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Mandriva Fires Founder Gael Duval, Who Plans to Sue

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the commercialism-trumps-community-once-again dept.

Otter writes "Mandrake Linux founder Gael Duval has confirmed that Mandriva has let him go." A few hours later, Newsforge (owned by the same company that owns Slashdot) did an exclusive IRC interview with Gael in which he said he plans to sue his former employer for "abusive layoff." This is a sad day for Mandriva -- and for GNU/Linux in general. Gael was the founder and heart of the original Mandrake (now Mandriva) project, which was the first Linux distribution designed to be easy for non-technical users to install and administer. There is plenty of consternation in the Mandriva Club Forums about whether the company will go on supporting individual desktop users as strongly as it has in the past.

10 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. OSS immunity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well of course being open source. We're immune from situations like this.

    1. Re:OSS immunity by slapout · · Score: 2, Funny

      Next move could be interesting

      Yes. He could go back to work for them in a few years and create an open source hardware mp3 player! And a music store too! (ManTunes? DrivaTunes? DuvalTunes?)

      --
      Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
  2. Re:This is truly a sad day by madaxe42 · · Score: 5, Funny

    What about Gentoo? Wonderful community. And you end up with plenty of time to get to know them all, while you wait for it to build!

  3. Penguin Suit by dotslashdot · · Score: 1, Funny

    It was only a matter of time before someone brought a Penguin suit.

  4. Say what, now? by DysenteryInTheRanks · · Score: 5, Funny
    The "exclusive IRC interview?" Not exactly Mike Wallace or Sam Donaldson, is it?

    Seriously, though, the White House press corps should pick this up. "Next on NBC Nightly News, our exclusive IRC interview with the president."

    * PublicistLackey has joined #whouse
    * StonezzzPhilipsNBC has joined #whouse
    * W has joined #whouse

    [StonezzzPhilipsNBC] Prez, why r u h8ing on detainees @ Gitmo + Abu?
    * StonezzzPhilips kicked from #whouse
    [W] Next question?

  5. Re:You gotta be kidding me. by mooingyak · · Score: 2, Funny

    I usually don't bother people much over typos and whatnot, but this one kinda caught my eye:

    If your retirement savings and home were used as equilateral

    Presumably collateral?

    I'd work up something funny based off of what you said, but it just doesn't jive in any way I can think of.

    --
    William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
  6. Re:How is it abusive? He shouldn't sue at all by Xzzy · · Score: 4, Funny

    France, where Mandrake was based and where his employment contract was signed, is not a state of the United States of America.

    A regrettable oversight. We'll get to you guys once we're done with Iran.

  7. Re:You gotta be kidding me. by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 3, Funny

    >>If your retirement savings and home were used as equilateral

    >Presumably collateral?

    >I'd work up something funny based off of what you said, but it just doesn't jive in any way I can think of.

    You're just not coming up with the right _angle_. _Try_ harder, you'll get there by degrees. Or just make an acute observation.

  8. 'abusive layoff' by weierstrass · · Score: 3, Funny

    In France, a country in Western Europe (near Belgium), they have such a thing as 'licenciement abusif'. This is a standard term of employment law.

    'Licenciement' is French (the language spoken in France, and other countries such as Belgium) for layoff. 'Abusif' is French for 'abusive'.

    HTH. HAND.

    --
    my password really is 'stinkypants'
  9. Re:He should fork it... by smchris · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why not Gaelinux? Hell, Debian flew.