On SuSE's Dramatic Rise and Mandrake's Uninspiring Lethargy [LWN.net]

[This article was contributed by Ladislav Bodnar]

These are good times for Linux. The frequency of news releases about Linux adoption in governments, educational institutions and private companies has increased spectacularly since the beginning of this year and hardly a day goes by without a success story. Relax and smile, Linux is winning.

Two weeks ago, we covered SuSE's achievement as a major force behind Munich's decision to switch 14,000 computer systems from Windows to Linux. By mentioning SuSE again, we are breaking the unspoken rule of providing balanced coverage of various Linux distributions; yet SuSE has been in the media so often recently, that it is hard to refuse its courting. If for no other reason than for the fact that SuSE is -- wait for this -- recruiting new employees.

Yes, in these times of layoffs and downsizing a Linux company is seeking new personnel. Unbelievable, perhaps, but true, at least according to this announcement, which appeared on the main page of SuSE's German language web site earlier this week. Even better, most of these openings are technical positions for software engineers and project managers. Refreshing news indeed.

SuSE appears to be the main driving force behind the positive Linux sentiment. At first, it was the Munich deal which caught media attention, but the good news didn't end there. An internal memo from Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer, warning about the Linux challenge, was widely publicized around the world. The sudden rise in stock prices of several Linux companies, followed by a second major price cut of Microsoft products in as many weeks were taken as a further indication of the Linux revolution finally happening. SuSE's subsequent announcement about the release of its new, enterprise-level product called SuSE Linux Desktop was seen as yet another proof that Linux is now a serious competitor -- not only on servers, but on desktops too.

The immaculate timing of all these events was further complemented by a report in ITNews:

SuSE's [general manager of Americas, Holger] Dyroff acknowledged that Linux has made little progress on the desktop to date but said that four or five Fortune 100 SuSE customers in the United States 'are looking at' SuSE Linux Desktop as a companion to the company's recently released Enterprise Linux 8 Server. He also pointed to a deal arrived at with German insurance company Debeka to switch 4,000 Office desktops to SuSE Linux Desktop.

Expect a new media frenzy as soon as one of those Fortune 100 companies makes the correct decision.

In sharp contrast to SuSE's continuous presence in the media, things have been extremely quiet across the border in Paris, the headquarters of MandrakeSoft. The company was in the headlines in January this year when it filed for protection from creditors and again some three months later, when it released Mandrake Linux 9.1. "Good product", was the general consensus shared by most reviewers. But once the new release hysteria died off, so did Mandrake's appearance in news feeds. If anything, news wasn't good: "Wal-Mart replaces Mandrake PCs with SuSE PCs", claimed OSNews last week, while PCLinuxOnline reported earlier that "Deno is about to leave MandrakeSoft". This is a major blow for Mandrake as Denis Havlik was the initiator of the financially successful MandrakeClub subscription service and the sole maintainer of Mandrake's web sites for several months.

Now, why is it that one Linux company is on a major success path, while the other appears to be barely limping? Why is it that SuSE's sales force has managed to sign up Munich and Debeka, while Mandrake's marketing department has nothing exciting to report? If Munich can switch to Linux, why not Marseilles? Of course it can. But for that to happen, the Mandrake sales team has to go out and demonstrate the viability of its products. There has never been a better time -- Linux sentiment is at its highest since late nineties, the OS has matured and there are success stories to show. Mandrake has to conceal its pride, learn from SuSE and get customers. If they don't, they might wake up one day and find out that Marseilles is indeed running Linux. Unfortunately for them, not Mandrake Linux.

to post comments

On SuSE's Dramatic Rise and Mandrake's Uninspiring Lethargy

Posted Jun 12, 2003 11:47 UTC (Thu) by teuf (subscriber, #2875) [Link] (2 responses)

I was a bit surprised to see Marseille mentioned in lwn ;) Please note it's written 'Marseille' without a trailing 's' :)

Marseille

Posted Jun 12, 2003 13:09 UTC (Thu) by ladislav (guest, #247) [Link] (1 responses)

Sorry about that. I knew it was "Marseille" and that's how I typed it originally, but the KDE spell check didn't like it and suggested that it be replaced with "Marseilles". I should have checked it before accepting KDE's "correction".

Marseille

Posted Jun 12, 2003 14:58 UTC (Thu) by ecureuil (guest, #3507) [Link]

The English write it with a final 's', like Lyons that we write Lyon in
French.

