Adam Williamson wrote:
Why do I get the impression that all the "deserving charities" are also waiting for your support? :POn Thu, 2003-01-16 at 05:03, Lyvim Xaphir wrote:On Wed, 2003-01-15 at 15:01, Edward Tandi wrote:Could it be? http://www.ofb.biz/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=192 What does it mean?It means that they have some breathing room and clearance from their debtors so that they can continue business as almost normal. It also means that we need to buckle down and try to make this company some money any way we can.I really don't understand this position. MandrakeSoft is a commercial software company. It ought to be able to be profitable (or at least not burn cash so fast it gets near bankruptcy) through normal business operations. If not, it deserves to fail. This is the logic of capitalism, the system MandrakeSoft decided to exist under. Live by the sword, die by the sword. I'm not about to give my money to a failing business simply to keep it alive, there are charities which are in far more deserving need of it.
Eh, thanks for playing! As pointed out elsewhere in this thread, the appeals to the realities of capitalism, in one breath, then the unilateral rejection of the capitalistic bankruptcy protection, in another, is only typical of the speciousness of your 'argument'. Gratuitously appending a 'worst case scenario' rationale after the fact changes nothing. (*) Also, airy-fairy concepts of opensource somehow seamlessly providing an uninterrupted source of the distro for the leechers, when all the flesh-and blood producers of same are looking for a new job and the infrastructure (lights, buildings, machines, websites) has vanished, fall short of compelling. Sorry, even the most rigorous reading at the University of The Register does not qualify as a basis for deciding how *I* spend *my* money. Anyone who must work for a living and has half a backbone can appreciate that paying for a product that takes money to create is only reasonable. Perhaps your education would benefit from some light reading on how Mandrake was started and how it has supported a panoply of opensource development. (**)I use Mandrake Linux because it's an excellent distribution. I also know that, thanks to the nature of free software, the distribution is not the company. If MandrakeSoft does fail...so what? Mandrake is still there, the entire source code is in the open, as is the development process. There's nothing at all to prevent development continuing, either along Debian lines or through the formation by the Mandrake developers of a new company with new financing, which would be free of the large debts and obligations which are currently held by MandrakeSoft, thanks to the crappy business decisions of the dot.com boom era.
It all takes cash.
Now, you have the temerity to come to this list and call MandrakeSoft liars. What has worn clear through is the alacrity with which those whose knowledge and critical thinking are no more developed than yours will seize upon the type of FUD you espouse as yet another raionalization for leeching the software and bashing the distributor. Why don't you go 'support' an endeavor more worthy of your high standards?They have bought time in order to probably get the Mandrake club fortified with subscriptions, amoung other things (deals coming down the pipe that won't mature for awhile), so that they won't be throttled to death while they are running for the finish line.This is the line MandrakeSoft has been feeding its customers for a while now - "this is just a temporary problem, the rosy future is just around the corner! No, actually, we lied, it's just around this NEXT corner! Uh, just hold on to the next corner, would you?" It's starting to wear a little thin.
(*) http://www.mail-archive.com/cooker@linux-mandrake.com/msg86341.html
(**) http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/about
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/community
