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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."
Mandrake is one of the best Linux distro's for new users and I feel it's a vital part in getting more people turned onto Linux. I was worried for a while that Mandrake might not exist a few years down the road but hopefully this turn toward profitability will continue. And remember, if you use Mandrake, it doesn't hurt to donate some money to them. It is, afterall, the season of giving. :-)
Reading the OS Refugee Offer, I think it's a great idea. Personally, if they had an idea like that when I was shopping around for distros (metaphorically speaking) I would have gone for that offer in a heartbeat. Now only of Red Hat and SuSE (especially SuSE) did this, we might have some competition with Windows for PHBs. (Of course, the undisputed king of distros shall be unnamed at this time to avoid starting a flamewar. It suffices to say that it is free and always will be.)
Ask not what MandrakeClub can do for you, but what you can do for MandrakeClub.
But seriously, what good is Microsoft's computer aid to children who don't have food, clean drinking water, and an education. Someone enlighten me on this...
I like Mandrake, it is nice to finally see a company compete with redhat in the Linux for sale department. Redhat has done a good job, but if you leave them sitting there to long, they might think they are another Microsoft. --
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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.
I think that this could be a Good Thing (TM). However, just showing the governement that something is technically superior is not enough. There are such things as legacy systems. A business evaluates (or should evaluate) a plan to change something in its computer infrastructure based on technical merits and capital needed to get its legacy systems to change. Somehow, I think getting a lot of their older systems working with Linux will be easier than getting them to work with Windows. However, what would the cost be for them to convert many of their Windows desktop machines to Linux desktop machines running Mandrake or Red Hat or any other distribution? I somehow think that it will be a little more expensive.
The final thing needed is solid development efforts by manufacturers to support hardware in Linux.
I think it will be a pretty cold day in hell before you see every piece of consumer hardware come with Linux drivers as well as Windows drivers. Why? Because (say it with me now) it's cheaper to develop, maintain, and support drivers on one operating system as opposed to developing, maintaining, and supporting them on many operating systems. For example, take HomePNA devices. For awhile, they were popular with Windows users when 802.11b was very expensive. There exists a binary only Linux driver, and it doesn't work correctly with the kernel when you compile the glue code with gcc-3.2. Why haven't they been updated? Nobody knows or cares enough about the internals of the devices to update the code, and the company that wrote them doesn't want to give out the specs for the devices.
I personally use Linux all of the time, but until there is a giant attitude change (or hell freezes over, or Microsoft licensing terms become more strict than now), I don't think I'll see this soon. I'm okay with that. I use Linux not because it's popular, but because I like and appreciate choice in operating systems.
...is the same as a lot of linux distros. When linux was first getting usable and instalable (around the time of RH6.2 IMHO) there was a lot of talk about companies giving the OS away and then charging for support. Well there's at least two problems with this:
:).
1. Users have been paying for software and getting free support so long that they can't seem to deal with the idea of paying for support.
2. I think Sun had this problem with staroffice. They couldn't give it away so they started charging for it. People look at RH and Mandrake's personal editions and see a complete OS with tons of usable apps included for $40 bucks and figure there must be something wrong with it. They can't understand the open source movement and the idea that somebody would write a program for no other reason than the joy of writing it, and then happily give it away. To be fair the the average consumer, look at the sort of "free" things they get for their computers. Cuecats, bonzai buddy, gator. Not exactly encouraging. Slashdot readers know that OSS is totaly different than the kind of nonsense companies give away, but do people at large do?
I don't really have a solution for Mandrake (If I did I'd start a company). I think their best bet would be to get cosy with OEMs and charge them for offering the support. At any rate I wish them the best of luck, but alas for me RH's fonts have drawn me away from Mandrake 9.0
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I just recieved Mandrake 9.0 PowerPack by chronopost/fedex on Thursday, which means I paid for it, rather than downloaded it. I figure the money is well spent, especially if it keeps them going.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Ask Enron or anyone else victimized by retarded management how hard it is to make a comeback.
Don't you mean "Ask the shareholders of Enron how victimized they felt when a company they relied on betrayed them"? I'm sorry, I feel bad for the workers and shareholders of Enron, but this is nothing like Enron. First, Enron managment wasn't retarded: they knew full well what they were doing, and did it anyway. Second, Enron had some help at the federal level to get away with some of its corporate misdeeds. Finally, Enron's employees and customers had no idea what was going on.
Contrast that with Mandrake. The managemnt that you call "retarded" had a different direction for the company that didn't work out. They didn't try to steal from the company, screw the shareholders, or cover their own ass. Secondly, Mandrake has always been supported by its users, be it donations or purchases of its boxed set. Finally, the user base of Mandrake saw where it was going and let the company know that wasn't the way they wanted it to go.
Sorry, somehow I don't see how this was ANYTHING like Enron.
slashdotted jokes are doesn't seem too funny anymore!
Thank you.
We have been so bombarded with multi-cultralism that we have forgotten we are racist. I can think of a few other countries too.
-- An Australian
So this is the most overtly aimed-at-end-users and putting-the-emphasis-on-ease-of-use installation around, and they still can't make money? And this is good news? Is it just me, or are we in the twilight zone?
Surely one of the enormous problems we have with Linux is that no-one seems to be able to make any money out of it. Linux almost bankrupted Corel, and even Redhat distributes the software at a loss. Selling Windows pays, selling Linux manifestly doesn't. As long as that is the case, it is hardly surprising that most distributors don't want to know.
I think one of the things that will have to change if Linux is to get much further in terms of market penetration is the look it didn't cost me a bean mentality. At one point I was going to offer Linux support from my cybercafe. Then I noticed that people with Windows problems expect to pay and ask for a price up front, whereas Linux users expect two hours of my undivided attention and might possibly buy a cup of coffee.
Giving money to Mandrake is nice, but I would suggest that buying a boxed copy from time to time from a non-specialist supplier would do far more to improve the distribution of Linux.
Virtually serving coffee
Mandrake 1.0 was the first Linux distro I ever installed ... I've staggered up the food chain (or is that "learning curve"?) from there since 1997, but my point is this ... Mandrake, Red Hat, Debian and Slackware (and the other "old school" distros (sorry SuSE, your licensing requirements disqualify you from the "old school" grouping)) seem to pour their work product back into the community, while those who've jumped on the bandwagon in the last 2-3 years all seem to want to lead the Microsofting of Linux.
... give to those who give back!
My feeling is this
utter rubbish
What the hell do you think your money pays for? The service of producing code, the service of being able to download the ISO, the service of being able to access all the code, the service of being able to get all this great software packaged up, the service of Linux Mandrake.
Open Source software is NOT a product, its a service, CLOSED SOURCE SOFTWARE IS A PRODUCT.
Theres a difference
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
when things aren't the same in a different country? America's FASB does not reach around the globe. Therefore, it is reasonable not to expect American GAAP principles to be applied in France, wouldn't it?
American GAAP are the most stringent in the world and compliance with the SEC can be very costly. Mandrake stock is not traded in the U.S. so they are not under the same rules you are accustomed to . . . get used to it, there are 6billion OTHER people in this world that don't live life like you do. Why should Mandrake incur more cost just because YOU think they should do things differently?
If you really want Mandrake to release F/S that conform to your conditioned expectations, start requesting that their stock is traded in the U.S. Otherwise, get used to people doing things differently . . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!