On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 08:57:54 -0400 Dan LaBine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Lee Wiggers wrote: > > Suck an egg, you arrogant bastards. > > > > Sincerely, > > > > Lee > > Short, Sweet, and to the Point. I don't blame you one bit Lee, not that > I would blame any Club member to begin with. It seems a bit strange to > me that anyone would charge for a product which they plan to release for > free anyway, but Mandriva seems to think that their club is worth it, > without giving the members much (if any) type of membership support. > > I think we've all seen list members complaining about the Club from time > to time and nothing ever seems to come of it. The only time that Club > members ever hear from Mandriva is when they want money. > > It's a shame that they canned Gael, but there doesn't seem to be a > connection between that and how well the Club members have been treated > (with the exception that community support by Mandriva staff has almost > dropped off the planet), and we've all been aware that there have been > ongoing problems with the Club for quite a few years now, let alone > Mandriva themselves. > > No, I'd have to say that Francois is steering Mandriva in the exact > direction that he wants and he's purposefully taking it in the same > direction as the other big commercial distros - enterprise class with > large support contracts. > > Personally, I'm convinced that the Club is providing revenue to Mandriva > that will either help to keep them out of bankruptcy court or to help > them push the company to an enterprise-only company. The hints aren't so > subtle in the email they sent you. > > With the sole exception of managing the Club site and the payments from > members (and I'll bet that it's mostly automated anyway), the Club isn't > costing Mandriva much of anything, so it's basically a cash-cow (albeit > a shrinking one) and they pay little or no attention to it's members. > > IMNSHO, that adds up to bad judgement and bad business. I wonder how > they'll do when they finally start making real money from the Enterprise > market. Will their arrogance thrive once they've grown some or will they > figure it out and fix things? Only their bank accounts will decide. > > What a shame. > > DL > Well said. I had no problem supporting them through the years, but I cannot tolerate disdain from anyone. Someone commented that you only pay for Windows once. That's from a win95 user apparently. I remember paying MS every time anyone demanded another outrageous fee for a bugfix labeled 'upgrade'. That's only slightly more outrageous than a worthless club gimmick. "Gimmick" is what I recognized it as from the start, but it did offer a little in the past so, as charity more than anything else, I went for it. <sigh> Lee ____________________________________________________ Want to buy your Pack or Services from Mandriva? Go to http://store.mandriva.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrivaclub.com ____________________________________________________
