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Interview with Mandrake Linux Founder Gael Duval

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the a-bit-of-the-biz dept.

mcleodnine writes "In this interview Gael Duval comments on MandrakeSoft's just released financials. He also comments on his decision to base Mandrake on Red Hat (over Slackware), the timeline for getting out of Chapter 11, the recent UserLinux manifesto and barriers to acceptance for Linux on the desktop."

11 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It seems to me that Mandrake is... by 77Punker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You can't start off as a purist. If not for Mandrake and the confidence its foolproof GUI tools gave me, I never would've tried Linux. I can't just go out and break my computer; I need my computer. The reason to install a new OS is to make the machine do more, not stop working altogether. Mandrake lets you start using Linux and get comfortable before moving up in the world.

  2. Mandrake by Phrite · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Mandrake is a good distro, but unfortunatly in its developmental process it was following the wake of Red Hat.

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    Visit Phrite's Tech News/Security Tools
  3. I know your watching Bruce! by bfree · · Score: 4, Insightful
    So how do you respond to his thoughts on UserLinux. Obviously it is nice that he recognises it's a bit early to be very decisive but otherwise his comments are negative. How will you counter his arguments that
    1) it's a Debian thing, isn't it? 2) it's better to follow standardization processes such as Linux Standard Base because all major Linux distributions agree with it, and it's important to avoid the "Unix balkanisation syndrom" if we want to see Linux succeed in the long term.
    Excuse me blatently calling you out like this, but you have been known to post on /. just once or twice and while I think I really like where UserLinux is going, these are the sort of issues that make me wonder if it is actually achievable in the current environment.
    --

    Never underestimate the dark side of the Source

  4. Re:It seems to me that Mandrake is... by dreamchaser · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What exactly is 'purist Linux'? Do you mean a good distro should require lots of knowledge to setup/install?

    I like Slackware and Debian personally, but Madrake was one of the first distros that a relatively ordinary user could install without help.

    It's your kind of attitude that helps keep Linux away from the masses.

  5. Quote by clifgriffin · · Score: 0, Insightful

    LQ) If you couldn't use Mandrake what Linux distribution would you use?

    GD) This is the most difficult question I ever had to answer in an interview! :-) That's a frightening question actually because I can't see any alternative that could fit my requirements: friendly, full-featured, powerful, stable, fully open-sourced...

    *cough*

    I would hope that the owner of such a large Linux distro wouln't need a "friendly" alternative. And I would also hope he knows that Mandrake is in no way more full featured, powerful, stable, or fully open-sourced than Slackware or a variety of other more pure Linux distros.

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    clifgriffin > blog
  6. Re:It seems to me that Mandrake is... by nirvanis · · Score: 4, Insightful
    it does not represent purist Linux

    Maybe Mandrake does not represent purist Linux, but its existence brought Linux near lot of people; and, most important thing, made developers aware they need to implement simple interfaces.

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    nirvanis
  7. Mandrake, not just for newbies... by IpSo_ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In my experience, it seems Mandrake has gotten a reputation as being "all graphical like Windows", and I find a lot of "geeks" look down upon it for just that reason.

    I've been using Linux since Slackware 3.4 (1998/99?), I've installed and used almost every distro under the sun for both servers and desktops (haven't tried Gentoo yet though) and I must say Mandrake is by far the easiest _and_ most configurable distro I've ever used. The last part is especially important for the "geeks".

    For example, without spending a lot of time, or downloading obscure "boot images", what other distro is there that supports ReiserFS, JFS, XFS, LVM, and a super easy way (graphical) to setup software RAID with all the above partitions straight from the boot CD. Mandrake has supported all of this since at least v8.0. It took me longer to find a Debian boot image that uses the 2.4 kernel just to support my very common hardware raid card then it did to install Mandrake with ReiserFS on the /boot partition.

    I can hear the Debian fans screaming already... "But Debian has APT". Yes, it does, and APT is great. RedHat has APT now too, but Mandrake has had URPMI for years, which essentially does exactly what APT does, only its easier to use, both from the command line and graphically! Since about Mandrake 9.0 it has also supported installing packages on multiple machines at the same time.

    To top it all off, Mandrake's setup utilities, such as PrinterDrake, HardDrake (for configuring hardware) are top notch. I was blown away when I loaded up PrinterDrake... said "Search for printers on your network" and it came back with all 6 of our (different) printers setup and ready to use. I don't think it was more then TWO clicks! Thats something even WindowsXP can't claim.

    In short, Mandrake isn't just for newbies, its an excellent distro for even veterans of Linux who would rather spend time coding, or tweeking important performance settings instead of mucking about setting up printers or searching for "boot images" just to support year old hardware or file systems other then EXT2/3.

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    Open Source Time and Attendance, Job Costing a
  8. soft intro by spectrokid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    With more distro's sliding towards pay-only and the others hard on the newbies, Mandrake is more or less the ONLY distro adding new users to the pool. I have a (Windows-)job and two kids, and without Mandrake there would be no time for me to try Linux.

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    10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then

  9. Mandrake & Linux history... by joestar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is certainly one of the most interesting part of this interview, and I think too few people aren't aware of these facts... And I would add URPMI:

    LQ) What would you consider Mandrake's largest innovation or contribution to Linux?

    MD) Proof that Linux is not only for geeks (focus on ease of use), first graphical installer, first remote update utility (including graphical front-end), security levels, transparent access to devices, first Linux releases as an ISO image...

  10. Depends on what you mean by non-purist by Prien715 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Unlike other distributions, Mandrake doesn't use proprietary setup tools (SuSe's SAX is proprietary for example as is some of Red Hat's stuff I believe). IMHO, rolling your good tools and releasing them open-source and making a 100% OSS distro is as purist to OSS as you can get.

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    -- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
  11. Re:That should really be modded up... by jdkincad · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If Mandrake is so incompatable why are they LSB certified?

    --
    The great advantage of having a reputation for being stupid: People are less suspicious of you.