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MandrakeSoft Improves Financial Health

Posted by simoniker on from the put-back-in-pot dept.

joestar writes "MandrakeSoft's latest financial results have been posted to their website. Despite a slight decrease in revenues - mostly due to the dollar/euro rate and negative effects of the Chapter 11-like protection - first results seem impressive: "the company reduced operational expenses by a factor of 5, increased gross margins by a factor of 5 and reduced its losses by a factor of 7". As a result, MandrakeSoft has been cash-flow positive since January 2003, and expects its first positive result for the current quarter! Along with latest Mandrake Linux cool products, these are excellent news in my opinion because it shows that an appropriate business model can help Linux companies greatly."

11 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Way to go!! by An0maly · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's good to see a company that makes a fine product doing well. See, Darl? Money CAN be made from selling software.

    --
    "...if you don't like your job, you don't strike. You just go in every day and do it really half-assed..." -Homer
  2. good for them by andih8u · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm glad that mandrake is able to make a bit of a profit while still providing a free download edition; without going the redhat way of dropping the home user line entirely. Hopefully other linux companies will see that the Redhat way is not the only way to profitability.

    --


    slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
    1. Re:good for them by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It may be because MandrakeSoft knows something that RedHAT should.

      Microsoft got where they did by getting in everyone's home and office. For the first 6 years Microsoft almost encouraged piracy of their operating system from the DOS 4.X to the windows 3.11 Era..

      This one act, set micrsoft up to gain complete dominance on the desktop... Businesses used Microsoft because that is what people had at home. OS/2 was not really viable as there were very few people that had it at home or in use... it was a rarity.

      so do you set up your business IT infrastructure on something that is superior but nobody knows or do you select what everyone is using at home?

      Bingo...

      MandrakeSoft hopefully realizes that the larger number of small/home users out there the greater the chance of business adoption.

      When the CEO starts talking about this Mandrake thing, the CFO hear's that it has a much lower TCO than microsoft (and it really does... the cost of licensing Microsoft products alone makes this case) then things will happen.

      Redhat as far as I'm concerned slit their own throat. us end users at home and in garages are who made redhat what is is today because we could reccomend it at work for no cost/risk with the first taste and segway into a full blown server/enterprise + support setup.

      Mandrake.... Hope you guys have a better grasp on reality than the rest of the IT industry.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    2. Re:good for them by deque_alpha · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You make decent argument, but in my experience, it is usually the other way 'round, people use Windows at home because it's what they use at work. Never have I seen any business or organizational choices made based around what people use at home. I've seen them based on what other businesses and orgs use, but never based on what employess choose.

      Where I work, people are always asking me for computer advice (I'm "the IT guy") and in many cases a Mac or a PC running Linux would be what I recommend for their needs, and their first response is always "But I use Windows at work...". I even hear this from people who admittedly prefer Macs, but are so convinced that they don't work with files from Windows machines, they don't consider them a real option.

      I don't think redhat cut their throat, in fact they made what is in my opinion a very sound decision. They are focusing on Biz / Org sales instead. It's not a worse choice, just a different one.

    3. Re:good for them by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      the thing is that what is happening now is based on the past. Businesses had minicomputers + text terminals... Unless you were an Uber geek you couldn't get that at home... and many companies were running unix and even SCO Xenix in the 80's yet nobody bought that for home use....

      DOS was cheap and came with every IBM PC. Windows 3.11 was for the most part free as it took one person to get a new pc with it and then copy the 10 floppies for friends. (I know of at least 50 Windows 3.11 installs in 1993 that were that way. and most businesses were that way.)

      Now microsoft makes it impossible for that to happen, Steve the IT guy that the rest of the IT people hate gives dan a copy of mandrake and says," this is free, you can give copies to everyone you know, and it has an Office suite built in that is also free." people will pay attention, espically after trying to upgrade their W98 box with XP only to have it complain about not looking legit and asking for them to call Microsoft.

