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Linux Mandrake Gets Major Investor
Stone writes "It's seems that Red Hat get a big competitor with Mandrake. Axa announces today an equity position in Mandrakesoft. Axa is the second world leader of assets management with 650 billion USD and the owner of DLJ who makes a lot's of Nasdaq IPOs." Thus it begins.
well, some of you :).
"You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium..." -- GNU General Public License
Most of the programs in Linux distributions are under the GPL or similar licenses. Where in these licenses does it say, ".. except if someone else has already distributed the program?" I write program ABC, I release it under the GPL. Everyone in the world is free to copy it, mirror it on ftps all around the globe, modify it, even put it on a distribution CD. Are these programs only to be distributed by one vendor?
Yet, there is a ton of people that come out for EVERY Mandrake Linux story here, bitching and moaning about how they just "stole" everything from RedHat, and they do not even deserve the right to exist. With Corel's upcoming distribution based on Debian, will this same situation arise? I sure hope not.
We release programs under the GPL so that they are able to be used/copied/etc for everyone. So where on Earth does this hostility for a small group following the copy clause of the GPL have ANY legitimacy?? If you do not want your program to be copied freely, give it a license that states something like, "This program can only be used on Debian systems, and not any stupid copy-cat distributions either, just the genuine Debian one." As author of a program, that's your right. But you have no right to say, "These people should not copy programs, because well, RedHat already did it."
If you come up with conspiracy theories like stockholders demanding RedHat not allow this sort of behavior, then the stockholders should have read RH's IPO statement, should learn about a company and how it gets the programs on its CDs, etc, before investing any money in it. If this homework is done (primarily reading the GPL a few times), you will see the copy clauses and either believe in them and invest your money, or get scared by them and not invest. If RedHat did anything so close as to make a distribution unable to be copied (they couldn't use any GPLed code, so that would require totally reengineering EVERYTHING), they would get hounded so horribly they would have to go out of business as I doubt anyone in this community would ever trust them again. That is a much larger risk for them than shooting down everyone who wants to copy the distribution.
The official people involved, both RedHat and Mandrake, have said they do not mind either side. Bob Young is always asked this, when I saw him at Comdex this Spring and again at LinuxWorld just a few days ago.
What's this mean for the Linux community at large? Yes, you can copy a Mandrake CD and slap a label on it that says, "Slappy Joe's Spiffy Linux," and sell it for $20, $50, even $199.99. But, to win the hearts of anyone, and make a name for yourself you will have to put in work and make it something that is noticable. Copying alone doesn't win you Product of the Year awards
So, shut your pieholes and do something useful with your time.
You ignored the original point, that this is exactly what Red Hat is. Mandrake is Red Hat + KDE + some fine tuning. Red Hat is GNU/Linux + an install program + some fine tuning.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
The problem is that most people don't know it's available for free. Most of those that do wouldn't know how to get it anyway.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
It isn't a zero sum game, folks. If Mandrake is successful, this will likely increase the number of users of Linux in general, and attract more developers, possibly resulting in a net increase of *each* distribution.
- Sam Ruby
Hopefully when we have all these major, popular, easy to install distros ( Corel, Mandrake, Redhat ) it will encourage compatibility between all distros and prevent any one company from having too much control over "Linux".
I'm looking forward to the Corel distribution myself. Hopefully, the beta version of their distro will be easily available and not restricted to a few beta testers. It'll be time for me to finally take another run at linux and try installing it on my P2-400 128Mb. I like the looks of KDE too.
It gets more interesting by the day.
The final victory will come when Microsoft starts to release software for Linux, that will be their white flag surrender.
I don't think the technical merits of distros will falter or stray much...the distros are getting most of their software via GPL. What I'm worried about is distro's slinging mud at each other in the media. Gates proved that it doesn't matter how good your product is as long as you make your market THINK it's the best (or only) way to go. If we have n commercial linux companies bad mouthing the other guy's product...when it's all linux anyway, then are they all bad mouthing linux in the eyes of the otherwise clueless newbie?
