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Mandrake Linux 9.2, Adware Version
thedarb writes "Mandrake has decided to sell ads to be seen during installation, web browsing and in screen savers. This all comes in their upcoming 9.2 release. Seven G's and you could put your face in their installer." Update: 09/12 18:07 GMT by M : Mandrake has a page about the ads.
There might be other slow-loading free software projects that could benefit from this, too, such as KDE or Mozilla. As long as the ads are for techie/computer stuff that's interesting I'm cool with it.
I never vote for anyone. I always vote against.
-- W.C. Fields
Nevermind it is real.t ising
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/partners/adver
The advertising is only applied to the free download version - if you buy it in the shops, you don't get advertising.
Read the article, it is only during installation if you bother to use your own startpage for the browser and configure a new screensaver. It is not adware like you are used to.
You are missing the point, if you pay you will get it ad free anyway. And how often are you installing anyway?
RTFA. The advertisements are only in the download edition. Sounds very reasonable.
If the installer is released under the GPL, you can modify it and distribute that new version. But I'd personally think Mandrake would make the installer closed-source, similar to SuSE's installer.
Keep in mind, that even if it's GPL, you cannot distribute it with the Mandrake trademark in place. You have to remove that trademark, as it doesn't belong to you, it belongs to Mandrake. This has been done with Red Hat: for example, Pink Tie Linux is Red Hat with the trademarks removed.
I personally think this would be a good idea if the advertisements are Linux-related. I, for one, wouldn't mind seeing an IBM banner in Mandrake. You'd probably see mostly Linux-related companies such as IBM pay for this anyway. Other advertisements would probably miss their target.
No.
It's by Ogden Nash: "Song of the Open Road"
Web site ad revenues aren't spotty, they're quite good. Do you think Google is having problems finding advertisers?
The trouble is that any doofus who runs a web site expects that clickthrough banner ads should generate some revenue. Webmasters try to generate revenue from mediocre traffic. You can't do that in any other form of advertising, so I don't see why you should be able to on the web.
The web site I run at work generates about $350,000/year in legitimate ads (Ford, TD Bank, Esso, McDonalds, Government of Canada, etc) and none of that money comes from clickthroughs. We charge appropriately for the size of the audience and because we have good audience demographic information it makes it really easy to sell ads. And no popups!
The global economy is a great thing until you feel it locally.
"Following up on a story appearing this morning at DesktopLinux.com about MandrakeSoft selling ads in their free download version of Mandrake Linux, I contacted Gael Duval at MandrakeSoft for more detail on the new advertising/revenue source.
Duval pointed out that advertising in Mandrake Linux is not really a new thing. There have been ads for Mandrake Linux, MandrakeSoft products, and for free software projects in the installation all along. They introduced paid advertising in the Safari Service in Mandrake Linux 9.l. Duval says that in version 9.2 they are just advancing that concept a little further.
Duval said the boxed versions of Mandrake 9.2 will not include any paid ads, but that the free download edition (the choice of 90% of Mandrake users) "will now include several additional ads, in the bookmarks and in the screensavers." He noted there will be no annoying pop-up ads.
He added that most Mandrake users want to see them continue to operate in the spirit of free software while at the same time being successful as a business. These new ads, Duval said, are one way that MandrakeSoft tries "to solve this equation."
More details on the advertising, including pricing, is available on the MandrakeSoft web site.
See Joe Barr's article.
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/partners/advertising
this is nothing to worry about and could be a great source of revenue for Mandrakesoft.
Mandrake is fairly popular, its close up there with Red Hat for people using it as a home desktop- at least among those I talk with on IRC. Mandrake has a large following of people using Linux at home, most of whom do not pay for it.
These ads are a fairly easy way to get some money out of the download edition, and they are fairly easy to avoid if you find them annoying.
Install time ads? You'd be watching mandrake propoganda anyways.
Bookmark ads? Clean out the bookmark folders.
Screen saver ads? HA! don't use screen savers, or install some from another source.
Default home page ads? Change the home page.
Its a very minor thing they are doing in reality, which gives them a chance to increase revenue without significant outlays of money on their part, and without screwing over their customers. Personally, I think its brilliant.
"Do you close your eyes and put your fingers in your ears when watching the TV, in case any ads get you?"