      Granted, Linux even Mandrake Linux is not ready for the regular PC user. But, it will be.. and Microsoft is making it easier and easier for the regular user to accept the "difficulties" of Linux+Mandrake..

      Remember only about 6 years ago people were using DOS, having to fight with config.sys and autoexec.bat files to get a game to run. asking them to deal with some minor difficulties in Mandrake is really simple if their only other choice is to spend $199.00 to upgrade their OS.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  3. What? by 1000101 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since when is "Chapter 11-like protection" a good business model??

  4. Re:Really? by Firehawke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Advertising is a legitimate business model-- it's an annoying one, but nobody can question their right to do so if they choose. As for going under, it doesn't look like they are NOW.

    The CD-ROMs thing.. well, blame LG for producing a drive that CLEARLY violates the specifications and reuses a nondestructive command for a destructive firmware command.

    You can point to the earlier stuff all you like-- perhaps only the ONE is still valid though-- but the CD-ROM thing you can't point to Mandrake on.

  5. Re:Really? by NiceGeek · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The only reason Mandrake was "begging" was due to errors made by the FORMER bosses making massive screwups like trying to push Mandrake into "E-Learning". It has NOTHING to do with a flaw in their business model.

  6. Consider Mandrake for the community support by meanfriend · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I took my first serious foray into Linux about a year age with MDK9.0 on it's reputation as a 'newbie' distro. It has a LARGE and friendly user base and that (IMHO) must be taken into consideration when you are getting into Linux

    Let's face it. People who are trying to learn Linux are going to run into difficulty at some point, period. Sometimes people need to ask simple questions that would get scornful "RTFM n00b!" replies on any other group, but someone in an MDK forum will at least point you in the right direction without ripping your head off.

    Linux requires you to know stuff about your OS, and part of the learning curve is learning *how* to help yourself. Snooty attitudes from ubergurus are about as counterproductive as can be.

    alt.os.linux.mandrake is an AMAZING resource. Some issues are distro specific and because the MDK user base is so large, chances are someone else had already had that problem and someone else has offered a solution. As a resource for troubleshooting, having access to a large friendly newsgroup (which is fully archived by groups.google.com to boot) that uses your specific distro cannot be understimated.

    Now that MDK is the only commercial distro that 1) targets ease of use for the consumer desktop 2) has a significant sized friendly community and 3) allows full ISO downloads for free*, it's a no brainer for anyone wanting to get into linux

    *it obviously costs them money to develop or distribute it. Feel free to download the ISOs to try it out, but consider supporting them by buying a retail pack or syearly subscription if you continue to use it.

  7. Up to the EU Competition commissioner now. by openmtl · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Mandrake always has been a desktop distro. Wider adoption requires two things to happen; financial stability for Mandrake and an equal playing field for Linux.

    Red Hat have handed Mandrake the desktop baton. The failure of US Justice department to get anywhere near solving the antitrust issues with current desktops pretty well spoiled the opportunity for Linux desktops in the US. Maybe Lindows will fight the defence on behalf of the US consumer.

    Mandrake is delivering on the financials. Now lets see what the EU Commission on competition does on helping to create a level playing field. Will the rights of consumers prevail ? Munich is an important proving ground but expect some serious payola to flow to stop other cities. Whats 40 Billion USD work out to be in Euros now ?.

    --

  8. Diversity = long term health and freedom by nv5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm very hopeful that Mandrake will survive. In addition to being a really nice distro for many years, we need diversity, so I want SuSE (Novell), RH, Mandrake, Debian, the *BSD's, Apple and many more to thrive. At the risk of being modded (is that a word?) to hell, I even want MS to survive long term, since MS's misbehaviours are a big driver for the tons of good work being done in the open source and free software arena, as well as some of the better attitudes in traditional companies like IBM, Sun and Apple.

    Only a wide open and long term competition of approaches, value systems and individual people ensures positive progress and yes: freedom!