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I still think that it is not at all clear that this is the basis for the new xcart
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It's clear, unless you don't take the CEO and Director of Marketing at their word:
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and speaking of X-Cart version 5, you can treat LC v3 as the first sign of upcoming X-Cart V5. Because they will share the platform and will only be different in the number of features.
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LiteCommerce v3 is the first step towards a single ecommerce platform written in PHP. We plan to use it for all future PHP ecommerce solutions. "X-Cart 5" will be a paid solution built on that platform when it goes out of alpha/beta stage.
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It seems unreasonable to demand all the improvements for V5 and not expect significant changes in its architecture. That does not mean it is only for new customers - it just means we should not expect easy upgrades from 4 to 5. And, if you are looking towards V5 - it also opens the door to you to consider other platforms.
It does not seem QT can continue to advance on the 4.x branch and expect to be competitive. All they can do is what they are doing - maximize what is possible with 4.4 and hopefully build something with V5 that can advance. Unlike LC - XCART has a good supply of 3rd party developers, and the code is open - so if there is a market for it - the 4.4 branch should be viable for some time. And, we should expect advances on that branch from 3rd parties if there is a market. That is not new for us - how many indispensable mods for us come from 3rd parties? Do we expect they will all discontinue support for V4 addons even if QT moves away from it?
Drupal is pretty awesome in its capabilities, and how this LC version is integrated will be interesting. Drupal has some of the capabilities for improved upgrade process, theming that can be separate from the upgrade process, defined APIs for integration of mods, thousands of themes & mods, modules for performance enhancements, modules for development, wikis, video tutorials, a large community of users, etc. etc. etc.
And if you want a rich supply of 3rd party developers, Drupal has that in place. QT has given us a means to take a look at where they are headed - that is a positive step. Now, just to find the time to look...