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!

Re:This is truly a sad day

[ryants]

Should I look at Ubuntu or Kanotix? One thing I really like about Mandr* is the PLF packages

I'm a soon-to-be former Mandriva Silver Club member, and I'm looking at Ubuntu.

I believe the Ubuntu equivalent to PLF is the Multiverse.

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

[TheRaven64]

Most states are right to work so they can do that.

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

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?

but the product declined

[b17bmbr]

I was a dedicated drake user for years. And yes, I bought their product. I bought 7.0, 7.2, and 9.2. It always recognized all my hardware, was easy to upgrade, and had all the necessary tools, etc. Then 10.x kinda sucked, and the latest incarnations were poor. Hardware recognition slacked, it didn't install on the same system that 9.x installed on, and now, they have subscriber support only for some wifi cards.

I installed ubuntu and never looked back. it recognized all my hardware (even the USB wifi), and apt-get is far superior. It's a sad day for sure, but they only have themselves to blame. They made poor financial decisions and it hurt their product. Now, I do confess to having been an iBook user for a few years and haven't used linux nearly as much. Most of my development is LAMP, java, python, etc., and it's all the same on OS X or linux. OO.org runs great, and so does GIMP, and with fink/darwinports, I don't "need" linux. So, I haven't used a "PC" in quite some time, but that doesn't diminsh the fact that my one remianing PC at homeruns ubuntu not mandriva.