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Mandrake News
DCowern writes "Mandrake yesterday released their FY2001-2002 earnings and I'm glad to say it's looking real good for them. They've cut operating costs by 42% and increased revenues by 31%. They're still not quite in the black yet but they're expecting to break even month-to-month beginning in February. The full report is here. In other news, Mandrake announced two new programs yesterday. The first is Multi Network Firewall, which looks like an extremely nice package for running small to medium-sized networks. The second program, and my favorite, is their "OS refugee" offer."
I often find myself in Discussions wondering why Linux hasn't taken off due its good qualities. I often get referred to complexity of use, difficulty of installation, and Microsoft using its powers of Gigantism. These are all somewhat true. But, I always have felt that part of it was poor management in the major distribution companies. I am glad to see Linux cleaning up their offices and will be happy to see a switch occur. I am also glad to see Mandrake doing well as it is very easy to use and install making it a better choice for average users.
The other thing I would like to see happen with all the Linux companies is to organize a general lobbying group to challenge MS's marketing force. To challenge the public and government perceptions of the system. Alliances with PC Manufactures would come with demand. The final thing needed is solid development efforts by manufacturers to support hardware in Linux. I feel lack of driver support killed Be which had a really solid OS. BSD was hardly moving on the workstation market until OS X hit and many Apple folks switched voluntarily, and the others are being forced to now even though they don't like the change.
Regardless Best of Luck to Mandrake and the Linux market in General.
If you buy the CD from anyone but Mandrake directly, they only get about half of the money. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because if distributors and retailers are making money from Linux, it'll get more shelf space. But I don't really think Linux NEEDS to be on the shelf all that much yet... it's getting to be a pretty okay desktop, but it's not ready for Mom to install on her own. It's Mom-ready after it has been installed, but the geeks who know how to install it also know how to find it online. :-)
Seems to me that the basic membership ($5/mo) is a nice way to give them a steady revenue stream, which is important for software businesses.
I downloaded the OS, so so I felt a bit obligated to subscribe. I got StarOffice 6.0 as well, because I subscribed at the silver level. ($10/mo or $115/year.) As long as I keep getting bennies that are worth it, I'll keep resubscribing at that level, but I will renew at least a basic membership for as long as I keep using the distro.
It just seems like the right thing to do.
MAndrake is still the OS I use, and this will continue to be so. It is the first distribution that made me convert from Windows. When I saw it, I couldn't believe the EASE of installation and the user-friendliness of the whole package. Regardless of the fact that even distros like Red Hat are getting easier to use, this is still the *only* distro which I can give to my non-convert friends. I have done this for a few people now while advising them which computer to buy, and ALL of them never needed help. Mandrake is just what the doctor ordered to show that Linux CAN be user friendly. It is one of the distros that definetely deserves all the support it can get!
Well, if Gentoo starts with a D, then yes. Otherwise, it's that "other" free distro that gave Gentoo some of its direction and its social contract. :-)
Their previous CEO and his cronies wanted to take Mandrake in a radically different direction. They tried making inroads into educational software and POP software, kiosk stuff, etc. Just some really creative but ultimately terrible decisions.
Ask Enron or anyone else victimized by retarded management how hard it is to make a comeback. Without it's userbase standing by, I'm sure Mandrake would've gone tits up this summer.
Because my g/f enjoys using Mandrake on her laptop, we decided to buy the 9.0 standard edition for the following reasons:
1.) At the time our internet connection was having issues and 3 isos were not easy to quickly get
2.) We wanted to support Mandrake since they've created an excellent desktop distribution.
We got our copy just fine in mid-November, but then about three weeks later we got another copy. I e-mailed them and they said it was a mistake but in the end we cost Mandrake more money than I would've liked. Both packages were sent to a U.S. from Europe - not cheap. One would think they'd have a warehouse here, but maybe it's for tax purposes. They mentioned in their e-mail that they've had some shipping problems, so I'm probably not the only one.
I'm not sure how we'll support Mandrake in the future...for her, I think a small subscription fee for a dedicated update server would work well. She'd be getting value-added software (because it's faster to download), and Mandrake would get money that was a bandwidth + server cost, not shipping + packaging.
At the end of the day, I am a happy Debian user.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
we lock our OS refugees up in camps for years on end. And they're not refugees, they're "illegal immigrants".
:wq
The first rule of MandrakeClub is - you do not talk about MandrakeClub.
The second rule of MandrakeClub is - you DO NOT talk about MandrakeClub.
Your MS comment is a straw man and certainly overgeneralized. If they didn't give at you'll you'd bitch about that. A quick search turned up this and more generally this
And in case you miss it, here is a more direct link to their Annual Report of Giving.
If you downloaded Mandrake Linux, then I suggest you join Mandrake Club to support futher development:
Mandrake Club
How are membership fees used?
