Mandrake Appealing to Community, Again 687
An anonymous reader writes "It seems that MandrakeSoft's short-term financial problem is worse than was thought. A new page on the Mandrake web site says: 'Everyone who is concerned with the company's future is encouraged to read and distribute the following message. In order to reach the next release, MandrakeSoft currently needs to raise cash, and quickly complete the Increase of Capital.' Darn, and I thought they were almost over this hump. Looks like a good time to help recruit Mandrake supporters for the Club."
hey (Score:5, Informative)
San Antonio, TX 78213
rawr!
Mandrake is great. (Score:2, Informative)
The setup we are currently using is Mandrake Linux 9.0 running MySQL 3.23.52, Apache 1.3.26, and PHP 4.2.3. Along with the we are running Postfix and the IMAP server for our internal E-mail.
We originally started with Mandrake Linux 8.0, but tried several competing solutions including FreeBSD 4.7, RedHat 7.2, RedHat 8.0, and Windows XP Professional. For our needs, we finally decided to return to Mandrake Linux as the best of choice. With this, we gave Mandrake Linux 9.0 a try and haven't looked back since. Our main reasons were that Mandrake Linux was the fastest, most stable option for us as our Hardware is slightly aged. We see minimal slow-downs even with steady work loads. This is especially noticeable when comparing Mandrake Linux to the Windows XP server we tested. The Windows XP server couldn't handle more than a few simultaneous connections before seriously beginning to slow down the entire network.
We will continue to use Mandrake Linux 9.0. At least until the next Mandrake release.
Re:What value does Mandrake add? (Score:2, Informative)
I use it all the time and it is the best that I have found. It includes statefull firewalling VPN caching server (SQUID) Intrusion ditection (prelude) and they are all setup through their slick web interface. This product alone justifies their existence in my opinion. That however is not to say that I agree with the way that they are raising money if they want money why not release some stock as I for one would buy it.
Re:Pardon? (Score:2, Informative)
Mandrakesoft employs a limited number of programmers that work on those free projects.
Re:Yeah its sad and all.. (Score:4, Informative)
From what the pictures showed they looked like a small outfit with nothing really fancy -- it looked like an older office, the chairs looked comfy but reasonable and the computers also looked average.
It would be a big shame to loose Mandrake. They have several developers that work full-time on open source projects and nothing else -- in other words they contribute solely to the projects and nothing value-added for Mandrake.
For instance, looking through the kernel ChangeLogs Mandrake recently added a lot to the network drivers' mii interfaces so that mii-tool would work properly with more network cards. Little things like this make a big difference but no one ever notices. .
Re:Pardon? (Score:5, Informative)
Are you trying to be a troll? If this is a serious question, go look at fsf.org . It should suffice to say that there would probably be no Mandrake distribution without their work.
Bruce
Re:OK, I Installed Mandrake (Score:1, Informative)
SciTE (GTK+ 1.2.x, not Gnome)
Glimmer (GTK+ 1.2.x, not Gnome)
Kate (Qt, KDE)
NEdit (Motif/Lesstif)
Or, if you can take the time to really learn a new (very un-Windowish) way of editing text:
VIM (Terminal or GTK+ 1.2.x, not Gnome)
Emacs/XEmacs (Terminal or X)
As far as I can remember, all of those have syntax highlighting for PHP available.
I saved this (Score:2, Informative)
May 22, 2001
In order to quell further rumours regarding MandrakeSoft's alleged
pressing needs for financial liquidity, recent layoffs of part of
its senior management team and planned layoffs in its Development team,
MandrakeSoft Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO Jacques Le Marois explains
that "former CEO Henri Poole and himself mutually agreed on the
management change over a month ago as a result of a divergence of views
regarding the Company's strategic outlook.
Le Marois further points out that "MandrakeSoft's prospects have never
looked so good: In 2000, Linux-Mandrake took #1 slot in US Linux retail
sales (Source: PC Data). The recent management changes and refocusing
of our strategy on our core distribution and related online and offline
services have allowed us to make major savings and we are on course to
break even within a few months. The announcement of the latest release
of the Linux-Mandrake operating system - version 8.0 - has met with
unprecedented success, both in terms of user adoption, which is made
obvious by the hundreds of thousands of versions downloaded from our Web
site since the announcement, and in terms of positive media coverage and
pre-sales to our business partners throughout the world. The imminent
launch of MandrakeStore, our online store, will create a solid new revenue
stream: we've already pre-sold thousands of PowerPack Editions
online.
