Mandriva Fires Founder Gael Duval, Who Plans to Sue

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.

Comments

OSS immunity

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:This is truly a sad day

[madaxe42]

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!

Say what, now?

[DysenteryInTheRanks]

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?

Re:How is it abusive? He shouldn't sue at all

[Xzzy]

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.