A first point to be made is that Mandrakesoft can not enter public
bidding until they are out of their 'cessation de paiement' status.

A second point is that the right is governing most of France now and that
they are very few politicians on the right who have any interest in
FLOSS. FLOSS is helped in Germany by the political power of the Green.

A third point is that French have always been late adopters of IT
technology. It will come, but three or four years later than in Germany

News or Commentary?

Posted Jun 12, 2003 13:30 UTC (Thu) by smoogen (subscriber, #97) [Link] (2 responses)

I think the story has a lot of merit, but it does seem to be more commentary than News. Opinions feel like facts, and dogma as truth.

There is more to making a town/business/etc to switch to Linux than just sending out sales people. Does it meet the towns needs? Do they want to change? Who do you know? Does the selling company have the staff and time to focus on making all the little changes needed by the town?

On a good point, I was glad to see a Euro-centric article versus the usual US centric items other news sites have.

News or Commentary?

Posted Jun 12, 2003 21:01 UTC (Thu) by melauer (guest, #2438) [Link]

> There is more to making a town/business/etc to switch to Linux than just sending
> out sales people. Does it meet the towns needs? Do they want to change? Who
> do you know? Does the selling company have the staff and time to focus on
> making all the little changes needed by the town?

I think the point of the article is not that Mandrake can just go around converting
people, but that if their sales people don't make their product better known, they
don't have a chance. From the article:

"But for that to happen, the Mandrake sales team has to go out and demonstrate the
viability of its products."

"Demonstrate the viability of its products." If a product is "viable" then it's a useable
option. A "viable" product is not a must-have, but a possibility. Finding exactly who
might be interested in buying that "viable" product is the (implied) next step.

As for whether this is "news" or "commentary", I would say it's more like "analysis".
More informative than pure commentary, but not simply news either (though there is
some news in the article).

News or Commentary?

Posted Jun 23, 2003 21:55 UTC (Mon) by ok (guest, #12343) [Link]

I agree with you. It is nice to see more euro-centric computer stuff. Too
bad there is not more middle eastern computer stuff or asian computer
stuff.

America is in a dark time right now; hopefully it's temporary.

Bush and the Enron boys are having wars for the fun of it and handing the
bill to us, the "little people". Religious screwballs are more powerful
then ever, making us more and more like Iran or Israel. The Sonny Bono
extensions to the copyright laws are making slaves of us all to
Disneyland, the RIAA and Hollywood, and Bill Gates. Big money has made
voting a waste of time, being nothing more then a device to delude people
into thinking they have a voice.

It is good to see that freedom is still growing in other places. Keep it
up!

On SuSE's Dramatic Rise and Mandrake's Uninspiring Lethargy

Posted Jun 13, 2003 15:45 UTC (Fri) by southey (guest, #9466) [Link]

Mandrake's serious money problems still exist and while they continue to operate, it still appears to be a day to day affair. Mandrake really needs to show that it will be around in six months time and longer.

I think FUD has a fair bit to do with it

Posted Jun 19, 2003 14:46 UTC (Thu) by leonbrooks (guest, #1494) [Link]

When Mandrake went into "bankruptcy protection" almost every commentator
in the USA assumed that it was the same as their Chapter 11 (or even Chapter
7) which in the USA is a signal for the vultures to gather. It was unintentional,
perhaps, but a lot of the reporting was FUDdy.

Mandrake are still being advocated ahead of other distros (even SuSE) and I
see people on mailing lists switching from other distros to Mandrake. More to
Mandrake than to any other distro. It's worth mentioning that some of those
switchers come from SuSE, and that while very few switchers revert or
change again, almost all of those reversions and changes are to SuSE.

Mandrake's development process seems to be humming along, with fewer,
harder-worked people - as it has been for about a year - but still humming.
When they exit their "bankruptcy protection" things should start to get better,
and noisier.

Another interesting distro to consider is Xandros. As Corel Linux, it got off to a
wobbly start and then when The Borg bought them it looked like Big Red
Switch time. Today, Xandros is putting on a good face, is right up there in the
ease of use and presentation stakes, and will likely carve itself a sizeable
share of the Linux distro market.

Yet another interesting distro to consider is SCO Linux. It's running SCO's
webserver and being distributed from their FTP server (including source) as I
type, and despite SCO's lawsuits and ranting. Go figure.