It is September, and that means brilliantly colored leaves, cooler weather, and a new Mandrake Linux release. As the big day for Mandrake Linux 9.0 approaches, Open for Business’s Timothy R. Butler talked with Mandrake co-founder Gaël Duval about the company’s past, present, and future.
Looking Back, Looking Forward: Gaël Duval on Mandrake
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
You know I just love what Mandrake has done to make linux easier to use. They unlike most other distros have been focused on the end-user for years now. Unfortunately they have the worst QA of all the distros. Many times apps don’t launch when clicked or they crash. Every time a new release comes out, I check it out and then am shocked at the basic things that are fundamentally broken out of the box. If they ever get their QA process down they’ll be a real threat.
Nothing is intergrated in the desktop. This can actually confuse users. For example, when I want to configure X, where do I go? Mandrake Control Center or KControl?
I believe RedHat would overtake Mandrake. People don’t want 10 text editors, 11 window managers etc. installed by default on their machine. Yes, choice is good, overwhelming users with choices they don’t know about isn’t.
RedHat 8.0 is better built for the corporate enviroment. Sad thing is Mandrakesoft doesn’t see this. The only road to the desktop in the West is through the corporate desktop.
Yeah I have to agree with that and I also agree with
“Every time a new release comes out, I check it out and then am shocked at the basic things that are fundamentally broken out of the box”
I’ve seen that my self very well. I gave up from Mandrake Linux since version 8.0 for that very reason believe it or not. Since Mandrake 8.0 came up, I constantly use Red Hat Linux. I don’t know about now but I don’t trust them.
But I really want something that looks and works similar to Windows. I wish Mandrake Linux good luck.
Xandros looks very promising and I’ve seen some of the beta users’ feedback/comments, seems to be very good.
We’ll see
Alex: But I really want something that looks and works similar to Windows.
Try this (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/).
The key to the corporate desktop is not cloning Windows’ UI. Red Hat realizes that. They would win, mark my words. (Unless someone else goes down the same road as RH and does it better).
Rajan
I am on Windows XP don’t you worry
And it is 100% legal, yep I paid for it but I paid because, well, at least it works. I’ve used BeOS before, I loved it just as much as I love Windows (currently). I look forward to OpenBeOS and OS/2 eCom Station but also RedHat 8 and Xandros.
You may be wondering why I am trying to get away from MS? Well, first, I hate their business practises and the more freedom you give them the worse they get. At the end you will most liley end up not having control and privacy over your very own computer.
Second, expensive products. That is just the reason I wouldn’t go for Apple.
And oh yeah, they made me IE-holic
I shifted to Suse because it works, simply, the german way; as a newbie to linux it is important to be kept in confidence without having to try to translate in human language the errors messages received in my Mandrake attempt 🙂
“But I really want something that looks and works similar to Windows.”
Do you really? I find that amazing.
The main reason I am postponing having another go at Linux is that the
interface seems to be getting more and more like Windows, instead of
improving.
“Do you really?”
Yep! 🙂 I want Windows look and feel with some exceptions (OpenBeOS). I can live with that.
Your are right about the desktop going through the corporation. At least this is this easiest route I can see anyway.
I would like to know what is broken by default in Mandrake.
Thanks.
Alex: You may be wondering why I am trying to get away from MS? Well, first, I hate their business practises and the more freedom you give them the worse they get.
Urgh, I hate this excuse. “I hate Microsoft’s business practices”. If Be did what Microsoft did, nobody would go “Bad bad company, must move to another OS”. The reason is that Netscape is owned by AOL. AOL owns a considerable amount of the press in USA. Talk about free press. (Ever saw a positive news about Microsoft on CNN?).
Alex: Yep! 🙂 I want Windows look and feel with some exceptions (OpenBeOS). I can live with that.
In other words, you want Windows without using Windows. I just wish there wasn’t any companies supplying this stupid niche.
This won’t get Linux to the desktop. People, when they pick their OS, or consider an altenative, they won’t say “Hey, Microsoft is baadddddd”. No, they would see which gives them the best bang for the buck.
Andrew: I would like to know what is broken by default in Mandrake.
With 8.0, PPPoE could work. On 8.1, it doesn’t. 8.2 it works. Now it looks like 9.0 it won’t work. Nice patern there.
I think Mandrake has a good niche. Redhat is focusing on the ease of use niche for the corporate client. Ximian and Lindows… are going for the ease of use niche for the home / small business user. Mandrake seems to focus on the power user who is not necc. a Linux guru. In other words they are comfortable with computers but not an expert in Unix. That’s always been why I’ve liked their distribution.
Anyway I agree with the above that Q&A could use some work. While they have really nice configurations stuff far too often it doesn’t actually work. The other thing is their website layout is confusing in terms of what’s on which site.
“I would like to know what is broken by default in Mandrake.
Thanks”
Well there are a few examples above. But really if you want to see how bad it can be, hang out in the Mandrake forums right after a release. You’ll see plently of basic things that are broken right out of the box. Kinda like PCMCIA in Redhat 7.3. Yep its not like anyone out there would actually want to use a Orinoco card. :rolleyesemoticon: