Mandrake's Good Financial News

[qnr]

After MandrakeSoft filed the equivalent of a U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it set about a restructuring designed to make MandrakeSoft a financially viable operation. We asked Gaël Duval about that in our e-mail discussions about the MandrakeClustering announcement.

 

Full article: MandrakeSoft Adds MandrakeClustering to Its Business and Enterprise Products Lineup

[Guest anon]

So another eight months before their out of the woods eh? typical mdk

They haven't finished their internal restructuring yet ? :shock: Why not? they only have a handful of staff.

They have a great product, and employ some very clever, dynamic, creative, and innovative people, but the management still seem to live in a dream world.

You know, i think the biggest problem the new CEO has, is kicking his fellow management out of the bed in the mornings.

Having said that, i live in hope and will still support them. ( insanity runs in my family)

[zero0w]

As always, Mandrake distribution is not the problem, but the business model and the commitment to customers and a clear identification of strategy to gain market. The thing is I think a LOT of people in China and Hong Kong are using Mandrake Linux, but the retail boxes I've seen in Computer shop is STILL version 8.2. While Mandrake wants people to join the Club, at least crank out some more retail boxes showing that Mandrake is for real business.

[Gowator]

Jeez, I hate to say I agree ...

 

I wish I could point out a coherent business model, I wish I could say Mandrake is showing custumer comittment.

 

Most of all why do they let an otherwise brillinat distro be let down by a few things.

None of these are really serious (if you have DSL) but they take the polish off an otherwise great distro....

 

There are a few things which really suck, especially when they go wrong but Mandrake seem unable to acknowledge them. The new installer works great for most people but when it goes wrong it goes wrong spectacularly. The package manager seems just as fragile. So many other things nearly work, especially the Drak Wizards.... Just for example I installed mysql but the default config sets it to run as root. Its no big deal to change if you know what your doing but a noobie would be lost.

Same thing with the installer. CLI urpmi works great.... Lots of the Drak Wizards seem to have either bugs (mainly fixed in updates) but are funamentally unclear.

 

Take my recent shorewall install/config. It just isn't clear which boxes you check for the Internet Connection Wizard viz ADSL via an ethernet DSL Modem.

 

If you don't choose PPPOE you never get the chance again, if you choose PPPOE and decide later on LAN then the only way I found was to deinstall the rp-pppoe package. On to the Internet sharing and firewall. Well, it doesn't work for me, quite. But when it doesn't work your left with what shorewall describe as a strange configuration which in their words is going to confuse you if you follow their documentation.

 

It seems a shame becuase in all these cases they have done all the hard work its just let down by the documentation and the last 1%. They are SO CLOSE.

 

Customer support is a passing joke. Even my fault CD's I informed them of, theyre answer was sign up for Mandrake expert.

 

I think this is a common theme. They don't seem to address what in programming would be error handling.

 

What if the installer fails ?

It won't

 

What if the wizard fails ?

It won't

 

If they spent a small amount of time addressig this they'd be so much closer. They just need to admit is might go wrong and provide documentation for what to do if it does. I still see 8.2 boxed sets in Paris, let alone China.

I haven't seen the DVD box set on shelves anywhere.

 

Neither have I seen any sort of indication the updates have made it into the latest box sets. Its not like were talking 1-2 updates, last check it was 300MB. If someone is buying a box-set in a store its reasonable to assumae they don't want 300MB of downloads to get it working. I strongly suspect Mandrake haven't put the updates into the latest box sets, simply becuase they didn't plan for it.

 

Having said all that its a great distro, its just spoilt with a few minor details.... Like anon I live in hope....They need to get back to their roots and start listening to the users more. They have two revenue streams, Box set sales and Mandrake club.

The problem is they don't actually provide anything for them. Ouside of philanthroopy theres no reason to buty a box set. Since you have 300MB of downloads anyway you mightest well just download the download edition. If you want support, well need I say more ... MandrakeUsers.org.

 

Where's the business model in that?

[Glitz]

I think one of the big problems with the boxed sets is they come out too often. Most of the retailers here seem to have dropped Linux altogether and I think I know why. They can't seem to sell their current inventory before a new version of the distribution comes out. Futureshop is still selling ML8.2 and 9.0 as well as Suse9.1. I think they want to get rid of those inventories before they commit to buying newer versions for sale (if they even intend to carry on selling Linux).

 

I don't blame them. Afterall, who would buy LM8.2 if LM9.1 is available. I can't even find Linux distributions at two other retailers anymore. I think it might help if Linux distros had some kind of a policy to take back (or exchange) any unsold boxes when new versions come out. At least that way the retailers wont get stuck holding the bag all the time and therefore may be more inclined to sell Linux.

 

Ah well...what'a ya gonna do?

