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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."
How much revenue did Mandrake Charity contribute?
That's impressive. Except...they're still not profitable? Wow. They must've been screwing up big time before.
It's still nice to hear some good news for once I guess.
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Open Source Shirts
Even for experienced users, I think Mandrake is a great distro. If it's easy to install, why does that make it strictly "for newbies"? I'm a developer, not a network admin, and personally I'd rather spend my time progging than editing .conf files and troubleshooting my network (my past Debian installs come to mind as I say that).
I just installed Mandrake's MNF on a system yesterday and it was cake to set up! Especially after I almost threw my P200 box out the window because the Red Hat 8.0 (Server) Install kept crashing on it (and RH 7.2 didn't seem to be stable either). This Mandrake MNF seems to be rock solid.
Mandrake is great. I'm gonna start sending them money. I hope they make it.
Give me your product for free, since I'm too lazy or stupid to return another company's product that I decided to buy.
You may have chosen to pay for Windows, but that doesn't pay the bills at Mandrake. They're hardly obligated to replace things you buy from other companies. May as well go to Circuit City and say "I don't care to take this broken TV back to where I bought it, so give me a new one for free. After all, I did pay for the other one."
I used to be a big Mandrake fan-boy, but no longer. All I want is system configuration tools that work, and have a decent, consistent user interface. Is that too much to ask for?
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts, which is what I should have done in the first place. Desktop users shouldn't have to deal with that, though.
I tried to add a second IP address to my machine the other day using the GUI admin tools provided in Mandrake 9, and it was a total mess. I ended up just editing the files in
I'm gonna give Xandros a spin next. Seems like a pretty well integrated desktop distro they have.
getting more people turned onto Linux
Why should this be the main focus? I mean trying to make it user friendly-fine that's a great idea to appeal to the non-Linux user, but I don't think a lot of effort should be focused on actively trying to get users converted. Because the one thing that will start happening, and we have seen RedHat do it, is that they will start catering to these users, ex-windows users who are used to getting things their way by complaining about this or that. Users who have been using Linux for two years but still can't use lp in the CLI. This is not meant as a lash out or an insult, just a question of motive. If you bring too many of these half users on board you will ask for allot more than you have ever bargained for, and will start making a distro to make it easier for them, and focus less on the real applications.
This SIG pulled due to lack of funding. (This damn war is costing too much!)
As regular slashdoters (is that the correct term?) will know, more and more factions are adopting linux as opposed to windows, governments and councils are the best example we have, they are finding the cost is what drives them to it, but (assuming they have the same experience as me) it's the ease of use and sheer number of open source applications that keeps me using it. I would (and have done) pay for Linux, I own real copies of Mandrake 7.2 and Slack 8. these days the myth of hard to install, and hard to maintain is just that, a myth! my mandrake 9 install detected every bit of obscure hardware in one go, it even managed the GeForce 4, which I was suitably impressed with. I think the main problem is that people expect too much from it, as we sit here running our Linux servers and playing the occasional game, we forget about people who have Sony vaio laptops and want all the buttons to function properly :) it's the little things that make the difference, and since we all know that Linux can do everything windows does better, cheaper and faster, this is all it needs to drive I into the main stream.
Good to see money being made here. lets just hope this drive forward doesn't cause open source software to go commercial, I don't know what I would do if nmap wasn't free :)
" I often find myself in Discussions wondering why Linux hasn't taken off due its good qualities"
Just exactly what do you mean by "hasn't taken off"? Linux userbase grows by leaps and bounds every year. It has gone from a hobby OS to a major player in the server market in three years. It will make similar advances in the desktop in the next three years.
Rome wasn't built in a day you know. If you are really impatient for world dominance then I am sure lots of programmers could use your help in writing documentation and testing for bugs. Roll up your sleeves world domination is but a few years away!
War is necrophilia.
There are any number of ways for a company's reported revenues to increase, ranging from a genuine increase in sales to more underhanded methods like (for example) reporting certain types of expected future income as present revenues. Likewise, there are any number of ways to show a decrease in expenses on the balance sheet, ranging from honest-to-goodness cost cuts, to sneaky Enron moves like hiding expenses through the use of stock options as executive pay, or dummy subsidiaries.
Don't get me wrong, I am not accusing MandrakeSoft of any wrongdoing, what I am saying is unless we get to see detailed financials, and I mean income and cash flow statements, a balance sheet, and footnotes, MandrakeSoft's rosy financial report is just another press release.
