In this Article, I would like to introduce, Magento, one would like to consider it as a serious e-commerce framework. Might be many of you aware with that, but I think it’s my chance to glue something for it 
since I have been working on it since couple of months.
To start with, I would say it seems to be one of the most promising E-commerce application among all its competitors like Virtuemart (Joomla), Os-Commerce, Zen-cart, Ubercart (Drupal). It’s available in two versions, an open source version which is completely free to use and an enterprise version for which you gonna pay approx 11000$ per year. huhhh….!! Price seems to be a bit high, I agree, but once you give a broader look to what it provides being an enterprise version you realize it! Anyways, we are using an enterprise version for the client on our current application! I pray God, My Client gets his business!
Having first look, I got scared of this framework, believe me I have 3+ years of web development experience! As a newcomer in Magento you might have the same I hope 
. But as you play a bit around the code, tutorials and forums, you are gradually falling in love with it, As myself now.
Enough talk, lets do some business now. What can u expect from an E-commerce application? Here is what I say:
- Flexible and Effective way of Catalog/products Management
- Easy to use Interface in Frontend
- Enough options for Payment/Shipping Methods Configuration
- Easy to Use Order/Sales Management
- Dealers/Affiliates/Customers Management
- Cross/Up selling Features
- Extensible for Customization
etc..
So this is not even a summary compare to what Magento provides!! If I gonna just list out the features of Magento It would cost me few more posts . Bunch of other features provided by Magento which really makes it one of the most popular application in the same area. I have heard few argue that it’s slow and heavy. But Magento team is really working on that, they are doing better and better with their every new release.
I would say Magento is for some one who really visions for her store for next few years, and investment of $$ as I said, but of course this is for the enterprise version. One can only afford this if she is expecting some real earning from the store. For someone who really wants a store with 20 to 25 products and really really easy and quick way to set up store, finds tough one with Magento, Though it’s my personal opinion since I really prefer to go with something like Virtuemart Or Os-Commerce for small to medium store.
Now from developer point of view, if you love oops (Object Oriented Programming…) concepts and wanna do some serious programming, you would like this. As far as I heard Magento is based on Java’s Struts framework. Java-Struts people should find this one straightforward. Concepts of xml-based configuration gives a lots of flexibility especially with the way it’s being introduced by Magento Team. Virtually you can override everything, amazing!! One of the famous MVC pattern is enhanced with Front-Controller pattern. Might be initially you lack a sort of introductory manual/tutorials from the core team, But there is a nice forum which should be hope for a newbie, probably with lots of other expert blogs!!
Hope it’s gonna give some insight for you in Magento World, Comments/Queries are always welcome, Since I believe I can help someone as I got it in great amount so far
Bye, Have a Nice Time….
That’s really nice post…
Great work! Keep it up