Somewhere in 2001, I bought a computer magazine which came with a Linux CD. I had heard of Linux before, but while we did have broadband back then and was technically capable of downloading a Linux distribution, this method was far easier. This was my first foray into Linux - it was Mandrake. Now, though, it seems the curtain has really dropped for the French Linux company.
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Member since:2005-07-24
True enough. But in all fairness, they did manage to suck at business for 13 years. Which is, I suppose, worth something. They even hobbled through a (French equivalent of) chapter 11 bankruptcy back in the day. I'm with you, though. Competition on a "survival of the fittest" playing field is good for Linux. It's not like we don't have enough distros.
Edited 2012-01-10 21:45 UTC
Member since:2008-10-23
We don't have enough distinct distros. We have hundreds of Ubuntus with different wallpapers. Ubuntu itself is 99% dependant on Debian. There are different distros but they all specialize in a niche. There are few general purpose desktop distros.
"Survival of the fittest" means no desktop GNU/Linux, only Windows. MacOS should have died 13 years ago. Windows on the Desktop and GNU on the server. No BSD, no Solaris.
But anyway you don't care as long as it's not the distro you use. It's just Mandriva after all, isn't it?
Member since:2008-10-23
The Amiga died 20 years ago or so and there are still people trying to make it live again. Mandriva is a great distro with great people working on it, so yes, it would be sad for its users if it stopped. You obviously are not using it so for you it's not sad, and you don't care that some people are using it as long as it's not you. And you don't even realize that all distros benefit from the work done at Mandriva.
Member since:2011-12-30
Grow up, will you?
Nobody benefits from a distribution that struggles for years and years because its makers fight for economic survival.
And why would you think it to be sad that Mandriva is going down? It's not. If Mandriva ever contributed important things to free software, then these contributions have already been distributed throughout the whole ecosystem.
This is not real life. If you lose a person, you can be sad with good reason, since she or he won't come back. But this is free software. And here nothing's lost, even if software "dies".
Member since:2005-07-24
Yep. And I love their new logo:
http://www.wrongsideoftheart.com/wp-content/gallery/stills/return_o...
Mandriva is more like a movie I saw a couple of Halloweens ago. A girl is killed in a watery car accident, but doesn't know it. She spends the rest of the hour and a half moving to California and trying to figure it all out, before her dead friends come for her to help guide her into the murky depths of the local river, where she belongs. It was all very touching.
Again, I'll ask you for *concrete details* supporting that claim.
-Steve
Member since:2006-06-01
Hmm... this should be valid it it was one of the thousands spin-off distro's from Ubuntu/Debian.
In fact this is one of the core distro's (although it originated from Fedora). Mandrake/Mandriva has contributed a lot to the community and was for years an example of "how to do things right". It has had good moments and bad moments, but in general it was one of those distro's (especially in the early day's) that just "worked out of the box". Seen in this light it is indeed sad to see how this core distro goes under.
If Mageia will take over this role remains to be seen. Only time will tell.
Sure - the company itself was never very strong, but that has nothing to do with the distro itself. Do not confuse the two.
Member since:2005-07-24
People do like to take pot-shots at the successful, don't they?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XpjjSKVJkk
Yep. Like Puppy and Damn Small.
We'll see. Mageia removes the albatross which has hung from the neck of Mandrake from the beginning: Excessive overhead and pointy-haired bosses. Remember, they were born of the dot com bubble in 1998. They were going to do an IPO, like Red Hat. They were going to rocket to success doing... E-Learning? (Actually, the "buyfreshclamsonline.com" effort was my favorite dot bomb effort. But even that had a better chance than Mandrake and E-Learning.) That's what led directly to their very first bankruptcy. (Do not pass 'GO'. Do not collect $200.)
That's an understatement.
And now Mandrake/Mageia will be able to compete on an equal footing with the other non-commercial distros. They will either sink or swim. Actually, it might be more accurate to say that they will either resurface or not. Mandriva's albatross has already carried the distro to the bottom.
In the event of an emergency, even chapter 7 can be used as a floatation device.
Optimism, my friend! Optimism! ;-)
-Steve
P.S. Mandrake originated from the Red Hat 5 series and not Fedora. Arg! The Glibc transition! I'll never forget it! Imagine your libc being binary incompatible with all extant binaries!
Edited 2012-01-11 23:46 UTC
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Member since:
2011-12-30
Distributions die, distributions come into existence, companies die, companies come into existence. The evolution works, life goes on.
What's everyone so frackin' sad about? Indulging in pointless nostalgia, because here it's about a Linux company. Their business failed because they sucked at business.