* Membership fees are primarily used to directly fund the development of the Mandrake Linux distribution. Membership fees also pay the salaries of employees who often contribute directly or indirectly to "external" Free Software projects such as the Linux kernel, KDE, GNOME, Prelude, and others
* Fees may also be used for the development of community websites such as MandrakeLinux.com, MandrakeUser.org, MandrakeForum.com and the development of Internet services specifically for the benefit of Club members
Well it's not as though your average newbie is going to want to set up two IP addresses for the same machine, is it ?
;)
If you want to set up something like that you've obviously got some level of knowledge about TCP/IP networking (i.e. which packets you want to route via which interface, etc.).
I don't think Mandrake should write GUI tools to support every little tweak a user might want to do. Just provide a GUI interface for the most common, and most useful, functions.
Good luck on finding a GUI facility for doing this on Xandros.
And yes, the Mandrake tools could be improved - when everything works, they work fine, but their handling of error conditions (e.g. timeouts on non-responsive mirror sites) could be improved. But they're getting there.
Mandrake has had some bad QA problems in the past. But here again, they're improving. I've heard lots of complaints that Mandrake 9.0 wasn't much of an "advance" on 8.2. But is far is I'm concerned, they updated a lot of software (KDE 3, Gnome 2, etc.) and put out a much more solid release.
And all this while having the number of people they employ cut quite drastically.
So hats off to Mandrake. (including red ones
Linux almost bankrupted Corel
Corel was in trouble even before they moved into Linux. This was at a time when Linux was supposed to be the Silver Bullet.
Redhat distributes the software at a loss
I think Redhat makes a small profit now.
Selling Windows pays, selling Linux manifestly doesn't.
Selling Windows pays for Microsoft and a few large companies. I doubt if you would be successful with a Windows startup right now.
But why the hell do they charge so much? The cost of that firewall package was 1,999 Euro. We bought a PIX firewall and it cost like 3,000 Euros. Considering the PIX is actually a hardware appliance as well, I dont think its that bad a deal.
What about support for your product? I think with companies like SUN you will have to pay extra for support (and I don't mean the read from the script kind).
So far, I've used SuSE 8 and 8.1. Each of them were $80 retail. I know I could have downloaded a different distro for free, but after trying 8 and realizing the level of polish, I felt it was worth it.
Your talking about getting PIX firewall, andthey are very nice units. The downside is you can't use some of the really cool linux network toys on it. Its an important step in the right direction for MandrakeSoft, SuSE, and the others to charge for their specialized software (and their OS as well). Perhaps they haven't learned the agressive pricing thing yet. Lets face it, MS is much better at marketing because they've been doing it much longer. Give them some time, and hopefull it will work out.
When you mention that you can get MS Exchange cheaper, I'm wondering if that includes all of the licensing. Also, my guess it you won't spend near as much time patching the SuSE stuff. With the MS products, you don't get the source code (not sure if you do with the SuSE products, but I'd bet you do). Finally, I've personally installed about a dozen or so copies of Exchange on different networks and I've spent more time cleaning up the mess WHEN (not if) they break.
Lets face it, Micro$oft isn't known for their stability.
Five elements of Present Value Measurement:
1. The price for bearing uncertainty
2. Expectations about timing variations of future cash flows
3. other factors (e.g., liquidity issues and market imperfections)
4. time value of money (the risk-free rate of interest)
5 estimate of future cash flow
(Becker Conviser CPA Review)
The present value of money is the most basic element of the financial market. Companies need cash to operate and steady revenue to negotiate loans. This is why you do Mandrake more of a favor by becoming a club member and buying the CD at cheapbytes than just buying the packet, by itself.
No reason to feel guilty about "donating." However, a basic grasp of present values and revenue recognition might enable you to optimize your support of, imho, the world's best distro.
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
They are supporting open source, so what if they are for profit, if you want them to survive you will support them, Open source companies must make money somehow.
Yes, they are making their money by selling their distro. I have bought their distro, therefore I have supported them. I feel no remorse in not joining MandrakeClub if I have bought their boxed distro.
Or are you so greedy you wont even give them money so they will keep making your code?
As much as I love and support Mandrake, if they can't get their buisness model turned around and turn a profit and they go under, it won't be the end of my world. I will go to one of the many other fine distros out there for newbie users for machines that I set up for other people. Doesn't bother me. That's why Open Source is so nice. If you can't get it from one distributer, you can always go to another and get it from there, or you can get it from the source.
The flaw in your logic lies in the fact that Mandrake is a for profit company. As much as I like them, they are out to make a profit through their products. Would you apply the same logic to Microsoft since they're for profit?
They are supporting closed source, so what if they are for profit. If you want them to survive, you will support them. Closed source companies must make money somehow.
Again, this doesn't work because Microsoft is a for-profit company. If a company cannot find a way to make money on its products, too bad, so sad, they go out of buisness.