The first Mage-OS meetup in Italy

Hello from Italy! This is Alessandro Ronchi, on behalf of the Mage-OS Association.

On April 4th, 2023, I participated as a speaker in the first Mage-OS meetup in Italy.

The event was organized by PHP User Group Romagna and hosted by Extera, and it took place both online and in person. About a dozen people were present at Extera’s offices, while around thirty more joined online.

I presented the Mage-OS project using the slides Vinai Kopp had prepared and presented at previous events. I talked about Mage-OS, how and why it was created, who is involved, and what goals we want to achieve.

I also took the opportunity to share some updates, such as that the Mage-OS Association is now legally established.

At the end of the presentation, I was pleased that people showed interest in the project and asked several questions.

The main requests concerned:

• Whether we plan to develop B2B functionalities

• Whether education and certification paths are planned

• What Mage-OS’s position is on the front-end, and whether a technology will be chosen as the default.

• The kind of support that Mage-OS will offer to enterprise companies.

Regarding B2B functionalities, one of the reasons we created Mage-OS is to foster the Magento ecosystem. Many vendors develop extensions to offer such functionalities. Therefore, it is not in Mage-OS’s interest to think about developing functionalities the ecosystem can provide with a wide range of options.

We still need to make plans for education and certifications. It is an interesting topic and certainly in line with our mission of ensuring longevity and prosperity for the Magento platform. So be prepared to read some news on this topic in the future.

The request regarding our position on the front-end arises when Magento’s front-end technology is at a standstill. On the one hand, the integrated theme (Luma) is still officially the default technology, the only frontend that is functionally complete and supported by all third-party vendors. On the other hand, it has long seemed that the decoupled theme based on PWA Studio (Venia) should replace the integrated theme; since, after some time, it still doesn’t achieve the required functional completeness, it gives the impression of an abandoned project (but I’m happy to be proven wrong).

In between, free and commercial new technologies have emerged that are winning over developers, making it unclear what the de facto standard is in the Magento world. Stimulated by this request, we are working to provide a complete picture to merchants and agencies to facilitate their choice. Check out our website regularly for content updates on the topic.

Finally, regarding the type of support Mage-OS will offer, we plan to create a company owned by the association solely responsible for providing technical support. The company will not compete with the ecosystem but rather fill the gap between merchants and agencies: it will ensure full support for the core platform. To achieve this project, we will need funds, so the first step will be to launch the membership program, the goal of the current quarter.

I want to thank PUG Romagna and Extera for the opportunity (and the buffet) and all those who participated. I invite everyone who believes in our project to join us: you can find all the useful references on the Get Involved page.

Alessandro Ronchi
Board Member - Mage-OS Association