 

Personally, I don't buy stuff over the internet. I don't know why. Maybe it's a trust issue or maybe its not coming away with something physical to hold in my hands. I also hate ordering things that are not immediately available (ie. have to be back ordered). I think maybe it's because I lose interest in things quickly. I've toyed with the idea of getting a laptop for 1.5 years now. The feeling comes and goes. I really want it but then I think, it will take weeks to get here and by then I'll probably have lost interest so why bother. At any rate, I've managed to save a lot of money because of this :wink:

 

Glitz.

[Ixthusdan]

In retail, if it sells, you sell it. The reason the old releases are still in the stores is because Mandrake never supported the retail end of the business, and therefore, cannot grow. You cannot sell to retailers and then beg everybody to "please buy direct because we need the money". If you want to get exposure to a larger market, you must deal with retailers so that the retailer makes money. Mandrake, once again, just shoots themselves in the foot. Actually, I think they are shooting themselves in the head!! :wink:

[Gowator]

Couldn't agree more Ixthudan.

 

Im no business genius but they just don't seem to have made up their mind.

 

Also Glitz expresses my sentiments... I like my 'toyz' I like getting it home and ripping of the cellophane on the train home.... can't wwait to ... ah well,

 

Its transparently obvious why 9.1 was rushed out.... but it wouldn't have hurt them to also supply all the stores with a supplimentary update CD.

 

Also if you sell retail you have to have a product that fundamentally works out of the box, not one with 300MB of updates. Mandrake without a good internet connection or non at all is like a lame duck. As soons as you stickk in the updates, plf and texstar it comes to life but consider a noobie to linux buying it in the retail store.

First off they would stuggle with thier Alcatel USB ADSL...

 

How many people have you met who tried linux and gave up. These are people who (mainly and IMHO) bought the retail pack and didn't get it working. The ones who make it this far (mandrakeusers.org) are the more determined.

 

I also take isse with misleading stuff on the box.

First off it should (in its present state) say that a decent internet connection is highly recommended.

Secondly, my boxed set says it plays all your DVD's. No it doesn't, not without plf or texstar.

Again a noobie would be disapointed and someone with no internet (yes they exist) would be very dissapointed.

 

agggghhh , its painful watching them. i wanna take the loaded gun out of their hands. All that work they did and they shoot themselves in the head !!!

[Ixthusdan]

Actually, the update thing doesn't bother me at all. It is microbubble hype that gets everyone thinking that their product "works" out of the box. The last windows version that worked well when first released was version 3.11 !!! :lol:

[Gowator]

Yeah, just cos M$ do it doesn't mean its right !!:wink:

 

My feeling is that noobies will be put off by this though.

Mandrake also has a responsibility to linux in general, they used the GPL'd code and every user who tries it, can't get it working and goes back to WinDoze is another loss to Linux in general.

 

Being without even a telephone until a couple of weeks ago gave me a new perspective. No updates and even if I downloaded at work I couldn't use urpmi so I ended up in dep hell.

 

It really made me realise just how much i depend on an internet connection to get it running properly. In the past I went round to a friends house with my laptop and urpmi'd from there but he moved to London a few months ago.

 

I could write a book, "How urpmi changed my life" :-) (hint) ....

[ramfree17]

No updates and even if I downloaded at work I couldn't use urpmi so I ended up in dep hell.

 

im assuming that by that statement you have already added the downloaded files into urpmi's sources and just missed some additional files that was needed by the update?

 

ciao!

[Guest JaseP]

Boxed sets will increase user adoption...

 

One strategy might be to do reduced price boxed sets in those DVD style cases rather than in full blown boxes. No full documentation, just the CDs and maybe one CD with the manuals in pdf and/or html format.

 

I'm kinda waiting to see if 9.1 Powerpack makes it to boxed sets here in the USA. I won't hold my breath too long though.

[Glitz]

It's not just Mandrake though. I have yet to see Suse 8.2 on store shelves. Redhat has completely disappeared. And the only other version I've seen in a while is some really old version of TurboLinux.

 

Glitz.

[Guest JaseP]

I see RedHat and SuSE at places like BestBuy and Staples and OfficeMax.

 

But with the office supply vendors, the versions DO tend to be a bit older. The versions at BestBuy tend to be more up-to-date. Too bad BestBuy is updating their website, I'd search for the most up-to-date versions they carry.

 

Oh, and in responding to this, I took a look at Lycoris,... and YEECCHHH!!! It takes all the things that are nice about Linux like the ability to be non-proprietary, and shoots them all to hell. Apparently, you cannot install anything but Lycoris specific RPMs into a Lycoris system. I mean it gets points for ease of use and all but,... It just strikes me as trying to be a baby Windoze in terms of licensing. Just how do they get away with it considering the GPL?!?!??? I guess it's a good fit for the Walmart crowd, but anyone with a lot of sense would quickly adopt one of the other major distros, like good old Mandrake, SuSE or the tried-and-true RedHat.