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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."

16 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. Mandrake Move by rf0 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now mandrake move looks a cool idea in storing all the files on the move however what would be even better is a system which boots from a USB device. Now that would be cool

    Rus

    --
    Cheap UK and US VPS
    1. Re:Mandrake Move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Knoppix ...
      http://rz-obrian.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/knoppix- usb/

  3. 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 MoonFog · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I totally agree, and Mandrake is a great distro. I don't like SuSE's way of releasing their distro (ftp anyone?), and Redhat dropped the free version entirely, so for the desktop I usually recommend Mandrake for people just wanting to try Linux. I have great respect for their installer, which I find to be excellent!
      IMHO this is great news, and as you say hopefully others will follow this model.

      The latest version can be bought of Mandrake or downloaded from Linuxiso.org.
      Feel like supporting ?

    2. 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.
    3. 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.

    4. 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.
  4. good business model until... by TWX · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...Slashdot found out and saturated their web site with so many hits that they'll spend the next three years paying for the bandwidth...

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

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

  6. Mandrake is awesome by iamdrscience · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I pretty much only use Debian for linux, but Mandrake is pretty cool. Mainly for how simple it is. It's a distro that I know I could give to most people (largely computer inexperienced) I know if they wanted to play with Linux. The simple installer is as easy as installing a *nix distro gets. Period. It is, in fact, easier than the Windows installer is.

    1. Re:Mandrake is awesome by TheWanderingHermit · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's really nice to hear a Debian devotee praising Mandrake. I've been using Mandrake since I started seriously using Linux (my first exposure was Suse 6.4). I've tried Debian and, while I like apt, I found that I didn't have time to do all the setup things I needed to -- like setting up the mount points when I wanted to play DVDs (which isn't just for entertainment if you're doing video production). I respect Debian and the power it provides, but I prefer Mandrake, since I can get a production box up and running extremely quickly.

      I've found it frustrating because many times I've heard people deride Mandrake because it is so easy to use, and I've especially heard a lot of Debian users deride it (then again, I've heard many Debian users deride anything BUT Debian). I've always thought there was a place for most of the distros out there, and Mandrake is great for beginners, or experienced users who need easy and quick installation.

      I'm glad to hear from another distro user (especially an advanced one like Debian) recognizing the value of Mandrake.

    2. Re:Mandrake is awesome by Lane.exe · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Mandrake is good period. It's Linux. It's not like there's something other Linux distros do that Mandrake can't. Package management? urpmi. What advantage does apt have over urpmi? I can't think of one. Ease of install? Hands down to Mandrake. Ease of configuration? Drakconf, userdrak, diskdrak, wow... all easy to use and they do the same thing as any comparable configuration method.

      Don't knock Mandrake simply because it can be easy to use. It's also just as powerful as anything else, provided you have the experience to use the power-user features. There's nothing that says "just because this system is more obtuse and harder to use must mean it's more powerful!" That's a misconception that a lot of people need to get out of their heads.

      --
      IAALS.
  7. Re:Why does everyone care so much? by ViolentGreen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Mandrake is a good distro for new users. It is cake to partition, install and use. You don't have to know any command line applications to configure your system. While this may be true for other distros as well, Mandrake does this very well.

    Alot of people, including myself, think that mandrake is the closest thing to a desktop linux for the masses currently available.

    --
    Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
  8. 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.

  9. MandrakeClub Subscription by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you find yourself looking for Mandrake rpm's all the time, searching forums with the keyword Mandrake often enough, or want to join a productive and growing community, consider joining MandrakeClub.

    You are supporting Mandrake (the developers, company, and distribution) through MandrakeClub. There are several benefits that are nice to have (select mirrors, a huge archive of Mandrake rpms, and bittorrents for ISO's) not to mention the fact that you are supporting an operating systems designed with you in mind. There are even forums for different languages. This is a volunteer community by-and-large. No one was forced to come because they found Mandrake preloaded on their computer.

    You pay for one year, with 4 levels of subscription. A silver subscription gets you most everything you want for $120/year. Remember, you are not just supporting a corporation. You are supporting a free product (development, patching, documentation, and web hosting) which brings free software that much closer to everyone (including you).

    I do not work for Mandrake. Look at the options yourself. And remember Linux and Mandrake are not free because they don't cost anything - they are free because they are supported by people who believe they should be free.