More On Linuxcare Business Shuffle

syrah_shiraz writes: "This article from G2 News gives very in-depth information on why Fernand Sarrat left Linuxcare and future prospects for Linuxcare and its plans to IPO. Definitely the first interview I've seen with Fernand Sarrat since he officially resigned. Apparently the problems weren't really financial after all--the article alludes to a number of different reasons for his departure. (Even 'sexual indiscretion'?) " Check out our original story on this.

Comments

Re:Smoke and mirrors?

[Bruce Perens]

We have money in the bank. We didn't ask for too much.

Bruce

Re:This is going to take a leap of faith by the VC

[deeny]

They [managers] don't need to know a *thing* about Linux from a technical point of view. What they do need to do is understand the market and what kind of business model a product like Linux calls for and implement that. If the business model is quite different, as you seem to be saying it is, then there's going to be the tendency of many managers to force a square peg in a round hole and that will have to be compensated for.

What has thus far been missed at Linuxcare is the unique fragility of employer-employee relationships for open source developers. Normally, programmers don't want to leave cool projects because they're fun to work on. In open source, the projects go with them -- witness the migration of Raster and Mandrake last year.

Therefore, a company saying "we can pay you to do Cool Stuff" doesn't have the same hold. They can do the SAME Cool Stuff in any of several companies. Thus, if one has politics that suck, well, there's other fish in the sea. And they may well get better pay and meaningful stock options elsewhere too.

And, given that the various Linux companies' stock prices are depressed, it's a great time to move (stock options will be cheaper...). Better to spend time vesting at an already successful company than a wannabe that is spending itself into oblivion.

Of course, what's true for the open source developers is also true for others in the company, but with different skill sets, one expects they might land in different directions and have greater, not fewer, job prospects.

Speaking of which: to the more than dozen of you who have offered me jobs as a result of my recent /. posts, deepest thanks.

_Deirdre

Re:What kind of interview is this?

[sumana]

As a past-and-future journalist, I can say this: Sometimes you just get bored with quote after quote. Sometimes you paraphrase because what the source said was really garbled. Sometimes a journalist (not me) really MIGHT be misrepresenting a source.

I would appreciate the actual transcript of the interview, maybe as an appendix or some such. More trustworthy.

spam from linuxcare

[WebMistress]

You know, it's been very obvious to me for a while that LinuxCare was in a world of hurt... Everyone I know that worked there (but one person) has quit in the past six months. And some of these people have been the Linux elite.

To add insult to injury, I received no less than 3 at each of my email addresses, this morning from LinuxCare. Not only were they spamming, but they did such a bad job of it that they repeated themselves. I'm not sure if the repetition was intentional or accidental. Either way, it doesn't speak well for LinuxCare's understanding of the Linux Community. Spamming is a great way to sign your death warrant in the Linux world. Apparently, they've signed a marketing department who has failed to get to know their audience.

It's very disappointing. I had a lot of hope for LinuxCare a year ago. I still hope they'll manage to pull out of this rut. Unfortunately, there are only a few Linux companies. The behavior of one effects the reputations of all of them.

Did he jump or was he pushed?

[JamesSharman]

I shouldn't need to but I feel I have to ask. Does anyone really believe that he wasn't kicked out? I know a lot of the time it's a bit sugar coated (Board: We are about to fire you if you don't resign, CEO: erm, I resign) but you have to wake up and smell the ipo.

Yes I know we all hate linuxcare (and your little dog Sarrat too) but for one I think they did the right thing.

Re:This is going to take a leap of faith by the VC

[gargle]

If by putting a Linux person in charge, you mean someone who knows the business and knows Linux (or in general, actually understands the product the company is trying to sell), then there's no arguing with that.

But such people are rare. Given a choice between a passionate Linux advocate and someone with experience running a company, I'd pick the latter any day.

====

Re:This is going to take a leap of faith by the VC

[boojum_uc]

You wrote: "The only chance is a real leap of faith by the VCs, and I fear they are too large for that. Put the Linux people in charge."

Sorry, I disagree. Put the managers in charge. By managers I mean the people who have demonstrated the ability to help foster sales (or foster whatever income model you have for the company); the ability to recruit, motivate, and retain staff; and the ability to understand and implement the vision. (Note that I said the vision, not the technology.)

I'll go further. They don't need to know a *thing* about Linux from a technical point of view. What they do need to do is understand the market and what kind of business model a product like Linux calls for and implement that. If the business model is quite different, as you seem to be saying it is, then there's going to be the tendency of many managers to force a square peg in a round hole and that will have to be compensated for.

We've all worked for brilliant technical people who suck as managers-- who micromanage, who drive people away, who overspend while tilting at windmills. It's very rare that someone is brilliant in more than one direction (look how rare it is that they're skilled in even one!), and management is a skill just as real as being really good at coding.

Sexual Indescrecion?

[meff]

What is up with all the people in businesses sexually abusing people and other things like this? I mean .. what is the point?

Maybe we need to legalize prostitution.. we need red light districts in the US ;)

-meff

Re:Sexual Indescrecion?

[fastpage]

This is off topic but US has legal prostitution in Nevada. Here's a FAQ about it.

I'm Disapointed and I Don't Buy It

[Seumas]

To say the least, I'm disapointed that so much is being thrown around about this guy as if he were some sleezy Hollywood star. I don't see what sexual indiscretions have to do with his departure from the company and the rampant speculation we've heard in the last twelve or so hours seems to impune him without reasonable cause -- just for a juicy tidbit here or there around the water-cooler or a little fodder for an online site.

