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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."
bankrupts MandrakeSoft after slashdot, a OSDN news site posts a link to MandrakeSoft causing excessive bandwidth usage and financial loss.
Free means no restrictions, ironic the FSF's GPL forces restrictions, isn't it? What's your definition of free?
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. :-)
After my brief stint recently with a friend's laptop running Win ME (no memory management just like 98), I think I'd prefer the term "asylum seeker".
What makes a man want to be a mouse? (Python's Flying Circus)
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.
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.
...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
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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.
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.
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!!"