[wellylug] Attention Mandrake Users

Mon Dec 30 10:40:43 NZDT 2002

Hi fellow Mandrake Users,

How many folks who use Mandrake on a regular basis have contributed
financially to Mandrake?  It's a timely question because Mandrake is
facing a short-term cash crisis.  If it does not overcome it, it will go
out of business.  Mandrake Club has 10280 members.  How many are from
New Zealand?  Are we more likely to be a nation of free-loaders or
people with integrity and foresight?  This is what Mandrake has to say:

"MandrakeSoft's Future
"Despite the financial challenges of maintaining a fully open source
business model, MandrakeSoft has always followed the Free Software
approach, and will continue to do so. After strenuous efforts over the
past 12 months, MandrakeSoft's business model is more solid than ever
with a number of new announcements and exciting developments on the
horizon. But while the medium and long-term prospects for the company
are very good, we are experiencing short-term cash-flow difficulties
which are impacting the progress of the upcoming release.

"What can you do? If you haven't yet signed up for MandrakeClub
(http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/club/), now is the perfect time to do
so. The MandrakeClub offers great value with special services such as
Java, Flash & StarOffice downloads, discounts on product and services,
access to hundreds of commercial programs, plus much, much more.

"We're also trying to complete our Increase of Capital. Please take a
moment to read this important message
(http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/future.php3) at the Mandrake Linux
website.

"We hope you consider purchasing a Club Membership for yourself or as a
gift. With your help, 2003 can be a great year."

One of the Mandrake developers, security expert Vincent Danen, had this
to say on the Mandrake Expert list (excerpted):

The machine is *really* lean 
right now... thus the increase of capital.  This is required for 
Mandrake to remain any kind of machine.  The end result will be a lean 
machine (not too lean, mind you... can't put out a distro with only 10 
people!).

Bottom line is this:  It's time for people to step up to the plate and 
walk the walk, not just talk the talk.  We've done what we had to do, 
and very painfully at times, to get MandrakeSoft where it is right 
now... we had a *lot* to recover from, which civileme touched on.  
We've done that.  But for us to continue, the community has to show a 
little support.

I know what I want to be doing next Christmas.. playing with Mandrake 
9.2.  The question is, what do you want to be doing next Christmas?  
Also playing with Mandrake 9.2 or being frustrated at having to use a 
lesser distribution?  Or another OS entirely?

For those who feel similar sentiments (ie. "Long Live Mandrake" and "I 
hope it stays around"), I would sincerely ask you to put your money 
where your mouth is.  It's one thing to say you would like Mandrake to 
be around forever and how much you love it, it's an entirely different 
story to support the cause financially.

I would also recommend that, despite some problems a few people have 
had, people purchase their boxed sets of Mandrake from MandrakeStore.  
We see a lot more revenue this way than if you go down the block to 
whatever store you shop at and purchase it.  Putting money into 
distributor and retailer pockets doesn't help MandrakeSoft.  If a box 
set isn't that important to you (ie. you don't need nice packaging and 
a printed manual), then getting a MandrakeClub subscription is the best 
way to go.  Club generates the highest percentage of revenue, and every 
penny counts.  Plus, with Club, all the goodies you get on your CDs in 
the box set you can get online (great for broadband users, maybe not so 
great for dialup users).

All these things will help keep Mandrake alive.

Civilme's letter that Vincent referred to was this (excerpted):

Mandrakesoft started on a shoestring and a hope, originally as a
spare-time project for one person.  It was immensely popular from
inception and soon MADE A PROFIT.

Then arrived the venture capitalists....

They invested monies but wanted an international team of executives to
manage the company.  Such a team was acquired.

Under that team, the expenses went up about 400% without a concomitant
increase in revenue.  The direction was modified from a linux
distributor to an internet education company with a hook to linux.

The soundness of that idea was never proven, as the dot.com bubble
burst and investors worldwide went into full retreat.  For Mandrakesoft
this was a curse and a blessing.  The curse was the negative cash
position and high burn rate and the blessing was a return to being a
linux company.

Mandrakesoft has made huge strides in bringing revenue up to meet
expenses and in cutting expenses.  They tended to trust the word of
others which has made their forecasts look overly optimistic several
times.

But now the break-even point, in the worst-case scenario, is in sight
and in a few months.  The short term still requires more cash than they
have now, to get out that next release.

In that next release will be a special piece of software I am
contributing.  With little to do since my layoff, I have designed a
semi-intelligent linux binary installer that can handle most of what you
are able to download.  It even has hooks to look for things like WineX
and to attempt to install windows executables if you have an emulator 
for them.

But if you want to see that next release, consider a club membership or
giving club memberships as Christmas gifts or buying stock at
approximately the right price.  (BTW, MIcrosoft stock which sells at
Like $52 /share has 8 billion shares outstanding on a company that
earns $25 billion a year in revenue BEFORE expenses-- I call that a 
heavily watered stock)  Mandrakesoft stock is selling for what the 
company is probably worth.  Remember its assets are PEOPLE and their 
products. People like Pixel and Gael Duval and Denis Havlik and 
Guillaume Cottenceau make the product and the company what it is. 
Mandrake also has a hidden asset in the loyalty of contributors,  And 
they are finally selling the right way--software is free if you want it 
and rather expensive if you expect extensive support.

So OK fellow NZers, if you use Mandrake please become a Mandrake Club
user and consider becoming a shareholder.  Hopefully I'll be seeing some
of you in Mandrake Club!

Damon
-- 
Damon Lynch <damon at dev-zone.org>

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