Mandrake Asks for Support 555
Many people wrote in with this news: "Mandrake Linux today reports having a short-term money crunch. They call for users to become members to help float them through the short-term viability issue. Membership dues are the preferred method over budget/project cuts."
I've joined (Score:5, Informative)
There are multiple subscription options, all with the same priveledges. It's 5 bucks a month for the cheapest option (which I had to choose currently because of my financial situation).
It's totally worth it to me. 8.2 is showing how mature Mandrake can make a desktop distro, and I'm impressed with not only their attention to detail, but their attention to security, as well as decreasing the learning curve. They warn you during install about what packages may be insecure and what might be seen by the world. They packaged the Bastille firewall into the distro. And their draktools now have an option to display what the GUI tools are doing to which log files.
And to top it all off, 8.2 has had 4 betas and now 1 Release Candidate (which has some critical bugs, so expect a second RC). 60 bucks? Deal of the century. I run it on every machine I own, and install a copy on any Doze Machine that I build for friends.
Surely there are 8,000 more people here on
Re:Mandrake (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/investors/new
Re:Why? (Score:3, Informative)
Well they're claiming that it's a short-term cash crunch. Often this sort of thing happens because businesses sign up for large contracts paid in installments. i.e $1m paid quarterly over 15 years. If they've got some big cash due in soon then this could all be temporary.
But, this sort of situation is why companies go public (like mandrake did) and I'd wonder where their capital has gone. Perhaps they haven't been as frugal as required to survive in these recessionary times.
They could well be able to survive (and thrive!) after this short hurdle. But given how close all this is to their IPO...... Maybe they won't
Re:Mandrake (Score:2, Informative)
Merriam-Webster: [m-w.com]"the root of a mandrake formerly used especially to promote conception, as a cathartic, or as a narcotic and soporific"
I thought that one could not own the rights to something that is an actual word, other than as they have trademarked it within their industry?
But then again, I never did spend much time studying legalese beyond understanding that in the courts being "right" often does not matter.
-S
ARGH! (Score:1, Informative)
When most employees travel, they pay for things themselves, keep the receipts, and get reimbursed later. ALMOST EVERY COMPANY DOES THIS.
Yes, Loki failed to reimburse their employees. Yes, that is really horrible of them. But don't take one phrase in a frontpage blurb and turn it into a vision of Loki executives saying, "Say Jimmy, mind if we put some new servers on your Platinum Visa?"
The mob mentality on this site gets worse every day.
Alternative to Subscription (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/donations/
You can even choose an individual open source project that you want your financial contribution will go toward development. Choices include KDE, Gnome, Kernel, PowerPC port, Sparc port, Alpha port among many others.
Re:Mandrake has some great Technologies (Score:2, Informative)
Isn't that sort of what "commercial" software does?
And thus my friend you have found one of the true problems with Open Source software. Having the source can only take you so far, since only a very limited subset of the computer using population even knows what to do with it. When it comes down to it, someone still has to pay for Open Source software.
This post is not meant to bash OSS in any way. It is simply meant to point out one of the fundamental obstacles to furthering these systems. It seems that the most productive development of OSS comes from commercial development houses. If they continue to fail, then all that will be left is RedHat and a bunch of independent programmers. And that's not any better than what we have now.
You idiot (Score:3, Informative)
AOL does the same fucking thing and i dont see you or anyone else complaining.
You see, AOL provides a service, AOL uses marketing and brainwashing to trick people into paying them. Mandrake is straight forward with people, and being honest about the situation, and everyones saying its begging?!
Ok so mandrake should have DEMANDED $5 a month from you saying "You cannot download Mandrake 8.2 unless you subscribe"
Would you prefer this business model to the current one?
Fucked company? You dont understand the open source business model, its not about selling products, its about providing a service, they write the code for us, we pay them for the service.
Its no diffrent than subscribing to a magazine which you could easily read for free.
All magazines of course are begging for charity and begging people to pay them, however they lie to people and use tricks instead of just asking you to support them.
Capitalism isnt about lying, and using tricks, its about getting people to pay you for your hard work, period.
Whats wrong with us paying Mandrake for their hard work?
Subscription "directly contributes" (Score:1, Informative)
One very good reason.
Direct Marketing.
You are in essence buying the same distrobution as the Power Pack but the money goes directly to Mandrake and not to the retail outlets. Mandrake doesn't recieve as much as you think for selling thorugh retail outlets (the same as with any product that is sold directly through retail). Look on companies websites and its cheaper to get the product online than through retail due to the price markups of the "middle man". CompUSA sells the 8.1 Power Pack for US$69.99 and yet you can get the same product from Mandrake by subscription for $60. Yes you have to download it, and for some that is not an option, but for me with a cable modem it is.
Bottom line, if you like the distro and feel its useful and can download it, buy the subscription. If you like the distro and don't really have the available bandwidth (or want the manuals) then buy it in the store. If you don't like the distro, then don't buy it. This is the beauty of "Consumer Choice" and that is the basic foundation of this economy.
Mandrake is also one of the few distrobutions that give you a full-featured product to try and then asks that if you like it, buy it. Suse doesn't follow this model. Very few do. Its kind of like shareware without the nag screens
To all Slashdotters, support something, keep the community healthy.
Re:come on (Score:2, Informative)
Regarding boxed distros: if you want to buy Mandrake, don't go to a store and do it. Buy from http://www.mandrakestore.com. Mandrake gets approximately double the money from that venue (or you could buy two copies at another store and help make Linux more prominent at that store...)
Re:I hope the Mandrake employees (Score:4, Informative)
laid off employees (around 10, I was one of them),
and asked (on a *volontary* basis) others to accept
salary cuts (being less paid for some time).
So it seems they can't do more this way. There were already to much to do.
Join the Club. This is how Mandrake works. (Score:1, Informative)
Please note, these are my personal experiences.
Mandrake-Linux IMO is overall a nice product.
On the other side, they smile a big smile (and pat their shoulders) when facing Open Source (free as in beer) people, spitting on their, oh so bad, money-paying customers (at least the private ones). Just check out their forums how they communicate with customers who actually payed for the packs. Then they do not offer any updates to the packs, except for an online order (I buy my PowerPacks locally since I dislike e-shopping), one has to buy the full-price stuff. Oh, and it was not possible to activate my support-account so far.
My conclusion: When you want to go with Mandrake, get it from their FTP. Join their Club in order to get "Commercial Apps", a big smile and make them a living (so you can continue leeching your fav' distro from ftp). Do NOT (!) buy the PowerPacks, do not expect them to handle you with care, when you payed their product. They feel so superior and holy (GPL is their bible) that they will think you stink when you are a "classic" customer type (maybe they think you work on proprietary products, where would your money come from else...!?)