First, my apologies to any here who may have already heard this through other channels, and I also ask your forgiveness if I've missed a thread here where this is being discussed. And lastly, I hope you don't worry that it might not be most inappropriate for a part-time Mandrake nobody and full-time NT/2000/MS-SQL/IIS admin to bring this up.
It seems Mandrake is coming into a financially rough stretch. From their announcement: "Even though all of us here at MandrakeSoft are excited about the upcoming release, we've also been distracted by financial concerns. Despite continuous good reviews in the press; despite having millions of users throughout the world; despite producing an award-winning Linux distribution that is a solid competitor to both UNIX and Window$, the Mandrake Linux distribution's short-term future is in jeopardy due to a simple factor: money." The address below takes you to the full announcement. In brief, the long-term future looks good, but only if Mandrake can stay strong until then. If they can't, they explain that they may need to make development staff cuts. That means that some regular voices of authority here might be losing their paychecks, which could really hurt this forum, not to mention what their departure might do to the long-term quality of Mandrake. They suggest we can join their user's clubs, and I'm sure that will help somewhat. http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/mdkfuture.php3 I also suggest we might find ways to add to their regular revenues. When 8.2 is released, perhaps that would be a good time to purchase a packaged copy instead of just snatching the ISO. Perhaps some of the larger enterprises who see that Mandrake is the best Linux replacement for Windows on the desktop can budget their own "site license" rate. Or perhaps now would be a good time to purchase a per-incident support option for later use. AND go join the user's clubs. Good luck, MandrakeSoft. (Oh, and -really- lastly, I KNOW everyone this message will reach is ALREADY supporting, and in support of, Mandrake, but I'm hoping this might spark some creative extensions of advocacy and $$$ support in certain quarters. For instance, my boss keeps asking if this stuff is really free-as-in-beer, and though the answer is yes of couse, today I'm going to remind him (again) of the pub etiquette that says you gotta buy a round every once in a while, and then pitch exactly what I've said above.) -- Dave Salovesh RAM Associates, Inc. (800) 543-3635
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
