mousematt Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 What is better for Mandrakesoft? Do I buy another boxset (9.2 Powerpack Plus for AUD $125) or do I join the MandrakeClub (AUD $100)? I can't afford to do both. I'm only a poor student... financially and literally... *meant to be writing esay atm... this is more entertaining* Anyone's thoughts? Shiny new box or a club membership? mousematt @ Murdoch Uni in Australia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sttroopers Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Well, they probably make more profit on your club membership so that would be best for them. But with the boxed set you get the nice manual, some support, and a trial membership. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidzoo Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 If you do decide to go for the boxed set, though, wait a few weeks until the 10.0 Official boxed sets are out and buy one of those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Membership I say! Mandrake make more money off that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkelve Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Membership I say! Mandrake make more money off that. Plus I guess it will be good for their business if they can show they have a large subscribed customer base. Well, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Boxed set. And buy it retail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 On second though: Ixthusdan has a point: buying boxed sets means it will make sense for resellers to allocate shelve space for Mandrake, and to have packs in stock. Since RH shelve space became largely available (they don't believe in linux on the home desktop, CEO Szulik even said that people should just use windows at home - yeah right) this might be a nice gap for Mandrake to fill. In the end, MS makes most of the money on preinstalled systems, so that's really where Mandrake should go too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Adriano Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Devising a sensible marketing and QA strategy for them? I think they need that more than money... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Marketing? First get the quality up. That remains to be seen, but beta--rc--CE--OE may be it... so far so good. Next step, make sure you don't lose customers, this is more important than grabbing some new ones. If mdk10oe is really good, we may see it on preinstalled systems, and as you all know, that is where the big gains are to be made imho... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Well long term its the marketing strategy and club membership gives a chance to actually give an opinion although it wont necasarily be listened to. I always bought RETAIL boxsets to get it on the shelves BUT ... Agan MDK are screwing themselves.... I still see 9.0 and 9.1 on shelves whenever I d see it and ive never seen a DVD version.... If Mandrake want to succeed they need a good marketing stragtegy including recalling old versions and replaceing them else they are giving a poor impression. I beleive they will loose customers who payed for 10CE and then find theirs a 10OE that they have to pay again for..... + that stincks...I know I can download it but many didnt, payed for it on the MDK site and if it was ever deleivered found that its not the FINAL/FINAL/OFFICIAL ... etc. .etc. I agree with aRtee that not loosing good customers is VERY important. I stook with em for ages and ages becuase I like MDK but they finally pissed me off one time to many. Good job im tenaceous and Ill give em another LAST CHANCE.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Hey Gowator, what's up man? Your post fits onto my screen without scrolling! (well, UGXA resolution, but still...) :D Exchanging new packs of 10.0 for old 9.0 and 9.1 is not going to do it, no other business does that. And why exactly would people who got CE have to buy OE again? Most people who bought it bought it via the web, their problem if they cannot read. At least the right version OE is in the retail packs. You keep saying that you are worried about people to get pissed off when they find out that CE was not final, but I have yet to read one single comment of a person that bought CE (!) and then I have yet to read one single comment from a CE buyer who felt conned about CE not being OE. Btw, final, what final? CE lives on... getting software upgrades and updates. I think that maybe you feel pissed off because you expected too much..? That's why I said before, part with your money only if/when satisfied with the product. This way you avoid that dissatisfaction of getting less than you paid for. Oh, and don't expect too much from MandrakeSoft - Mandrakelinux is a great product, the company is going from 'ah well' to 'soso'... :P Still, in linuxland Mandrakelinux is one of the best distros, so I support it. And for commercial linux distro makers, I still rate Mdk higher than all others, except maybe SUSE, now that YAST is GPL, they are on equal footing. But this is due to the 8 golden rules and good behaviour in the FLOSS community sense (no in house non-gpl developments, no attempts to lock-in). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Marketing is essential for long term growth and success. Period. The current trend for Mandrake has gotten them out of trouble. But if they do not change their thinking, they will fall again. For me, the club is really one step above begging for money, no offense intended to club members at all. This is a critique of Mandrake. The fact that there is old software on the store shelves is merely an indication of Mandrake's inability to support retail. Many of us are already painfully aware of their inability to support their customers. I just found out in a post her (somewhere) that Mandrake actually has some promo pop! Their marketing and customer service strategy must change. All this is related to their inability to listen to their customers. The programmers are writing a great product. They just need to stick with what they know and let someone else figure out the marketing and customer service! B) The only reasom Mandrake still exists is because of user communities like this one. When will someone at Mandrake see the light???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sitor Posted April 17, 2004 Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 The only reasom Mandrake still exists is because of user communities like this one. When will someone at Mandrake see the light???? Probably when they get a whole bunch of money from an investor or some other company that buys them, and they have the money for marketing stuff. I guess that seen their financial situation they simply don't have the money to pay resources for anything that goes further then the basic sustaining of their product. So marketing stuff, customer service, ... All very needed, but not as much as just having a product. Vaporware will not get them anywhere in the FLOSS world! I think we should be very glad with what we got so far, and HOPE, HOOOPE, that they will stay in business and that Mandrake Linux will continue to exist. BTW, just in case someone would wonder, I'm not related to Mandrakesoft, don't have any shares, ... I'm just a positivo. Ciao, Sitor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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