> I beg to differ - MandrakeSoft has a large QA department (probably the > second or third largest of all commercial Linux distros). I haven't tested > the Beta2 yet, but the Beta1 was very promising. I think they are they are > simply trying to move too fast. they released the Beta2 before many > packages that must be in the final release were ready, for example 2.4.19 > and the new KOffice.
The Mandrake QA department is not the 2nd largest (thats SuSE QA department with all their multi platform support). If they have a QA department, their beta cycle clearly doesn't show much unfortunately (fact is - their only stable version so far that I have tested was 8.2 and even then I discovered some bug in configurations [/etc/fstab related] that I can't imagine they haven't seen them). > As for their financial future : I wouldn't be too worried. MandrakeSoft > struck some very good deals to sell their packages through major US > retailers and also bundled with computers. I assume you're talking about the deal with HP and CompUSA. So far from what I heard (and I do hear those things) is that those deals are not going well... >Unlike RedHat, the target > audience of MandrakeSoft is Joe Avarage which is not the Linux hacker, > don't know how to install Linux From Scratch and most often does not have > the bandwidth or sometime even the CD burner to download and burn ISOs. You'll be amazed how many user joe download those ISO's. > also - having a shrinkwrap package is much cooler then having self burned > CDs : I'll download and install Mandrake 9 as soon as it's out (on my home > server which is still running Mandrake 8.0) but I will also buy the > Mandrake 9 Pro Suite when it's available. the commercial software bundled > is alone almost worth the money I'll spend, and having the box, the manuals > and the stickers more then makes up for it ;-) Commercial software bundle? I got Mandrake 8.2 power edition box. Do you know what I had as commercial applications? Star office 6 and the rest are just shareware apps and demos. Nothing that you cannot download [suns Star office 6]. Fact is - that 2 of their well known programmers has asked me if I know any company who can hire them because there are circulating rumors inside mandrake for another cuts in menpower... Hetz ================================================================To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