"don't use distribution X...they're still using kernel x.x.x" what does this say about the kernel in general in the public's eye?
"Let him go, Ralph. He knows what he's doing." --Otto Mann (simpsons)
With GPL there is no 'steal' only 'share'.
I'm sick and tired of reading that linux-mandrake
have stolen from Redhat.
GPL is an invitation to share, with the condition that the sharing goes both ways.
Claiming that Redhat's works has been stolen is show a complete lack of understanding of the GPL. If Redhat didn't want threir work to be shared with others they wouldn't have released it under the GPL. Since Mandrake's innovations are also GPL'd Redhat is free to share them also.
Deap in the heart of a nameless American investor's firm the following conversation was recorded by Agent 000 of British Intelligence. The message was sent across the world through the Echelon network, and picked up by my tranceiver in Sidney, Australia. Many an agent risked his life to bring this message to slashdot, so enjoy!
"Oh my f'ing lord, Larry, look at that."
"Uhhh, yeah Bill?"
"Ya know that Linux thingie we invested in?"
"Yeah, I remember that. It had a stupid name, Red Cap or something"
"Well I just read here that this other company , Mandrakesoft, is being invested in by this Axa joint"
"Uhh, so?"
"Uhh, so! This Mandrakesoft stole Linux from the Red Hat people, and you wouldn't beleive this . ."
"What Bill?"
"Them danm bastard Red Hat people LET them steal it, they practically gave it away, if what I'm reading here is true!"
"That's kinda sucky isn't it?"
"Hell it's sucky! I'm pulling all my money from those bastards, before ya know it, they'll be giving their product away for free!"
"Well, if ya think it's a good idea Bill, I'll do it too"
"Them danm crazy's if ya ask me. I meen that's no way to run a business"
You seem to be forgetting that Mandrake has a developement version of their distro - "Cooker". This is a work in progress towards their next distro. Much like Rawhide. I personally believe that Mandrake and Redhat are starting to diverge from Redhat 6.0 - the next version of Mandrake will be much different. But of course - they're always going to snarf the best bits out of the next Redhat to add into their distro - but then Redhat can do the same.
Lothar, DiskDrake, Panoramix, KOffice funding the list goes on. How can anyone not love a company that puts it's own money into producing GPL'd software?
Back in The Day(tm) (actually before I really started using Linux at all...) there was the SLS distro, which served largely as a basis for Patrick V. to come out with Slackware. The guy who started SLS whined about how Pat got the glory for taking his distro and adding some scripts (and IMO fixing it up quite a bit) and calling it a different name. Of course, the fact that SLS never really got fixed/updated made it irrelevant in the 1.0.x kernel era.
And now, ppl are using other distros than Slackware, oft because of their new features (such as more sophisticated packaging systems)
The moral of the story: In the Linux distro community, evolve or become irrelevant. If Red Hat falls behind the curve so to speak others such as Mandrake will pick up the slack and take over.
Not alone certainly, but I'll disagree.
From what I understand Mandrake asked RedHat first. They were told ok. Young has said he doesn't mind CheapBytes either. This, IMO, is very smart.
RedHat right now makes all their revenue from box sales, true. But they know this can't last, their business model has to be brand name and support, not boxing software. When broadband goes in lots of people will be downloading, not buying, unless they can get good help, documentation, and support.
If you thought distributions were going to IPO, then not compete with one another I don't know what to say. Thats what its all about. This is not bad for us - it will mean more innovation, more full-time open source programmers, and cheaper prices.
There are some worries, like if one distribution tries an embrace and extend to become the "one true distribution". We should be watching for this, and let it be known that engaging in certain competitive tactics will not be tolerated. And the weird thing is they have to care, cause we write their code. Funny, eh?
Pardon me while I scream...
AAARRRRRGH!!!!
...okay now, where was I? Oh yeah, please go read the Debian social contract. Then go read the GPL. Then go read the collected essays of Richard Stallman. Then go look up the interviews of Bob Young. If after this, you still feel that Mandrake is stealing Redhat, then stop bogarting that doobie and pass it around.
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned