E-Commerce Times Talkback

Re: Buy - or We Die!
Posted by: Steve Hamm 2003-01-22 13:47:26

See Full Story

Usually, when small companies get into deep trouble, they cut costs to the bone and plead with bankers for help. But Linux seller MandrakeSoft is no typical startup. Just before Christmas, MandrakeSoft posted a plea for help on its Web site. CEO Francois Bancilhon says his appeal yielded hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional sales at outlets that include Wal-Mart and Staples. But it was not enough. MandrakeSoft announced on January 15th that it had filed for protection from its creditors. Will the company survive?

we care about Mandrake why?
Posted by: snoissea 2003-01-22 13:59:03 In reply to: Steve Hamm

You are forced to give your product away for free. Nice business model. Where do I sign up for a franchise!
Expect to see more of this from other linux distros.
There are so many linux distros out there, who cares if there is one less? Seriously.

Re: we care about Mandrake why?
Posted by: icoo 2003-01-24 03:28:56 In reply to: snoissea

cause MandrakeSoft created and works on really worth to use linux distribution which moves linux desktop, development and usability far more forward than many isolated projects or server-oriented distros for everyday use of many people around this world.. when people like them will not struggle again and again for further development of their vision of great open source projects, the world of simple users will lose too much.. many of us need to boost such initiative people and don't let fall down good projects. that's the cause for me.

Re: we care about Mandrake why?
Posted by: tv-casualty 2003-01-22 21:31:02 In reply to: snoissea

because Mandrake offers a very gentle introduction to the beast that is GNU/Linux. when you have learned from it, you throw it aside in favor of the MANLY distros like gentoo or sorcerer, or a workstation-ish distro like Red Hat. i am guilty of doing that! :-( i used Mandrake to learn the basics of *NIX, and when i was done i *BOUGHT* a copy of Red Hat 8.0. :-( even though i wouldn't be using Red Hat because i would have ruined something that Mandrake would fix for me whereas Red Hat would be "it is your wish, i will make it so". anyways, this will be a loss :-\ Mandrake is a great distribution and anyone who says otherwise has never used it PERIOD.