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Linuxcare/Turbolinux Merger Called Off
A reader submitted: "Just got a call from a friend who used to work for Linuxcare until about an hour ago. The merger with Turbolinux has been called off and there are heavy casualties at both companies. According to my friend, Linuxcare is now down to about 30 people." That's just hearsay - but LinuxGram has a confirmation story as well.
Say it ain't so!
No one is listening to the needs of their would-be customers. People at best are berated for not settling for the Linux solution that apes their existing solution. The industry climate is so contemptuous of the suits that could make it work, that the suits of ability and ambition go elsewhere. The best model hasn't been explored: PSO's working with free tools that bid on contracts. That sort of organization requires a strong sales force, not the "build it and they will come" naive faith that many linux service companies seem to have adopted. Also, add the failure to working with existing IT service companies.
No one sat down and did real market research before this all began. My suspicion is that a bunch of Linux fan-boys, bouyed by a ridiculous capital market, said "let's start a company!" And the rest is farce.
I know people have been saying "well, this proves that the support model for Linux is broken," but that's not really the case. The reality is that this is a hard time for most businesses, especially fledgling ones. I think Linuxcare will be just fine -- and the support model will prove profitable ultimately. That it's not raking in megabucks now is a reflection on the current state of the economy more than anything else.
Linuxcare was designed to be distribution-agnostic and I'm glad this will mean they'll be able to untie themselves from a single distro -- and back toward that independence. Overall, I think that's better for Linuxcare.
Oh, and kudos to Art Tyde for hanging in there, it can't have been fun.
Everyone here is blaming linux (you cant make money off of a free OS) or the merger plans (I want blue carpet, No I want RED) or a thousand other reasons, noone is looking at the obvious, a poor business plan. Support is a shakey business to begin with, and choosing to sell support for a product that 90% of the users are more qualified than your telephone support people is asking for financial ruin. Linux users know Linux. you have to. Granted there are some specifics that are supportable (how about a Squid proxy support desk, an apache support desk, a samba support desk. Actual linux support is really simple and anyone can deal with it, most of us need support for the add-on software that we use, and there is no worthwile support companies attacking. (Support php3+mysql+apache!)
It is flawed from the beginning, so the demise is not a suprise, and is not the fault of linux.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Both of these are good companies. TurboLinux does some very nice things on the server side of Linux.
LinuxCare does some great stuff on the support side. Their bootable rescue CD is EXCELLENT. Also, their hardware certification tests are nice. I based a lot of my decision to buy an IBM Thinkpad X20 on their certification and haven't regretted it one bit.
At LinuxWorld LinuxCare was showing some very nice remote management and monitoring systems they have, along with some interesting R&D work they were doing. I hope somehow they both make it...
...that the layoffs would have been as high or higher had the merger gone through?
As a former employee of one of these companies, I would just like to concur that this does not reflect on the viability of Linux even as a profitable business. There are many companies based on Linux that are failing, but from my experience, it has more to do with poor management and the money/business focus trumping any technology push within these companies. Linux companies are best served not by large investments (which push the business agenda) but by sound technology, small, nurtured growth, and a focus on the end goal of maturation instead of immediate revenue generation.
Profit is one thing (necessary), but growth for the sake of generating revenues, and making revenues king generally results in turning business stragedies into "Lets charge a premium for this free community-thing" or "Lets do some of the infrastructure in a proprietary tie-in way." You end up killing the true technology that may win in the end and let the business mind-set gravitate back to the standard proprietary ways of doing business. This I feel is why so many Linux co's, who have had "new management" take over, tend to sound hipocritical today and sound oh so old fashioned and counter-revolutionary.
The end result: Don't trust Linux co's to be the flag bearer or to succeed in maturing Linux. It will take further maturation by the OS community, non-greedy/sound business plans, and people focused on the end goal. Its not anti-business! Its just that sound business-building/technology-building tactics are not employed!
that the bootable business card cd does not go away. That little thing kicks ass and is usefull in *many* ways. I'll have to go read what they have to say about mirrors just in case the do go away. Turned out that not getting hired by Linuxcare was a good thing.
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
My biggest beef with mergers is that you end up with companies that do everything and do that everything very badly.
/*drunk.. fix later*/
The 2 camps (TurboCare vs. LinuxLinux) were in a deadlock, and neither side was budging....
+5:offtopic,but anti-American
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It's a shame that people are out of work and I wish them the best, but this is not exactly like talks between Redhat and IBM breaking down. It was two bit-players in the Linux market that could not agree on the terms of a merger. I intend no criticism of their services or products by this, but it's just not news...that matters... for most nerds.
IBM is still strong on Linux, and other companies as well. Wolfram Research has used Linux as their primary development platform for years.
It hasn't been look good for most Linux-only companies, but Linux is still a good deal for companies where it isn't their primary focus.
A few years ago now at a Unix Users of Minnesota meeting (St. Paul campus once a month) the presenter used HTML and Netscape for his presentation. For most uses that 'visual aids' are put to, a local copy of Apache (or even just some static pages in a directory for some uses) would be a good choice. It's strange how few people use HTML that way.
this is a bad day for the people that got cut, however, just for all thoughs that will say "look linux is not viable", this is just a company that supports linux instalation sites and does consulting. this not to mention the fact that Redhat, Linuxcares biggest client had rolled out the Redhat network, and will not require as much support survices. although it would be interesting to see if Linuxcare can addapt to this and get an outsource contract to administer the RHN.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
The interview with Volker Wiegand is still up on LinuxGram. http://www.linuxgram.com/newsitem.phtml?sid=108&ai d=11718
The thing I dont understand is why people got so upset and defensive about the Suse article. Volker is a good guy and he was just being honest. People should not get upset with him for telling the truth or for telling his mind. Volker is a really good person, why should people get mad at him for not being a marketing sleezebag?
Its easy to say that people are lying when they are telling you what you dont want to hear or when you dont like what you see in the mirror.
I dont care what ppl say, Suse is still the best.