Free vs Better

Sometimes the comparison of Free vs Better is a moot topic. Our store (360Bikers maintains its store at www.bikes360.com) had been using a shopping cart solution offered by our host at no additional charge. It had some limitations in the limited version that came with our eCommerce package, but it was an OK program. I had a problem with the program in that I wanted users to be able to click on product images to see a larger image. This feature wasn't part of this program, so I would go into the pages and edit a link to the full size photo. This didn't take much work the first time. The problem arose when everytime I changed something and republished the site, it lost all my links and I had to do every page in the site over again. This was not good, but I continued. It wasn't bad as long as I had only 30 to 40 products and didn't change anything too often. But then, there's reality. A site is always changing. Things are always being added, removed, improved, edited... it was killing me anytime I wanted to make it better. So, I selected the installation of a free program my hosting service offered: OSCommerce. OSCommerce isn't quite as "cute" as the other program. It doesn't have pretty graphics that guide you to each simple step. It does give you a powerful program that does much more than the pay program. It has a support forum for those pesky problems, too. You have an entire community supporting you not only with the program as it stands, but also for customizations you may require. Needless to say, it does almost everything I can think of needing in an eCommerce package. I am a strong supporter of Open Source concepts. It's a great world and I look at it as the combined muscle of the planet going up against the big companies that control big wallets. What I often find is that Free vs Better doesn't always exist. Often, the Free (Open Source) program IS better than the commercial program. So, the next time you're looking at the comparison of paying for a commercial program or using an Open Source Solution remember that often the quality of OS is what makes it great. Free is nice, too. Free and great software is definitely better.