This is also pure speculation on my part, but I'm starting to wonder who inside of LinuxCare suddenly turned into a shark and decided to pull all the punches to dump this Sarrat out on his rear-end. This smacks of foul play if you ask me and I doubt Sarrat truly deserves the bum wrap he's getting.

I hope this doesn't tarnish him in any way and his record stands on its own enough to enable him to do greater and grander things in the near future.
---
icq:2057699
seumas.com

Re:doug and his crew

[deeny]

Unfortunately, I must be an anonymous coward as I have worked under Doug and in a position where if I went public, could make my life a difficult one. Doug's crew (not necessarily himself, but I wouldn't doubt it) has a history of sexual harassment cases. I find it interesting that Doug's former boss is now also getting similar accusations. If you want to work with a bunch of "good old boys", work for Linuxcare!

Last May, when Fernand was new on the job, he DID fire the then-reigning IT manager in part for allegations of discrimination (including racist and sexist remarks). So I know Fernand can do what's best for the company despite any human, personal failings.

Also, just because someone has an affair doesn't mean that they are creating a hostile working environment for others. To me, they're much different kettles of fish and the hostile working environment is much worse on the scale of things.

That said, I've heard numerous reports of a hostile working environment for women under the current CIO and staff. Stuff like:

• Standing behind a woman while she was leaning over a phone and plugging and unplugging the connection behind her, ridiculing her in front of other staff;
• Creating code words for women's body parts to discuss them in meetings (yep, not all those buzzwords are technical).

However, I think we've seen enough posts from ACs who have worked at Linuxcare or who are still working there stating that the current working environment in IT is hostile to anyone, not just women. But the AC's last line is quite true. I hate to say I told them so last fall, but I did. It's just worse than even I surmised.

And, all this is known about and there are NO intentions to fix it. That much is very clear from the Linuxcare press release the other day.

_Deirdre

What kind of interview is this?

[Duxup]

Did anyone find the way the article was written a little curious?

My Example:
" "He described his "main value" as "teamwork" - which was how he tried to cure the "friction" - and alleged there was a "group within a group with a heavy vested interest in painting me in an unfavorable light." "

Couldn't they just quote him in complete sentences? The only reason I can see to chop it up word by word would seem to be to make the comment more concise. However I wonder what exactly we lose when someone is quoted small bit by bit like that?

I don't mind the writer conceding the interview. After all, I'd rather not hear the chitchat about Fernand Sarrat's dog was barking in the background. However, I think the readers at least deserve to get at least whole phrases (god forbid a whole sentence) so we can judge for ourselves.

I could note that in this interview Fernand Sarrat spoke about "young men" and "pornography" but that really doesn't say much. In fact it may infer a different meaning than Fernand Sarrat meant.

Politics

[technos]

I think this spectacle had more to do with money-grubbing corporate politics than anything else. Now that the hired sharks have jumped ship with far more than they were worth, I can only hope that Linuxcare can survive the restructuring throes.

Gimme some support, damn it! Don't die yet!

bibles?

[redmist]

"He said on a ?stack of bibles? that?s the ?arrangement? he and the board came to."
I'd rather he swear on Programming Perl.

.{redmist}.
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Develop and then support open source

[tmu]

I know lot's of people are nervous about Linuxcare. The have a mixed reputation of employing open source in their own shop and have often seemed more hype than substance. I, for one, question the business model of being able to provide high quality support services for Linux, Apache, PHP, Perl, etc. without actively participating in the development of the technologies.

Other people clearly do, too (including at Linuxcare). That's why Redhat employs kernel developers. That's why Linuxcare have hired Andrew Tridgell and Rasmus Lerdorf and other developers of open source projects.

They have a fantastic idea for how to do this stuff (execution is a different story): hire good developers, project managers, trainers and techical writers; get them to produce new products using open source technologies; give the products away (open source, remember?); sell support. This model is a good one and can work, but in order to work, Linuxcare needs the credibility of several high-profile, really useful open source projects. I have heard about one or two failed projects so far, but haven't seen anything concrete yet.

I wish them well but It's wait-and-see for now.

Re:This is going to take a leap of faith by the VC

[Bruce Perens]

I was thinking of Art Tyde and Dave Sifry, but I hear there are some additional people there, with whom I have not become acquainted, who have the Linux background and management experience necessary. It won't be easy for them, but I think it's the only way to get the company to actually work.

Would we not really want a Windows person in charge of a company that makes a Windows product? Linux has so different a paradigm in the way we do business that it's important, I suppose that is less of an issue for Windows, but I am a big fan of getting a manager who is clued in technically, as well as having the business and human skills necessary to be a good manager.

Thanks

Bruce

This is going to take a leap of faith by the VCs.

[Bruce Perens]

Ignore the smoke and mirrors.

We're seeing a lot of smoke and mirrors, aren't we?

The problem is that they needed management with reputations to match their tremendous funding. Because of the "let's be huge right away" mentality, the people who actually knew how to run a Linux business weren't allowed to do so. They probably didn't even trust themselves to do so, and that blinded them to the fact that the usual way of doing IT business just isn't going to work for Linux. The people who know how most likely won't be allowed to run the company now. And the business is going to fail, I have no doubt, if that's what happens.

The only chance is a real leap of faith by the VCs, and I fear they are too large for that. Put the Linux people in charge.

Thanks

Bruce