I worked with LaGarde's Storefront for two and a half years.
If your questions require honesty you will rarely if ever have an
opportunity to get a straight forward honest answer or hear any
opposing points of view when using LaGarde's forums.
The reason LaGarde set up forums is because LaGarde could not
keep unsatisfied customers from posting to their newsgroups. The
reason LaGarde tried to keep unsatisfied customers out of the their
newsgroups is because the company was dishonest and unethical and
had a flakey product that has been and likely remains falsely advertised.
Basically, LaGarde's product line has been and likely remains
'feature driven announcementmentware' that can be poorly supported
-- or not at all -- with 'features' that never function as advertised or
those
that malfunction and require throwing a lot of money at to make function
the way that LaGarde falsely alludes in their advertising and marketing.
Perhaps worst of all is the indisputable fact that LaGarde's products
have had security holes that the company has a history of refusing to
manage in a fair and responsible manner.
I know that to be an idisputable fact as it was me that discovered one
of the security holes and attempted to disclose it -- it was also me that
issued the patch -- while LaGarde refused to do so until their next release
and to this day -- as expensive as e-mail is -- LaGarde has refused to
send notification to customers about the security exploit that allowed
hackers to read the Storefront database.
That was Storefront 5 and I doubt LaGarde has changed the way they
do business which is primarily why I will not work with the product
anymore as the company does not know how to spell integrity.
Let's be clear about my position: its not the security problem itself as
people make mistakes. Its about what those people do or refuse to do
when their mistakes are discovered.
LaGarde also attempted to build spyware into Storefront 6 when it
was first released as a .NET application. When they were caught at it
they tried to lie their way out of trouble by tying the 'feature' into their
licensing scheme which in part appeared to be factual except for the
other facts such as the little 'inconsequential' fact that LaGarde never
told anybody that Storefront 6 included such a 'feature' that was being
used to track merchant's usage without the merchant's knowledge.
Finally, with regard to support, LaGarde's newsgroups, like their forums
were and likely remain, mostly used by a small group of sycophants
who would say anything to keep critical discussion from occuring.
Obviously, they were motivated to do so as it is they that sell their
services to repair the dysfunctional software that LaGarde sells while
positioning themselvs as 'help.'
Apparently, LaGarde's closest .NET competitor is BVC from
BV Software [1]. There are former Storefront developers who now
use BVC. They may be a reasonable source of information and the
BVC product may very well likely be the better choice for merchants.
If I were asked I would say so as I value trying to do things right the
first
time or responding to errors and ommissions in a timely manner with
honesty and integrity none of which were my experiences with LaGarde
where marketing is more important than substance.
So I would say yes, while I can not speak to issues related to the current
release of Storefront's code or feature set, if considered critical,
questions
about LaGarde can and should be asked here as well as elsewhere as
any questions 'answered' in LaGarde's forums should always be compared
and contrasted with those from others outside of LaGarde's clique.
-
<%= Clinton Gallagher, "Twice the Results -- Half the Cost"
Architectural & e-Business Consulting -- Software Development
NET (e-mail address removed)
URL
http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/
[1]
http://bvsoftware.com/