In addition, there are already more than 35,000 registered users on
MandrakeExpert and MandrakeCampus, which represents massive revenue
potential for us going forward: we will shortly be introducing an online
'tipping' system, allowing users to reward those Experts who provide them
with useful responses to their Linux-Mandrake related questions, and
MandrakeSoft will take a commission on each transaction.
Besides, a paying user registration system to MandrakeExpert will also
shortly be introduced, which represents yet another source of revenue
for the Company". Le Marois concludes that "all these positive elements,
together with the fact that we have built a very large individual and
professional user community at very little expense, and have an experienced
and highly committed management team to execute our strategy, are playing
in our favour for our plans to IPO in the coming months, so watch this space!"
MandrakeClub is not a charity (Score:5, Informative)
I am in charge of MandrakeClub, and i have worked very hard for last 12 months to build that place into something really special.It isn't finished yet, but it is indeed on a good way to become by far the best "service" for private users and small companies.
I wan't bother you with the details (as if someone would care to read anyway), but there is a whole bunch of people there who are really happy to be Club members today, so I must have done something right after all.
I know that everyone on Slashdot is telling you that Club is no-good, but maybe you should just go there once, and try to build your own meaning.
OK, it wan't be a very excitiong trip (site is not made for anonymous users, and it is in fact even quite unfriendly towards them), but maybe you could still get a feeling that it isn't "just charity" by browsing trough FAQs, and looking at the discussion in the "future" forum on MandrakeClub.
Re:Cash burn is way too high at Mandrake (Score:2, Informative)
- 3 installation
- 4.5 tools
- 1 KDE
- 1 GNOME
- 1 ergonomy
- 4.5 QA & security
- 2 Clustering
- 3.5 documentation (remember we have documents in 5 languages)
- 1 i18n
- 1 kernel
- 1 firewal
- 1 IA64
- 1 LSB & PPC
- 1 Apache
- 1 contributors' applications
- 1 hardware
- 1 CTO
- 1 SysAdmin
- 2.5 Tech support (they are handling all email and phone support)
- 3 consultants (and people are complaining that we are not able to do "big consulting projects")
- 4 sales representatives (1 for Americas, 0.5 for rest of the world, 1 for OEM, 1.5 for services)
- 1 marketing (and people are complaining we don't have a "strong" marketing)
- 1.5 MandrakeStore (0.5 for the technical side, 1 for all shippings and customer services -- and people are complaining that they don't get their boxes shipped on time and their emails answered on time)
- 1 art design
- 1.5 Communications & PR (we have to communicate in at least 2 languages)
- 1.5 Webmaster (to maintain almost 10 websites)
- 0.5 ISV relations (people are still complaining that we don't offer enough third-party software, and that we don't get good enough relations and supports from Oracle, Legato, Sybase, Computer Associates... etc.)
- 0.5 accountant
- 1 production & suppliers coordinator
- 0.5 payroll, paperworks
- 1 receptionist & secretary
- 1 MandrakeClub
- 1 MandrakeOnline & MandrakeExpert
- 1 Chairman
- 1 CEO
This is the current structure we have, after having laid off 70% of our staff since last summer. There are 54 on the list. Those "0.5" are people who are carrying mutiple tasks on their shoulders. Could you please kindly point out where we should cut more employees? I'm sure our new CEO would be very happy to hear that!
In France, to hire an employee, companies have to pay very high social charges to the government, which equal to 70% of the employee's salary. That means, suppose one employee gets 40 K$ yearly salary, the company actually has to pay 68 K$ per year.
Besides employees' salary, perhaps you understand that we have to pay the rent of the office, electricity, water, network... etc.
Do you still think 0.5 M$ expense per month is "burning cash crazily"?
FYI, we sell around 50,000 boxes per year. Taking out the production cost and commissions to wholesalers, we get roughly 25% profit. The revenue we get from selling boxes is merely 1 M$ per year.
With 10,000 current Club members, we made about 800 K$.
How many months can we survive with this amount?
Perhaps MandrakeSoft should have long time ago closed its door. But, who doesn't want to try his last chance?