Another MandrakeSoft cash crunch [LWN.net]

MandrakeSoft, it seems, is facing another cash crunch. The company has put up a call for assistance asking for its users to join MandrakeClub, purchase Mandrake products, and, for "qualified investors," buy into the (ongoing) share offering. MandrakeSoft expects to hit the breakeven point in the (northern hemisphere) spring, but it has to get there first.

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Some comments about Mandrake Club

Posted Dec 21, 2002 23:46 UTC (Sat) by stonedown (guest, #2987) [Link]

It would be a shame for Mandrake to go under, seeing as how they are the favorite desktop distribution of so many.

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6380

Mandrake's financial problems stem mainly from poor management decisions, but management has changed, and the company is rapidly moving towards break-even operations. The recent snafus at Mandrake Store show the effects of the layoffs Mandrake has endured this year.

I'd like to say a few words about the club, since there seems to be very little understanding of it outside the club itself. My comments have run a little long, and I apologize for that. I hope that some of you will still take the time to hear me out.

Denis Havlik, the webmaster of Mandrake Club, has done a bang-up job of turning the club into something which provides real value to its members. Club members have access to private mirrors and commercial repositories. When Mandrake Store was very late to deliver my DVD pre-order, I wasn't impacted, because I was able to install the free ISO's and supplement by installing from the commercial repository. Note, I didn't say "downloading" - I said "installing". I can install software directly from the club repositories, with the "urpmi" command (or the graphical software manager, if one prefers). I think that's a very convenient service, and I regard it to be well worth my club membership.

Club members also have access to discount offers on such things as Star Office, MySQL licenses, games from Transgaming, the Yopy PDA, Hancom Office, and assorted Mandrake products, including the 9.0 release and club caps.

Also, Denis has done something truly extraordinary, which many people may not be aware of. It's the multi-lingual forums. Articles are generally posted in English, to begin with. Volunteers then translate them into other languages. Members of the club can select which languages they speak, so that they will only see articles and posts in those languages. Forum threads can be cross-posted in multiple languages by volunteers. What this is doing is creating a true world community, and it's the first place where I've ever heard of this being done. Granted, it would be ideal, if software could do the translations automatically, but this is a reasonable solution for the time being. Kind of like Palm Computing's graffiti writing system, which got around the inability of handhelds to accurately recognize handwriting. It's an admirable kludge.

Mandrake Club has been completely revamped, since Mandrake is planning to do away with Mandrake Forum. Why not take a moment to head over there?

http://mandrakeclub.com

As a non-member, you'll be deluged by articles in many languages, but you can get the flavor by hunting out the English articles and forum threads. I believe that Denis is planning to make it so that non-members can also filter articles based on language, but I don't think he's gotten to that yet. (He may already have, for all I know.) The club is evolving at a blistering pace.

Mandrake is finding its business model, and it's increasingly based upon providing valuable services via the club. Unfortunately, without an additional infusion of cash, it may die within reach of the finish line. Note that even Red Hat only just now made it to the break-even point, despite all of their advantages, not the least of which was the opportunity to raise cash in their hyped-up IPO.

Besides being a club member, I purchased the Mandrake 9.0 DVD-only set, because it was worth paying for. I support Mandrake, for the same reason I support LWN.net. Because it provides a valuable service for me, and I want to continue enjoying that service in the future.

Another MandrakeSoft cash crunch

Posted Dec 23, 2002 12:02 UTC (Mon) by bmanman (guest, #8753) [Link] (2 responses)

If the linux companies don't learn a lesson and restructure their revenues and income they are going to slowly vanish off from the scene except for redhat

Another MandrakeSoft cash crunch

Posted Dec 24, 2002 8:29 UTC (Tue) by stonedown (guest, #2987) [Link]

How do you make money off of free software? I would say the best way is to provide a valuable service which complements the software. I think Mandrake Club is the beginning of something along those lines.

Another MandrakeSoft cash crunch

Posted Dec 24, 2002 20:36 UTC (Tue) by jre (guest, #2807) [Link]

That message seems to have been absorbed by Mandrakesoft, and we are now seeing the positive result.

For linux companies to face some harsh realities is a necessary (and therefore good) thing. But the linux community needs to face up to the corresponding reality on the other side: if each of us acts like a perfectly isolated, self-interested decision maker, then the proprietary software model is the only one which will succeed. The very existence of linux is the result of people acting in concert for something other than immediate personal gain. LWN is alive today because the community realized that it would lose a valuable resource if a sufficient number of us did not get together to act quickly. At the same time, LWN's future depends on individuals buying subscriptions and getting something in return.

Companies like Mandrakesoft will survive only if they make some tough decisions, it's true. But it will also be necessary for thousands of people to act out of some heavily enlightened self-interest.