My *NIX history

1995 - 1996
First time I got in touch with *NIX was with FreeBSD back in 1995, when it was featured in a PC magazine (I do not remember which one it was). Back then I was young and just attracted by the idea of a different OS, other then Windows 3.11/DOS. But you can imagine that - as a Windows 3.11 user - it was something I couldn't possibly understand nor use.

1997 - 1999
In 1997 I got in touch with Corel Linux, tried it on my PC but still didn't got the idea about incompatibility between Microsoft products and Linux, so I dumped it fast as I couldn't do anything with it. And while in my civil service, a student showed me SuSE Linux on his PC; but my previous experience with Corel Linux kept me on distance.

2000 - 2003
Back in 1999 I got an old IBM laptop and had already 2 PCs with Windows installed. And I had a RedHat Distribution on hand, so I gave Linux another try.
I liked it, and - as I wasn't depending on my laptop as my sole PC - kept it installed. I got in touch with other Linux users on IRC and at this time (like it is still the case today), working in the console was cool.
After some weeks I replaced RedHat with Slackware, because I wanted something "hard" to work with. I managed to get wireless and sound working on my old laptop. The console was my home for a long time, with ncurses there were so many applications perfectly running in it. The same time, when I worked with a fellow webdesigner, we used a SuSE Linux server. I liked very much Yast to keep control over the system.
To keep trying something different, in 2002 I replaced on one of my PCs Windows with BeOS (not quiet a *NIX). It was a nice OS, but unfortunately without a future.

2005 - present
As my life got a bit turbulent in 2004, I did not have any PC until 2005 when I bought a Toshiba Laptop. And at first I started with Fedora. And as usual, I couldn't stay with it and wanted again something different, and so I found Ubuntu.
It should be the beginning of a long relation as my favourite Linux distribution.

Over the last couple of years I tried other OS as well, like MirOS and other BSD derivatives, Solaris, Darwin and countless Linux distributions (thank you dual-boot and VirtualBox).

On the server-side I used for about a year Gentoo, but changed afterwards to Ubuntu Server, because that way I have the same tool-set as on my workstation (call me lazy).

Since I work as a developer for Sudimage (4 years now), I only used the KDE-based Kubuntu, but recently i switched to Ubuntu with Gnome.

Future
Now I keep a closer look on the Elementary OS as my future OS.

Not yet
What I never tried yet (but what I wish to do as soon as possible):

• Debian
• Arch
• DragonFly BSD
• CentOS (as server OS)

Ces derniers heures [suivi]

Ceci est un suivi sur Ces derniers heures.

Maintenant pour du vrai, ces derniers heures ont sonné. Tout à été transféré temporairement vers nos serveurs récent, en attend de créer les hébergements définitif.

Ces derniers heures ont duré quand-même presque 2 ans.

[Screencast] Magento - Création d'un article configurable

Voici mon premier screen-cast concernant Magento et la création d'un article configurable. La vidéo est en cours de édition.



(Si la vidéo s'affiche pas correctement, allez sur www.youtube.com/watch?v=rByeeOHDCw4)

Un tutoriel pour le changement automatique des images après la sélection d'une option est en préparation.

PrestaShop vs. Magento CE

After a half year with PrestaShop as our proposed solution for e-commerce websites, and another half year with Magento CE as our 'new' solution, here is a small review from our experience :

PrestaShop

+ Pro :

• Easy installation
• Easy to modify (making changes to the behaviour without affecting the core files)
• Good template system (Smarty)
• Fast response-time from the community

- Contra :

• Buggy (core AND modules)
• Limited for extended needs
• Toy-like interface
• Rare updates and almost no bug-fixes

Our first impression was, that PrestaShop could fast and easily replace our in-house solution for e-commerce. With the small core and the logical framework of PrestaShop, it was easy to install our customers websites.
But already after a short while we got more and more costumers dissatisfied with the look and feel of the back-office, and we got more and more bug reports as well. The only answers to those bugs were workarounds with other modules to circumvent the problems. This is unacceptable for our clients and puts us into a bad light.

So we were looking for an alternative.

Magento CE

+ Pro :

• Stable core (based on Zend Framework)
• Very broad base of functions included, almost no limits for extensions
• Professional looking Front and Back-office
• Many extensions available with an easy upgrade function (Magento Connect)

- Contra :

• Installation can be tricky, moving an installation is very hard
• Modifications are difficulty to realise for newcomers
• Templates are not easily to maintain, you need to know the way how Magento CE works to know where you have to modify what .phtml file
• The responsiveness of the community forum is almost inexistant

After our switch to Magento CE I can confirm, that modifying a base installation of it is time consuming when you are new to it. At first sight all those XML configuration scripts may be scaring, but after a while you get to know where you will find the file you need to figure something out or to modify it.
As with PrestaShop, modifications are not done on the core files, but as extended classes to the MVC, or in creating a cascading folder tree to rewrite template files.

What did we learn

PrestaShop may be great for DIY users, but for us it is not something we can  install for our clients. It is fast deployed and easily adapted to the design you wish for it. But the limitations you have - even if you could extend it - are a no-go. Someone who has the time to extend it to his needs, that is great, but in our business : time is money. That applies as well on the bug-hunting in PrestaShop installations, and more on the waiting for bug-fixes from the project.
Magento CE is a hard one at first, but after 3 - 4 installations and modifications of the base system, you get to know it. A negative side is, that you have to search a long time if you have questions, but when you find what you are looking for, you can be sure it is well documented. Just be sure to look for the right version of Magento.

Magento CE is for us the way to go !


PS : If I need to write a non-common extension to Magento CE, I will try to write a how-to. Maybe one of you can use it later.