"Gael Duval, the founder of the popular MandrivaLinux project, was fired from Mandriva last spring in an effort to cut costs. Almost immediately afterward, Duval began work on a new GNU/Linux distribution, Ulteo. As of this writing, Ulteo has not yet released its first beta edition, but it should be available soon. While we're all waiting, I figured I'd ask Mr Duval some questions about Ulteo, Mandriva, and starting GNU/Linux projects in general."
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Member since:
2005-07-08
Member since:2006-04-19
That is enough for boycotting Mandriva? Well, I do not like the move they made at Mandriva either, but I do not boycott them because of that. That is imho a bit childish. I rate them more by the product they create (and if it adheres to the principles of the OSS movement) and by their willingness to listen to their user-base. The first part is quite okay. Their products have a high quality and are freely available (okay, the server costs you money, but the rest that is OSS is free for download).
The second part is a bit more tricky. They ignored many users for a long time but I get the impression that this is changing a lot lately. E.g. AdamW is around here, answering questions of the community, then they asked the users for some feedback on how the next release should look like (We shouted for a new metatheme in order to replace Galaxy and we finally got one), they answered directly to all suggestions and criticism I had sent to them and they apparently did care about them. So I guess things are changing here, too.
Now on Gael Duval.
1. Yes, his firing was not the best PR move by F.B. BUT (!) neither me nor many other people know what really happened behind the scenes that led to Duval being fired. No one ever fires someone without a good reason from one day to the next. And let's face it: Bancilhon has to run a company, not a tea-party where everyone is in happy Teletubby-land. In the business world you get fired at times or you fire people at times, even if you don't want to. If Bancilhon would have fired someone else from Mandriva, I guess you would not cry that loud "foul".
2. Duval has talked a lot about Ulteo but I haven't seen any results yet although I keep an eye on Ulteo from the very first day. Yes, it is hard to create a project, but he postponed the first test-release of Ulteo too often now for my taste and I begin to feel that we won't see anything sensational - if we will see anything.
Duvals project sounds interesting but also very illusionist imho. I doubt that it will have any impact on humanity, ecology and the computing world. Sorry, but I somehow begin to think that Duval is a bit of a dreamer. A dreamer with terriffic coding skills. But still a dreamer.
Member since:2005-07-06
You would fit nicely with Mandriva Management , saying that their product are high quality as they are now.
* There not competitive
* They are obsolete
* they are poor even compared to Mandriva own mediocrity in the past.
About Gaël Duval :
He got played and had by people who said they where is friend and who did not do the job they said they would do , Jacques Le Marois the most responsible for Mandriva , bad management and bad posture and Frédéric Bastok , but whats worst is they brough in people who are more incompetent at management then they are : Henry Poole and is click , François Bancilhon , all the global sales team manager .
Now only from a business point of view since François Bancilhon as taken the top management positions he has :
Put the company in cessation des paiement wich is not bankrupty , but was called as a bankrupty and not answered to , wich drove the client away or at arms lenght ( company dont invest in bankrupt company.
He as cut everything but is salary wich should be 1$ , he as acquired action due to special deal he made , when in shoul dbe giving them back for his poor performance.
it was a 30 million company , now due to is action they are a 14 - 16 million one , when it ssuppose to be at minimum a 1 billion company.
The Club is not working at 1% of its potential and is loosing more Members then ganing new one.
The Professional solution are not known or discussed.
The General public solution are expansive and not really targeted and optimized for those users and the budget made from the division and the Mandriva Club division are ported back into the professionnal products at the detriment of the user product and Mandriva Club development.
Marketing at Mandriva is a joke.
The OEM sales are almos enexistant even do the got on Dell France ( Only not global just France ) hardware officially.
They are considered a niche market player when they are more global then all the Debian put togheter.
Mandriva was the leader , it kicked out SUSE to the curve who are now a Novel division , it even beat two years in a row Red hat in the US in recorded sales.
They completely Botched there IPO and are on an unregulated market.
They missed the PHP server era completely even do they almost helped create it entirely.
etc ... etc ... etc ...
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=mandriva
The above still quote
Jacques Le Marois >Chairman of the Board
He was replaced by Francois Bancilhon
David Barth, Chief Technical Officer not Frederic Lepied.
Gael Duval > Communication
Why is it so important , its based on the reuters feed , anyone with half a second of research can see that they dont even care about the basic of there financials and image , I would not dare imagine how the rest is ruined.
Yes , you would fit nicely with this bunch of incompetent ...
Member since:2006-04-19
Now, please don't get personal, there is no reason for "insulting" me. 
Many of your points are valid and true. Some are not. You say that their prodcts are not high quality. If this were so, they would have lost all their business customers already to Novell or RedHat, which they haven't, which is a fact. The opposite is true, they gained new customers (dunno why, but it is apparently true if I can trust the e-magazines on the net).
Obsolete is a very vague term. Obsolete... 12 months old software is obsolete? You must be kidding. Windows XP is way older and NOT considered obsolete by 90% of its users. Debian stable is not considered obsolete by sys-admins, same for RHEL3. Mdv 2007 is only a few days away and it is definitely not obsolete what they packed into it. If you claim that, then you surely didn't do your homework. I run Mandriva cooker (and other distros) on my boxes, I know what I am talking about. And stability-wise, I had less problems with Mandriva than with distros like e.g. Fedora or Arch or even Nexenta/OpenSolaris.
