"Translation" of Gaël Duval interview by JDNet

[roland]

Here is the whole "translation"

!! I think it must be corrected !!

 

roland

 

 

"We direct ourselves towards more products and services dedicated to the companies "

 

 

Whereas the company announced its state of "suspension of payments" [bankruptcy protection ?] almost a year ago , Mandrakesoft managed to survive in 2003. One of its founders, Gaël Duval, reconsiders on this "desert crossing" and on the - more amusing - prospects next year, new ambitions and new products release as well.

 

Remarks collected by Fabrice Deblock on December 09, 2003 .

 

JDNet Solutions. How was the activity in 2003?

Gaël Duval. During this year 2003, MandrakeSoft balanced its accounts and has the objective to leave the legal rectification by spring 2004. This exit will be carried out thanks to the internal reorganization started more than one year ago, without new shareholder. The reorganization consisted in significantly reduce the operating costs, and we had to proceed to economic lay-offs.

 

The official figures of 2002/2003 will be published around the end March 2004. But the figures of the first six-month period 2002/2003 (at March 31, 2003) are as follows: the sales turnover consolidated is 2,10 million euros, 10% lower than last year. This fall is partly due to the weakness of the American dollar, MandrakeSoft invoicing nearly 60 % of its sales in this currency. With constant exchange rate, the semi-annual sales turnover consolidated would be a very small fall (-2%).

 

The trading loss is 1,27 million euros, the operational profitability thus improves of 2,4 million euros compared to the same six-month period of the previous year (loss of 3,67 million).

 

Which are the prospects?

The prospects are good: the sales are going well in particular on our on line shop [MandrakeStore], thanks to the success of our two last versions 9.1 and 9.2, and several important "deals" that had just been won.

 

Otherwise our product line is now very complete, going from the personal Linux solution (Mandrake Discovery) to intensive calculation solutions(Clustering). We release this week our "mixed" version 9.2 (desktop/server) in AMD64 version (Athlon64 and Opteron).

 

Last, Mandrake currently meets a renewed success thanks to the Red Hat abandonment of the support of its traditional distribution and to the repurchase by Novell of SuSE.

 

Are you going to call again for a financial contribution of the community?

No as the accounts of MandrakeSoft are balanced.

 

Do you regard the clustering as a promising outlet, what is the share of this market in your activity?

The market is located primarily at the research laboratories level, in the modeling and simulation field. Our Clustering solution begins just its life but it is already recognized as being one of the simplest to use on the market. Its marketing has just started and we seek in priority to tie partnerships with the major editors of applications specialized in the scientific computation in cluster.

 

Which is the request for your "mixed" version 9.2?

There is an important demand in the Linux server field and this new version AMD 64 of Mandrake Linux is an evolution of the traditional version for Pentium.

 

What is the real impact of the Red Hat abandonment of its traditional distribution's support ?

The movement is obvious: it comes mainly from the users and small companies disappointed by these abrupt changes of policies and which were already tempted by Mandrake Linux before, and also all those who wish to continue to profit from an official support of the updates without having to pay a version of Linux at a exhorbitant price.

 

Which comment the repurchase of Suse by Novell inspires to you ?

Along with the stop by Red Hat of the support of its traditional distribution, it is an aubaine for MandrakeSoft because these two events facilitate to us the task in terms of visibility on the Linux market, in particular for general public.

 

MandrakeSoft always positioned itself like a global actor of Linux. Our way of functioning and our economic model - which rest for the moment primarily on Internet - were thought to easily be able to profit from a significant "scalability", even with the modest means we currently have.

 

Do you still support free projects and which?

The first constant free project is of course Mandrake Linux which, with its derived projects, is our greater contribution to the world of the free software. In addition, we continue to support projects like KDE and GNOME.

 

Which is your vision of the future, which kind of products and services will you launch in 2004 to consolidate your financial standing?

Before 2004, and for the end of the year [fêtes de fin d'année], we released a new product, the "MandrakeMove", a Mandrake Linux version for the office and multi-media which does not need to be installed: the system starts directly on a CD and the data are registered on a USB key. It is a product with a strong "wandering" connotation.

 

We'll also release this week a big book: the "Mandrake Guide from A to Z" for Mandrake 9.2, a kind of bible for all Mandrake users.

 

In 2004, it is probable that MandrakeSoft will release more and more products and services dedicated to the companies, where the request is very strong, in particular in France. But we always devote many resources to consolidate Mandrake Linux as the simplest to use Linux product. The Mandrake Club will also be improved to be able to satisfy the greatest number needs. Then MandrakeSoft will be ready when the market will rock massively towards Linux.

Edited December 12, 2003 by roland

[Darkelve]

roland, I'll get to it immediately when I have got the time. Probably tomorrow. Having fun with a friend long time no seen now... sorry ;)

[Darkelve]

Okay, here goes. I used a lot of your translation roland. Also, where I was in doubt, I put square brackets [] to put my remarks. My main gripe is that I do not have a dictionary handy, so not every word got translated. Still I hope this to be an improvement to your already decent article. Note: text is translated liberally (as opposed to litterally).

