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Mission Critical Linux in Trouble

Posted by michael on from the need-a-big-red-hat dept.

Dynedain writes: "ZDNet reports that Mission Critical Linux who specialized in server clustering, is laying off 90% of their work force of 60 after failing to secure a buyer of the company. :("

9 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Failure of a Company, not an OS by Petersko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sadly, a failure like this is a high-visibility public relations disaster. Companies should refrain from including the name of an operating system in their company name.

    Had the company "Mission Critical Implementations" gone under, it would have gone largely unnoticed.

    Their failure as a business reflects poorly on their marketing and their business savvy - not on their choice of toolsets. The industry decision-makers, however, will be affected. "Yet another linux failure" will be the gut reaction.

    1. Re:Failure of a Company, not an OS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      On the other side of the coin, if this company is success, people will say, 'A Linux success'.

  2. RIP by furiousgeorge · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >>Mission Critical Linux in Trouble

    they're not in trouble. They're dead. Please give an example of any company that has had to resort to laying off *90%* of their staff and has survived the calendar year.

  3. The consulting business is tough for everyone by Vicegrip · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Our mission is for forward thinking companies to be able to deploy Linux strategies and fulfill their business objectives. We consult with clients to develop the best technological solution to their business problems........"
    So we read from their mission statement that basically they're a Linux services consulting company trying to compete in an arena where Redhat and IBM already have most of the dollars. I feel bad for them, but it's not something uncommon in a difficult market.

    --
    Do not spread "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" over the internet, thank you.
  4. Sell the Aerons and the high-end computers by The+Turd+Report · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Well, sell the ones that have not walked out the door with the ex-employees. ;) That is all they need to do to fully dissolve at this point.

    --
    Michael Loves Me!
  5. Have a friggin heart people... by psxndc · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I know its easy to get +1 funny for all the jokes but c'mon, you know that 90% probably reads /.

    Sorry things didn't work out MCL people. Consulting sucks, I know. My company had to lay people off to get to break even and we're still struggling to tread water. And we were one of the slow and steady firms during the boom. Its kept us afloat after the crash, but man does it suck. Competition is fierce and clients want more for less. Props for trying to do it with Linux (wish I was as lucky), but I guess it just didn't work out

    psxndc

    --

    The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.

    1. Re:Have a friggin heart people... by ivan256 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think that given another year we *could* have made money. Unfortunatly we took a gamble with how to fund our future and lost. Even companies with a good plan and promise for success can go under when investors get panicy about the economy.Also, we surely would have been okay if there weren't so many other linux companies trying to sell themselves off on the cheap in the last few months. We didn't have good timing when we tried to find a buyer.

  6. They've got HA clustering software... by Svartalf · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Which was supposed to be the centerpiece of their other lines of business... They couldn't get the consulting services business off the ground (Really bad timing more than anything else- nobody's doing ANYTHING in the industry. I just wish that these companies would wise up and realize that they make things far, far worse by trying to shore up their short-term profitability by laying people off- they're making the downturn that caused the lower profits worse than it needed to be.) so they killed the expensive part of the company and focused on the software that WAS making them money and reduced their staffing accordingly.

    --
    I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
  7. Re:mission critical Linux?? why?? by dw · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's a rather restrictive definition of mission critical. There are many applications that are clearly critical to an organization's survival that don't fall into a life or death situation.

    Take for instance an ISP, which needs to mitigate the failure of one server. The MCL approach is: General purpose internet servers, NFS failover, and shared SCSI/RAID storage.

    Linux and clustering software like what MCL sells do serve that need. Microcontrollers don't.