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MandrakeSoft Exits Bankruptcy

Posted by michael on from the free-as-a-bird dept.

joestar writes "It's official now: the Court has approved Mandrakesoft's exit plan from the Chapter 11-like protection status. This seems to be the result of the recently announced profitability of the company, and means that Mandrakesoft is now fully back to normal activities. Great news for the Open Source community and Mandrake Linux users! All details are available in an online PR."

12 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. Who cares if they're Frencch? by wardomon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They put together a better distro than you complainers do...

    --

    - - - If the sun is a star, why can't I see it at night?
  2. Significant by FortKnox · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is quite significant. Its difficult for some major companies to dig themselves out of bankruptcy (see KMart), but for an open source/linux company to do it... it really proves that open source can survive in a capitalist economy.

    --
    Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
    1. Re:Significant by emtboy9 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not sure I would look at it that way... although I do very readily admit it is difficult to get out of bankruptcy without A: folding, or B: being bought out/liquidated.

      I tend to view OSS companies more like the farmer's market. In small towns and country settings you have the farmer's market. All the farmers come there to sell their produce, eggs, honey, etc. they all pretty much have the same things (tomatoes, beets, lettuce, eggs, etc) and so all are basically in competetion with each other. HOWEVER, listen in when the farmers are talking to each other, and you will find that they very readily help each other out with tips, advice, and even labor. Even though they are technically competing with each other, they share what they know amongst themselves to assist their neighbors.

      Open Source is a lot like that. Red Hat may be in direct competition with Mandrake and SuSE/now Novell, but at the same time, work done on Red Hat linux ends up in each of the others to some degree, and vice versa.

      The proprietary world is more like a pack of wild dogs... they run in packs together until they find prey, then its every dog for himself, and the weakest is killed/devoured by the pack, or left behind to die alone and be picked apart by scavengers.

      Now the true test is when the Farmer competes against the wild dogs. Farmer usually wins in the end, because the farmers all band together, track the pack of wild dogs, and remove them from the equation. Thus ALL the farmers livestock is safe.

      Not a big fan of Mandrake, personally, but cheers to them for getting back on their feet. The more OSS companies there are at the farmers market, the more endangered the pack of dogs becomes.

      --
      "Our funds have never taken part in toxic or death spiral convertible financings of any sort" -BayStar's managing partne
  3. That was close... by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I still have my distro preferences more towards the RH side of things (though it is drifting towards SuSE more and mroe), and the Franco-American antipathy over Iraq may cloud the political arena darkly...

    However, Mandrake is one of the absolute best newbie/intro distros of all time, IMHO, and it's damned good to see them come back from the dead.
    No matter what US folks may think of French things, and no matter how disdainful one may be, when it comes to Linux at least, we're all family.

    Cheers,

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    1. Re:That was close... by pr0c · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't know what his definition is... My definition is a distro suitable for newbies to install and maintain. Mandrake is, xandros is, gentoo isn't, slack isn't. Newbie distro means that a newbie is the minimum target.

      Now of course someone will come along and say well gentoo is easy to install, slackware is easy to install... and that is of course their opinion. The more instructions a product needs the worst it is for a newbie.

  4. Re:Just more proof... by Knight+Thrasher · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Zing! This is so very true though. The software might be free... but you can bet your sweet wallet the support is not! (But since when is that news for the software world?)

  5. Re:Good by ScottGant · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm glad they survived also. I'm a Gentoo guy through and through...but we all need to help each other out. I donated a few sheckles here and there to Mandrake when they were going through their hardships.

    Hey, we all need to stick together, right? Giving back to the community, even if it's in some small way. Every little bit helps.

    This is great news.

    --

    "Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
  6. Re:Good by Short+Circuit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Uh, check the wording of the story, then check the wording of your post.

    Mandrake is profitable and is coming out of Chapter 11. That means that they're producing enough of what people want in order to stay in business.

    --
    tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
  7. It's now official by MukiMuki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is now official - Netcraft has confirmed: Mandrake is not dying

    Yet another crippling bombshell failed to hit the beleaguered Mandrake community when recently The Court confirmed that Mandrake accounts for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all exit plans. Coming on the heels of the latest Netcraft survey, which plainly states that Mandrake has gained more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Mandrake isn?t collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by not failing dead last [samag.com] in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin [amazingkreskin.com] to predict Mandrake's future. The handwriting is on the wall: Mandrake faces a promising future. In fact, there won't be any failure at all for Mandrake because Mandrake is not dying. Things are looking very good for Mandrake. As many of us are already aware, Mandrake continues to gain market share. Gold ink flows like a river of honey. Mandrake PPC is the most successful of them all, having regained 93% of its core developers.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    SUSE leader Seibt states that there are a whole lot of users of Mandrake. How many users of Mandarke PPC are there? Let's see. The number of Mandrake versus Mandrake PPC posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about a whole lot/5 = a lot of Mandrake PPC users. Debian/Gentoo posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of Mandrake posts. Therefore there are about a few users of Debian/Gentoo. A recent article put Mandrake PPC at about a chunk of the Mandrake market. Therefore there are [beyond here lie dragons / 4i] = [woah, Nelly] Mandrake PPC users.

    This is consistent with the number of Mandrake PPC Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, Mandrake PPC didn?t go out of business and wasn?t taken over by Red Hat who sell another fledging OS. Now Red Hat is also prospering, its profits turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that Mandrake has steadily inclined in market share. Mandrake is very healthy and its long-term survival prospects are very bright. If Mandrake is to prosper well it will be among large enterprises. Mandrake continues to grow. Nothing short of a miracle could stop it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Mandrake is alive.

    Fact: Mandrake is alive

    (note : I originally forgot the bloody plain old text option. crap.)

  8. Bah by Lakedemon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Americans, french, israeli, palestinian are all human people...
    We all eat, drink, sleep
    We all like children
    We all love Women (men/dogs/cats/sheeps...)

    Having the same tastes, we could all be friends (Bah...).

    Well, there are these that bad bad things called "Hate" and "Politics" that make/made people do awfull things this century and the last one...

    Personnaly, I'm french and I love americans (the american girls).
    So, you see... The antagonism between france-us isn't so bad.... ^_^
    Lakedemon
    ps : go go go Mandrake !

  9. Re:Just more proof... by TheWanderingHermit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As one of my relatives used to always say:

    Speak not of what you know not

    And it's clear you know not, or know nothing of bankruptcy.

    Mandrake was under re-organization bankruptcy. They will be paying all their debts. They had to submit plans for payments at least once (I don't know the system in France), either when declaring, or when exiting -- They could not get out of bankruptcy status without having a plan approved by the court and all their creditors for paying off their creditors.

    A large percentage of my clients are bankruptcy and consumer advocacy lawyers. There's a lot more to it than you, in your need to be a smart ass, make it out to be.

  10. Re:Just more proof... by 13Echo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    More proof that people will pay to sustain the things that they believe in. They will pay to keep it alive, even if they can have it for free. Any daily user of a good Linux distribution can see the value in sustaining its maintainers.

    Open source is a still a pretty new concept to many. I think that it was just a matter of time before traditional "brick and mortar" rules stopped applying. It took some time, but the system is starting to catch on. You don't need to go to the store to support your favorite Linux distro. Mandrake club and online payment systems have proven that.