I am not a fan of F.B. Not at all. But... why did he get the job? Because Gael had ruined Mandriva after a hot start pretty fast. You cannot deny that Duvals business skills are as bad as those of F.B.. That is why I don't expect anything great coming from Ulteo.
Mandriva marketing is a joke. Sure. But others sadly don't learn from Mandrivas mistakes and do the same crap and ignore marketing. Ever seen some Slackware marketing? I haven't. *sigh* When will distro-creators finally wake up?
I will not comment on the F.B. vs Duval battle, because, as I said before, I don't know what really happened behind the scenes. It seems as if you know way more about it than 99% of us mere mortals know. So: reveal some details or let's not discuss this at all.
I agree, F.B. earns way too much for what he did (like almost every manager I know). My dream would be having both, Duval AND Bancilhon removed at Mandriva and some more competent guys working there. But at least, there is some change. Duval is gone. Next is F.B.
PS: Yes, I run Mandriva. I like the distro, but not the company. I also run e.g. Debian. There I only love the distro, as there is no company.
RE[2]: Forward your CV to Mandriva , your Management type there
Member since:2005-07-06
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François Bancilhon was not hired to fight with Gael Duval or let him loose to do something that will compete with Mandriva directly in the futur.
He was hired to Increase product sale , wich he as not done.
He was hired to really increase membership ( quadrupling its membership ) in the club , wich he as not done.
He was hired to make the Mandriva store really profitable ( double and quadruple its profits by introducing new products ) wich he as not done.
He was Hired to quadruple the Suport service income wich he as not done.
He was hired to increase Mandriva visibility , and image in a positive way , wich he as done the opposite.
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Mr Duval as done more then its job at Mandriva he got blamed for
- Management , when he never whas the CEO or Chairman.
- Sales , when he never was in charge of sales or a salesman.
- Marketing , when he was not in charge of marketing or a marketer.
- Communication , when he hade zero budget to do the job and really no formation.
- PR , because all the others do not identify with Mandriva as he does.
- Damage Control , because all the others did not take front stage or responsability for there mistakes.
When Mr Duval is a programmer by trade and THE Pionneer fo easy GNU/Linux for the general user population worldwide by the creation of is distribution in 1998 wich opened GNU/Linux and gave an easy entry for everyone , he is also an European Pionneer on the new GNU/Linux Market he created and helped foster into a billion dollar industry.
He created Linux-Mandrake , he founded MandrakeSoft with incompetents , He did everything in is power for the company to survive and do well , None of you coward and thief have done as much and sacrified as much and worked there hardest with nothing to build something and keep it alive.
Duval only failure was to believe others where working at the same goal as him , building the best GNU/Linux distribution for everyone.
Live and learn , its still nice to have MandrakeSoft Founder and Linux-Mandrake creator on ones resume.
The future need not be as bleak as it was in the past , past experience does not predict future results.
Member since:2006-04-19
Apparently one cannot discuss things with you without getting flamed and insulted by you (didn't you have enough coffee today?). Do you behave that way at your job as well? Do you show these manners towards your family (if you have one)? If yes, you should be ashamed of yourself.
Funnily you know more about me and my knowledge about PR, Linux and the world than I know myself. You are a apparently a God with a bad temper and I don't like neither self-proclaimed Gods nor bad tempers. That is why I won't add anything here. It won't lead us anywhere.
Member since:2006-07-28
To be perfectly frank, Moulineuf is a complete nutcase, so don't worry about it. He has fantasy delusions that he's somehow involved in Mandrake and you should read his other comments regarding the GPL.
He's just another dork that thinks he's part of some movement, but in reality just sits in his little room and has nothing to do with Linux.
Member since:2006-04-19
Member since:2005-07-06
Moulinneuf take two n , unlike you I use my real name for my posting.
I wish I had fantasy delusions , this way all those who had to suffer bad dealings in my mind with Mandriva management and the world epidemy could be all solved by taking a pill ...
No , I dont work at Mandriva. But then I never said I did work for them.
Member since:2005-07-06
You have a very strange way of discussing things , sorry its in my nature to not be nice to people who make bulshit up and slander my hero.
No , I dont feel ashame about what I did to you , sorry , your not someone special who I wish to read more of or learn to know is opinion about Ulteo , MR Duval , Mandriva. Too much lies in your content to just be an innocent bystander.
Now if you have trouble with tampers , coffee and religion , I aint the one to seek for help or discuss them with.
No , you whont lead me and pull me to your camp. I appreciate that your honest enough to say your going nowhere and that your leaving this thread to another one where you will be more constructive.
Have a nice day.
Member since:2005-11-02
Member since:
2006-03-31
wow some issues in this thread.... 
All I can say is that Mandrake has never OVERLY impressed me. I was probably most impressed with 8.2 since it seemed a lot got fixed and improved. After that it always seemed like for every fix there was more breakage somewhere else. Or things that really nagged never got worked on. They instead fixed what wasn't broken or something similar. I bought the 9.1 power pack and was disappointted enough to go back to 8.2 then I tried 10 and that was the last I ever bothered with mandrake. Just stating my experience...