 

 

Almost a year ago, the company anounced it would suspend its payments [MandrakeSoft's share quotations on the Euronext market were suspended]. However, Mandrake succeeded in keeping afloat in 2003. One of its founders, Gaël Duval, gives his opinion on this long journey through the desert and on the more positive prospects of next year, on the companies new ambitions and on the release of key products.

 

Remarks collected by Fabrice Deblock on December 09, 2003.

 

JDNet Solutions.

How was the activity in 2003?

 

Gaël Duval.

Throughout 2003, Mandrakesoft has balanced its accounts. Our objective now is to leave the legal protection [*very* liberally translated] by the start of spring 2004.

 

This is possible because of the internal reorganization that started more than a year ago, without new (shareholders/shares/...? [iANAE and I don't have a dictionary near...] ).

 

The goal of the reorganization was to reduce operating costs by an important amount, which meant we had to proceed to economic lay-offs.

 

The official figures of 2002/2003 will be published around the end March 2004. But these are the figures of the first semester [period of 6 months] of 2002/2003 (as of 31 March 2003):

 

the consolidated sales turnover is 2,10 million euros, 10% lower than last year. This decrease is partly due to the weakness of the American dollar, MandrakeSoft invoicing nearly 60 % of its sales in this currency. At a constant exchange rate, the semi-annual sales turnover consolidated would result in a very small decrease (-2%).

 

The trading loss is 1,27 million euros, the operational profitability thus improves by 2,4 million euros compared to the same semester of the previous year (loss of 3,67 million).

 

Which are the prospects?

The prospects are good: the sales are going well, in particular for our on line shop [MandrakeStore], thanks to the success of our two last versions 9.1 and 9.2, and thanks to several important "deals" that have just been won.

 

Otherwise our product line is now very complete, going from the personal Linux solution (Mandrake Discovery) to heavy-calculation solutions(Clustering). This week we will release our "mixed" version 9.2 (desktop/server) in the AMD64 version (Athlon64 and Opteron).

 

Finally, Mandrake now renews its success, because of Red Hat abandonning support for its traditional distribution and because of the acquisiton of SuSE by Novell.

 

Are you going to call again on the community for financial contribution?

Not while the accounts of MandrakeSoft are balanced.

 

Do you regard the clustering as a promising outlet, what is the share of this market in your activity?

The market is located primarily at the level of research laboratories, in the modelling and simulation field. Our Clustering solution is only just born but it is already recognized as being one of the simplest to use on the market. Its marketing has just started and we seek especially to tie partnerships with the major editors of applications specialized in the scientific computation in cluster.

 

How is the demand for your "mixed" version 9.2?

There is an important demand in the Linux server field and this new version AMD 64 of Mandrake Linux is an evolution of the traditional version for Pentium.

 

What is the real impact of Red Hat's abandonment of its traditional distribution's support ?

The change can be noticed well: it comes mainly from the users and small companies disappointed by these abrupt changes of policies which were already tempted by Mandrake Linux before, and also all those who wish to continue to profit from official support of updates without having to pay for a version of Linux at an exorbitant price.

 

Which comment does the repurchase of Suse by Novell inspire to you ?

Along with the Red Hat abandonning support of its traditional distribution, it is an aubaine[translation needed?] for MandrakeSoft because these two events facilitate our task in terms of visibility on the Linux market, in particular for the general public.

 

MandrakeSoft has always positioned itself like a global actor of Linux. Our way of functioning and our economic model - which rest for the moment primarily on the Internet - were thought to easily be able to profit from a significant "scalability", even with the modest means we currently have at our disposal.

 

Do you still support free projects? Which?

The first free project we support is of course Mandrake Linux which, with its derived projects, is our greater contribution to the world of the free software. In addition, we continue to support projects like KDE and GNOME.

 

Which is your vision on the future, which kind of products and services will you launch in 2004 to consolidate your financial situation?

Before 2004 and before the end of the year [fêtes de fin d'année], we released a new product, called "MandrakeMove", a Mandrake Linux version for office and multi-media which does not need to be installed: the system starts directly on a CD and the data is saved on a USB key. It is a product with a strong "traveller" feeling to it.

 

We will also release a large book this week: the "Mandrake Guide from A to Z" for Mandrake 9.2, a kind of bible for all Mandrake users.

 

In 2004, it is probable that MandrakeSoft will release more and more products and services for companies, an area in which the request is very strong, in particular in France. But we will always devote many resources to consolidate Mandrake Linux as the simplest to use Linux product. The Mandrake Club will also be improved to be able to satisfy the greatest number of needs. Then MandrakeSoft will be ready when the market will shift massively towards Linux.

Edited December 13, 2003 by Darkelve

[Guest anon]

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