MandrakeSoft recently emerged from the bankruptcy protection it sought last year. To find out what happened and why MandrakeSoft is enjoying success, Joe Bolin caught up with MandrakeSoft CEO François Bancilhon, and Mandrakelinux co-founders Jacques Le Marois and Gaël Duval.
MandrakeSoft: An inside look
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I am extremely impressed with Mandrake’s latest products.
One word describes their offerings: solid.
I think Mandrake’s biggest liability is its inability to communicate well to users why it is a better distribution.
They were the first to offer CUPS and they have the best implementation of it in the X86 world.
They were the first to offer journaling file systems on Linux.
They are the first to offer a really easy “just works” Terminal Server, although LTSP is very easy to set up these days.
Their drakwizard for setting up servers is a joy to use.
Urpmi is the best software installation and update tool around and it has been around for years.
I could go on an on. I am very bullish on Mandrake. I think they are growing organically and have learned from their mistakes. They have loyal customers and one of the most active and supportive user bases (see mandrakeusers.org or the a.o.l.m usenet forum).
I am also very impressed by Novell’s latest moves. Right now, both Mandrake and Novell look much more appealing than Red Hat, although Red Hat makes a good server.
This isn’t a troll, nor do I want to see Mandrake fail in any way shape or form, but weren’t they struggling? Badly? French equivilant of Chapter 11? The Mandrake Club thing was, to me, embarassing -begware? I stopped using them at that point. Hey, if they are growing and are now successful then kick ass for them. I wish them luck.
What problems was/is that?
I’m a long time debian user, but whenever I get asked which distro to pick up to start trying linux, I always answer mandrakelinux.
As regards the new releases… I’d say the mandrake linux 7 series is still unrivaled when it comes to stability, at least that’s my personal experience.
Long live mandrakesoft
The success is coming out of it, which they just did. They are now in the black.
We’ve been working together with the publisher O’Reilly, so this is how we plan to get back into the stores.
The 4 cd’s will be bundeled with a book specially towards desktop use.
Ive been using Mandrake since 7.2, and have seen them grow dramaticaly. Its phenominal for both desktop and server use, and I use it for both desktop and server. It would CRUSH me for them to wither up. I dont think it’ll ever be in the cards.
Is there any news on what they have done about the Control Center set up of network, internet, firewall, and connection sharing in 10? They did not work in Community, and the only way someone like me is going to use Mandrake is if these things work, because when it comes to setting up firewalls and ICS in Linux, I just don’t get it.
It is obvious they are trying to make it as user friendly as possible, but these have routinely failed in all the versions of Mandrake I have tried, and it is a frustrating experience to see the tools there, teasing you, and not being able to get it to work…
Hector
Hey Hecktor, I was able to setup my network and firewall using the control center in Mandrake 10 Community without a single problem. I love it so far, however I have not been able to get any updates from the package manager. I think the ftp site was down or being updated.
Joel
i think mandrake is great but the thing that drove me to debian is mandrake’s stability problems. with their new release system (doing a community release, then an official release) has its stability increased to the realm of debian/sarge ?
I’ve been through most of the options in the Control Center in 10.0 Official, and they all seem to work flawlessly.
i think urpmi and apt should only be used to install and update “system software” like the kernel, the DE etc. for “normal” apps like web browsers, multimedia apps etc, the programs should be bundeled into their own package along with their dependencies.
it’d be much handier instead of downloading dependencies, just download the program and run it.
this package could have a very simple layout. in the package’s base directory, there could be an executable script that is run when the package is double clicked. this script would add the below directories to the PATH and then execute the specified program.
this would be a much simpler solution. it would mean that distros would need less storage and bandwidth because they wouldn’t have to supply as many programmes.
Yes, we need, and need it now, a better way to install linux apps. However, it is a little “complicated” do that because of linux specifics characteristics and the way OSS developers sees it. So, the best solution out there seems to be autopackage. If it receive the needed support, it can be a really good solution.
the thing about autopackage is, all of the package’s dependencies are installed into the system. i think it would be better to install the dependencies into the program’s own directory.
in mac os x, if i want to run mozilla-firebird, i go to the mozilla website, download firebird.app and i can run it by just double clicking it. no worries about dependencies at all. if i want to install it so everyone on the system can run it, i drag ‘n’ drop it to /Applications and to uninstall it, i just delete /Applications/Firebird.app
there’s no need for a complicated program to install and remove packages, all that needs to be done is that the GUI needs to know how to handle *.app directories. things don’t have to be so complicated. the simpler, the better
Read the article instead of asking us questions. Stop be being lazy
“They were the first to offer CUPS and they have the best implementation of it in the X86 world.
They were the first to offer journaling file systems on Linux.
They are the first to offer a really easy “just works” Terminal Server, although LTSP is very easy to set up these days. etc..”
Well to bad you didn’t tried SUSE 3-4 years earlier. In Europe everybody knew for years that Suse a better general distrib than Red-Hat or Mandrake…to bad it gets only attention now…after Novell bought it…
No, I don´t think they should. Having applications drag all their dependencies with them is quite awkward and not very efficient.And besides, installing software on a mac can be quite annoying. Ever installed a pkg with the apple installer? AFAIK there is no way to remove it afterward.
I did try Suse, but it wasn’t as good as Mandrake four years ago,not by a long shot.
At least, that’s my opinion. The other thing is I do not do proprietary distributions and Suse back then had too many proprietary bits for my taste. Not any more, and that’s why I have no problem recomending someone that they try both Suse and Mandrake and keep whichever one they like best.
true it wouldn’t be very efficient but it would be much easier than it is today.
i have uninstalled apps that were installed with the Installer but didn’t come with in uninstaller. i just deleted them. there’s also a record kept in /Library/Recipts/ of programs that are installed with the installer. i’d hardly call it annoying. it’s not a very clean removal of software but i’ve been more annoyed when trying to install something in linux. i have never come across any problems when trying to run some 3rd party app off the net with my mac.
The only big problem with the Mac way is security. Say the developer of libfoo finds a horrific security hole. Now, every application that uses libfoo needs to update their .app file so it has the new version.
That being said, I think the Mac way is probably the best way to go, since those types of security flaws don’t pop up *that* often.
Very happy with the direction mandrake is going. I first used mandrake 6.5 in 1998 and will continue to do so.
I too tried Sush, I believe it was ver.6.2 (it was the first and last time). I am sure it has come a long way since then but I am not about to spend lots of money to find out when I can spend lot less on the other distros. I too use mandrake now.
well, you don’t have to spend any money trying out suse at all. you can do an ftp install for free.
if you’re happy with mandrake though, why bother!
I think mandrake puts out an ok product but how long will they last and the rate there going. You need to bring it money if your a company. I think they could last longer as a non profit.
Is really good, as far as what I’ve seen. I’m using it right now. I’ve used a couple other distros, but like mandrake the best because of the ease of use and the drak control center. I’m pleased that things are heading in a good direction for this company, because I really appreciate the things they are doing for linux.
I also use mandrake 10 official… It’s really the first linux distro that actually lets me be “productive” in linux as well as play “3-d gaming”, versus many other distros where you might have to spend anywhere from days to weeks just “tweaking” the system to get “everything” working and then another week d/ling all the apps you may need.. Mandrake 10 has all my favorite apps/games/utils.. In fact the only thing I’ve ever d/led for my *nix mandrake box was return to castle wolfenstien linux client.. ;-P That and my browser plug-ins.. 🙂