I mute the TV, or change the channel (picture-in-picture is great), or get up and do something in another room. In reality though, I don't watch much TV these days as I've been completely put off be the advertising (and lack of quality). The only things I watched regularly are MI5 (en_GB: Spooks, IIRC), with my teeth gritted due to A&E's dreadful presentation style and the constant interruption by adverts, plus The National (CBC) and I dip in to CBC Newsworld during lunch and other short breaks. The rest of my weekly TV viewing is irregular and probably totals well under 2 hours. If I made more time, I would probably watch some of the British dramas on TVO (TV Ontario) as the ads come between the shows, not as constant barrage of interruptions during it. Anybody who sits and watches the adverts or doesn't try to avoid them either has a high threshold for putting up with crap, or is just plain dumb.
Well, if you keep buying Mandrake boxes, you don't have to worry: only the download version contains ads.
RTFA. The people only put bookmarks in the browser. It's not like that damned marketbrowser stuff that windows has. All it takes is Edit bookmarks/delete, and the bookmark is gone. I do not see linux users having a problem with this, I always remove the default bookmarks from the browser anyway.
Just read the article, it's during the installer, in the bookmarks and the default browser home pages. The latter two can be changed. Sounds like a pretty good idea for a free distribution.
Of those to whom much is given, much is required.
Incorrect, pay attention. Screensaver advertising is the only thing taken out for the retail version. The retail version still has both installation and browser advertising.
Here is the statement that Madrake released to clarify the situation: A controversy has erupted today in the Linux community about the upcoming Mandrake Linux 9.2 and advertizing. Although the overall reaction from the community is mostly positive, a few people don't seem to be happy about having advertizing in Mandrake 9.2. We'd like to explain briefly why we have done this and why you shouldn't worry. 0) There won't be any ad in the screensavers in Mandrake 9.2 There will be one paid-ad in the installation procedure, and a few paid-links in bookmarks. 1) Ads are selected and won't be intrusive. Our advertizing plan is only offered to MandrakeSoft partners - we select only ads that make sense as complementary Linux solutions. Additionally, ads won't be intrusive (no pop-up windows) and can be removed easily. 2) There have been ads in Mandrake Linux for years. Maybe you didn't notice it, but in the installation procedure and in browser's bookmarks, there have been many links to Mandrake products, the GNU project, many Open Source projects and so on. In Mandrake 9.1 there was the first "commercial" link to a technical book content provider. Nobody was annoyed, we didn't get any feedback about that. 3) Free Software and business model. As we are firmly committed to Open Source/Free Software, we want to keep on exploring business models that are compatible with this spirit.
$30,000 - $50,000 is about what it's going to cost to employ another full-time programmer in a developed country.
Salary counts for less than half of the total costs of having a salaried employee. There are taxes, benefits, building costs, equipment costs, training, etc.
Do you really think that they can get good technical employees who are willing to work for US minimum wage (and probably less than minimum wage in France)?
To give a good example of this. Back when I was well paid, and I use to deal with engineering burden rates for figuring out the cost of my time in dollars for upper management, I had a set figure, that was $625 US a man day. This was for the canadian office.
If you took the average salary at the canadian office you'd see it work out to something like this:
Engineering Cost per year $162,500
Engineering Salary per year 45,360
All the rest: 117,410 (72%)
A dozen engineers would cost: $1,950,000
By the grand parents numbers of advertising (which I don't have on my screen so I can't see them exactly Damn I think its 30k per year per advertizer) Mandrake needs 65 advertisers just to handle the 12 engineers.
Of course part of the burden (appart from the engineer's salary) is the salary for 'non-production' personal, or non-billing personal. This is all your C*Os, secretaries, and marketing. It does not include production costs, those are usually covered under a different system.
But welcome to the world of 'too much information, more then I wanted to know' world of project management and budgeting.
Software Engineer & Writer of Military Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog: petermwright.com Twitter: WrightPeterM
Yeah but looking elsewhere while browsing the web kinda defeats the purpose.
RTFA! Mandrake stated that you can easily remove the ads.
They're just some default bookmarks and the default home page.
You do know how to change the defaults, don't you?
Anyway, it pays for the distro. I'd rather have some advertiser pay for my next upgrade than have to pay for it myself.
It seems like mandrake are aware of not overdoing it.
You make the mistake of thinking you can educate the fundamental stupidity out of people. You can't.