On Thu, 2003-01-16 at 05:03, Lyvim Xaphir wrote: > On Wed, 2003-01-15 at 15:01, Edward Tandi wrote: > > Could it be? > > > > http://www.ofb.biz/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=192 > > > > What does it mean? > > It means that they have some breathing room and clearance from their > debtors so that they can continue business as almost normal. It also > means that we need to buckle down and try to make this company some > money any way we can.
I really don't understand this position. MandrakeSoft is a commercial software company. It ought to be able to be profitable (or at least not burn cash so fast it gets near bankruptcy) through normal business operations. If not, it deserves to fail. This is the logic of capitalism, the system MandrakeSoft decided to exist under. Live by the sword, die by the sword. I'm not about to give my money to a failing business simply to keep it alive, there are charities which are in far more deserving need of it. I use Mandrake Linux because it's an excellent distribution. I also know that, thanks to the nature of free software, the distribution is not the company. If MandrakeSoft does fail...so what? Mandrake is still there, the entire source code is in the open, as is the development process. There's nothing at all to prevent development continuing, either along Debian lines or through the formation by the Mandrake developers of a new company with new financing, which would be free of the large debts and obligations which are currently held by MandrakeSoft, thanks to the crappy business decisions of the dot.com boom era. > They have bought time in order to probably get the Mandrake club > fortified with subscriptions, amoung other things (deals coming down the > pipe that won't mature for awhile), so that they won't be throttled to > death while they are running for the finish line. This is the line MandrakeSoft has been feeding its customers for a while now - "this is just a temporary problem, the rosy future is just around the corner! No, actually, we lied, it's just around this NEXT corner! Uh, just hold on to the next corner, would you?" It's starting to wear a little thin. -- adamw
