Reiver_Fluffi

dexter11, this has been an ongoing issue for as long as I can remember, too long for excuses. Long before now the question should have been asked, "why can't our customers get in touch with us?" That question should have been asked and dealt with a long time ago, again this is how real companies do business. Let's face the truth, Mandriva (the company) is only supported by fans of the 1998 distro that is now long gone and those that know no better! Nice little niche market there, as long as they can hold on to it.

But why should they? If there is an established and formal channel there, they should expect a response from it with no additional effort, that's how real companies do business!

Thank you for clearing things up (don't expect many flames though, most people are mature here ;) )

Yeah, credit where it's due, Remi has been doing a good job with respect to communication, and Adam Williamson can not be faulted, he does an excellent job. However it is in other key areas where I feel Mandriva is lacking, these two guys are only 2 of the key members, others should be doing more. Too often do I hear tales of customers who have tried to contact accounts/billing through official channels, wait for weeks with no reply, and only whe they nag on the forum to guys like Remi and Adam Williamson do they get some where, the consumer has to go to extra effort to be heard, that's wrong IMO.

I share the same concerns, I believe that a significant proportion of Mandriva's revenue is secured by their loyal following, and they depend on their experienced fans to prop up their poor (IMHO) support channels (like I have said before, I value this place as a better means of support than their official forum). I do wonder why wobo was picked though, he has made some harsh criticisms of the company in the last year (IIRC), I can not help but wonder if that had anything to do with it. Another concern is after the recent announcement concerning Adamw taking on additional responsibilities, is this the scope of their cost cutting, to cut staff and place increasing burdens on those that stay? Given that Mandriva as a company has a reputation for bad customer service/communication, is this likely to make things worse by over working their staff? I accept that we may not be furnished with all the facts, but unless Mandriva radically changes it's communication practices and explains fully where they are going and how they are going to get there, then we can only speculate.

Glad to help mate ;)

So true, IIRC Xerox PARC was the daddy of modern WIMP GUI's, everyone copied off them (actually that's not 100% correct, IIRC Apple collaborated with them).

Try adding via-rhine at the end of that list.

Did you have a look at the /etc/modprobe.preload file?

Having read the Fortune article I can not help but feel that M$ are going to fall flat on their face on this one, and possibly change the way propretary software is sold. Software as a service anyone?

Not a significantly new approach though, in XP you got a warning message before you where able to see any files in c:\windows and c:\program files.

What kind of ethernet controller are you using? In the past I have had problems with the installer failing to set up the correct kernel modules. Try this to find your ethernet controller: lspci | grep Ethernet You will need to find out the name of the kernel module, then append it to /etc/modprobe.preload (IIRC), if it's already there, then we might have to consider alternatives.

Not at all :D

Does Mandriva have a big enough technical community outside it's payroll? Given that Mandriva is often labeled as the "beginners" distro (just a generalisation) do they have the right community to support the model, furthermore do they have the right people to manage a community effort (distinctly differrent to the corporate environment) and enforce the correct quality control (an area sometimes questionable by recent standards). Is this (additional) high risk strategy another attempt to cut costs, or a reasonable effort to foster responsibility and encourage innovation within the community?

Seems silly to exclude it for all the bytes that it takes up......

I am well aware of the types of investments VC's go for, I am also well aware that people have varying attitudes to risk, what looks like a "stupid" risk to one, may not to another, even if both are risk lovers. Given that they are valuing the company on open market value (at least that's how Mandriva explains it), and not future revenues/cash flows, i'm not inspired with confidence.

Maybe you should think about posting this to the wiki too, some very good points IMO

I produce financial and management accounts for business, it's what I do for a living, it doesn't matter the scale, or how many borders they cross, they are all the same...

To fund specific investment opportunities yes, not to pull a badly managed company out of a rut. If they can't manage their debt as it is, bringing more with a higher cost isn't going to solve the problem.

Unfortunately that article paints a pleasant view of a rather dire situation. The writers simple explanation of the valuation does not inspire me with confidence, nor does the fact that they are relying mainly on venture capital. VC typically requires a high rate of return, and in this situation looks to further worsen the gurrent gearing, While the VC will improve the liquidity situation in the short term, it is yet to be seen if the company can maintain it in the long term, which means raising enough profits to cover their cost of finance, and pay their creditors. The point being, that securing the money is one thing, using it well is another.

There should be no problems formatting the hard drive, the only problem would be if you where needing to read the NTFS filesystem from Mandriva.

Working on FC 6:

I'm using it on my windows partition at the moment, seems to be working okay.

Source: http://pidgin.im/pidgin/news/latest_news/gaim_is_now_pidgin/