MandrakeSoft's stock price is still off around $1.25 from its high for the year, if they want to get their price up, it would help to get better information to investors.
Yeah Enron was the first company killed by management that sprung to mind, and I admit it was a terrible example.
IIRC, the Mandrake users weren't the ones complaining loudly to the new management at the helm there, it was the developers and founders that were pretty concerned about their eroding bottom line. Remember, every CEO has a board that has the right to hire and fire him based on performance or something as petty as his choice of ties.
At any rate, when a company (the workers plus the investors, remember when they went public) isn't doing well, the shareholders and the board get nervous. The board usually tries to fix problems from the top down and make the shareholders a little happier.
I'm still confused as to why they just got a new CEO. Maybe he brings some kind of financial wizardry or business ties to the table..because I read an article today saying how he's 'enjoying learning about Open Source software'. Like he's never heard of it before.
Oh well..at any rate, I'm glad Mandrake is getting healthier. It always has been my favorite distro over the last 3 or 4 years, and it seems to be growing with me.
"we forget about people who have Sony vaio laptops and want all the buttons to function properly:) it's the little things that make the difference..."
You hit the nail right on the head there. We must must make every effort to ensure that everything works and is easy to setup. It's not always going to be possible to support every piece of hardware as there are companies who will not release the needed information.
However, We can improve in a number of ways. First of all, much of the documentation that comes with open source software really sucks. I'm an IT professional and I struggle with it. I don't see how a non-IT person would stand a chance with some of this crap. I understand that documenting a project is not fun. I hate documenting my own work but I also know that it is a very important part of a project.
Another thing that we should move toward is a standard set of libraries that all programmers can count on being there. And the API should not become incompatible from one release to another without a very good reason.
The developers of libraries should allow other developer's to purchase a license (at a reasonable price) that would allow them to link and still keep their code proprietary. I believe that some offer this but at a price of about $1,200.00. This would be an insignificant cost for a major software company if the Linux platform would support the kind of return that would allow justification. However, Linux, as of yet, doesn't have a large enough user base that is willing to pay for programs to make this price justifiable.
Joysticks should be better supported and fonts still have a way to go.
I use Linux at home for my desktop and home server but I think that we are a number of years away before Linux will be truly ready for the average home user.
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
MandrakeSoft recently released a new Installation ISO for PPC Cooker. PPC Cooker (which is the development branch) is pretty sweet right now -- it's got GNOME2, KDE 3.1 RC5, Mac-on-Linux (which supports Mac OS X and OS 9) and lots of other goodies.
Anyone who's got a Mac is invited to participate by testing PPC Cooker.
I understand that the old business method for Linux companies of offering their full products for download, and selling box retail copies for like $29.99 is not the best one... so I understand the need for them to branch out into these more specialist versions of their OS.
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.
The whole point about Linux distributions (for me at least) was that they undercut the opposition by being either free or ridiculously cheap.. but now they are releasing products that are priced so highly, there is hardly anything in it. Why the huge mark up?
I was looking at the very cool looking SuSE OpenExchange which is designed to compete with Exchange.. and I seriously think after looking at the web demo that it really could.. but it again is priced so damn high, its actually cheaper for us to buy MS Exchange 2000 on our educational license than it is to buy that.
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
Does "cut operating costs by 42%" mean we can expect the distro to stagnate? ...
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Does anyone in the house maybe know if the're is a packet shaping feature with Multi Network Firewall? So Kazaa can get some downloading limits, and i can game with a reasonable ping. (sorry for my bad english)
http://www.tweakhound.com/mandrake9.htm
Is how so-called "upgrades" of Mandrake seem to be total rehashes. I ordered 9 from Mandrake and eventually got it (with appropriate apologies for its tardiness). I backed up my important stuff and decided to do a wipeout install just for fun. Nothing worked quite as well as 8.2 out-of-box. No printer, no sound, odd omissions of access to partitions, etc. After running the rabbits for a while, I gave up and reinstalled 8.2. Bingo, evrything worked. Upgraded packages to 9, and everything still worked. What had Mandrake forgotten about from 8.2 to 9? It is these stuttering steps in development that hamper Linux' growth at times, I think. Anyway, I'm using 9 now and am happy, just weirded out.
Windows XP SP2 told me to install third-party software that prevents viruses and protects stability... I chose Ubuntu