Ross — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:19:36 +0000

I’m somewhat interested in trying your CMS here, but one gets the impression that you are standing far far behind it considering that this site is made with WordPress.

By: chris neglia

chris neglia — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:28:46 +0000

sorry to be the voice of dissent, but I broke concrete5 within 5 minutes by turning on pretty/clean urls and attempting to navigate to the search page. I had followed the readme to the letter so i’m sure its not a personal issue! The other semi- bothersome thing is when I registered as a dev on concrete5, my session was maintained but it continued to ask me to log in when I tried to navigate to the SVN link here: http://www.concrete5.org/developers/beta/. Just diminishes the credibility of the project overall.

Those issues aside, it looks like Concrete5 took all the foibles of the other CMSes like wordpress, joomla and specifically Drupal and combined them into a highly usable interface. Once Concrete5 becomes more of a stable product, I’d definitely switch from drupal as it will be easier to train clients (people who live and breathe on ms word/excel) on how to use it. I don’t like paying for modules, but i’m willing to do so if I they provably save me time because I can just predictably charge the client I’m developing for.

By: Bjorn Solstad

Bjorn Solstad — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:47:01 +0000

I agree with you fully here. Both the main article and the commentators. The problems we have been facing with the Joomla projects we have running tells a very clear story: open source should not be free as in no cost – but free as in freedom. I have a number of times stubled by extensions for Joomla that has actually broke the site compelety. Poor quality control is the main reason I think.

By: James

James — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:46:04 +0000

Thanks for the insight Franz.
I just installed C5 on a test site and am quite impressed thus far.

By: Franz

Franz — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:57:48 +0000

Yes, there already are themes in the marketplace. You can browse them from the design tab of your concrete5 install or at http://concrete5.org/marketplace

By: b-lew

b-lew — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:34:00 +0000

I agree.. Thanks Franz for typing this all up it really gives us a good look on how things will be! C5 is doing a great job

By: Neo.W128

Neo.W128 — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:48:36 +0000

I’m absolutely impressed with C5 as a whole so far and the more I research into it, I’m liking what I see. No joke, after this long (12 years of selling and managing web sites), I’m prepared to pull the credit card out for mods for this contraption. I like the overall picture. I like the fact that SOMEONE for once is offering a free CMS that was actually logically built. If an add-on works and has the potential to make ME money, then I say pay the artist. Let’s face it, developer/programmer are just new terms for artist

By: Wieshka

Wieshka — Tue, 05 May 2009 22:38:44 +0000

I am new in this CMS, but my question is, is it possible to put in marketplace also some concrete5 ready templates, because the templting system is very simply, but still powerfull – multiple layouts.

By: killroyboy

killroyboy — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:45:57 +0000

We wouldn’t have a lot of good open-source software if there wasn’t money coming from somewhere to support it. Look at MySQL, critical chunks of the Linux kernel, all the stuff Novell is doing, etc.

The money has to come from somewhere. A lot is done through services. And in reality, the paid add-ons are similar to services rendered. It’s almost a contract job to add additional features to an open-source project. At least that’s the way I look at it.

By: Ossama Khayat

Ossama Khayat — Mon, 04 May 2009 11:46:47 +0000

I absolutely agree! I create websites, using all kinds of Open Source software and technology. When even I meet the customer I say tree things:
1. The software IS free and here is the URL…
2. I’m charging your for my *time* and *effort*
3. You can do whatever you want with it and use it forever.

That’s it and I’m happy this way.

You have my voice, please keep it this way.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Mon, 04 May 2009 09:54:55 +0000

Hi Franz,

(and all of the c5 developers) Keep doing what you’re doing, it will always be unpopular to some but you can’t run a business on free downloads alone…

keep up the good work.

By: Remo

Remo — Mon, 04 May 2009 06:47:15 +0000

True true true… But whatever you write Franz, some people will never understand that I think.

If some people can publish all their work for free – nice..

What annoys me is the fact that as soon as you give something away for free, people expect everything and even more to get for free. How difficult is it to understand that even someone who released a software for free, also needs to make a couple of bucks?

By: chunksmurray

chunksmurray — Mon, 04 May 2009 05:43:57 +0000

Thanks for that Franz. It’s good to see it laid out like that.

I feel that if an add on solves an business problem, then be it free or not i’m going to grab it. If I do pay for it then i’m safe in the knowledge that there will be some support behind it.

In the end if someone wants to charge for an add-on they have put hours of work into, then they should be able to. It can only enhance the quality of Concrete5.