Jason Straight <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
[...]
> No, that's totally missing the point. That's what we do with Microsoft
> and why we chose linux in the first place. I like Mandrake, and I've
> used about every computer OS and distro ever made and Mandrake 7.2 gives
> me more of what I ever wanted than anything I have ever used, and
> consumers trying to voice opinion's to help preserve the goodness that
> is Mandrake-Linux shouldn't be told Fuck it. If I didn't care what
I told you that because I'm very angry that everyone on this list and on
the forum keep saying that we lied, that we are selling the rc1 which is
WORSE than final which is available for free.
Our point is that, OKAY the download edition is overally better than the
retail version.. BECAUSE WE HAD TIME TO PUT IN THE 2.0 OF KDE2.
Unfortunately we COULD NOT do that for retail version in time. Who do you
want to blame? Us? kde2 team?..
Real naming scheme is: retail version is final 7.2 ; download version is
final 7.2 with updates such as kde 2.0 final.
The retail version, that was once put on the ftp sites for free as rc1, is
a GOOD version, and it's 99% close to the one that you find now for free
as Download Edition of 7.2. Its name is now final 7.2, because Release
Candidates are "candidates to become the official release". Nothing more
nothing less!!
In the European version, because it's a bit more expensive due to phone
support included, we even include a free update for kde2 final, sent on
CD's to every customers who will have bought the retail version. In the US
unfortunately the product priced $25 is too cheap to permit that, so we
have to hope that the free downloads from MandrakeUpdate will please
customers.
[...]
> I realize you have deadlines to meet and people to pay - like I said in
> my other post I used to be a manager of Wal-Mart, so I know when it
> comes to running a business that in reality the $ does come first. If
> you have no $'s you have no people, and if you have no people you have
> no product to get $'s.
But not to the point to release a bad product and lie to the customers.
> But when it comes to the products image being jeopardized I hope you
> guys made the right decision. Hopefully there won't be a big stink about
A point to clear: not MY nor developpers' decision here. I'm just taking
time here to put up some explanations, because I'm feeling really sad that
you all guys on this list begin to consider us as lyers and bad
customers-related behaviour company..
> the fact that the shelf version that people fork out $25 for isn't as
> good as the version they can dl for free. Next time around you might
I heard that this has been the case for Redhat for long. In real world,
the version on the net can be updated in 5 seconds, the one on the shelves
in 6 months if you consider WalMart.
So how could the retail version be newer/better? That's simply impossible,
and our best customer support is to put the final kde2 version on the
download edition; think about it: we could have put the kde-1.99 in the
download edition to prevent from such comparisons with the retail version.
We simply could't provide such a bad service to our users, just because
time schedule is missing a couple of weeks! It was possible to put kde-2.0
final in 7.2 on the web so we put the update in the version.
Only solution to have boxes in time was to put the 1.99 which IS a good
version, and you have the updates.. I can't explain better..
> In the future maybe a different versioning system would help alleviate this
> also. 7.00 might be on the shelf at Wal-Mart while 7.01 on ftp. At least
> something on the box so no one can claim they were lied to.
No because in that case WalMart could not have the 7.01 and customers
would ask for it..
--
Guillaume Cottenceau -- Distribution Developer for MandrakeSoft
http://us.mandrakesoft.com/~gc/
