udo rader wrote: >On Son, 2002-04-07 at 21:14, Wolfgang Bornath wrote: > >>On Sun, Apr 07, 2002 at 13:46 -0500, Paul Cox wrote: >> >>>On Sunday, Apr 07, 2002, sda wrote: >>>NOT providing free and easy access to the _current_ .iso is about the >>>biggest violation you can make to the GPL. >>> >>Not exactly. Who can demand Mandrake to provide ISOs at all? Nobody. Does >>SuSE provide iso files even BEFORE the boxed verion is in the stores? >>That is one thing nobody seems to take in account. All I read in the >>newsgroup is "8.2 is out. What takes Mandrake so long to bring the boxes >>into my home town?" If MandrakeSoft did not provide the ISOs as soon as >>they are ready those ppl did not even know there was a new version. >>That's like the other big distros handle it. >> >>The GPL does NOT say you have to put out ISOs of your product ASAP. The >>GPL doesn't even say you have to put ISOs on the net at all. All the GPL >>says is that if you have a product you can make it public and if you make >>it public it has to be free and you have to provide a means for the >>public to get the sources. >> > >You are certainly right in terms of GPL. But I don't agree that mdk will >fail because it makes ISOs accessible through the net (too early). I >myself have been downloading the ISOs starting with 8.0, when I changed >from SuSE. The reason for changing was exactly that: why should I pay >for a badly set up distribution when I can have others, far more better >ones for free? SuSE (like many others) goes the way to sell their distro >the "standard" way. > >But buying SuSE too often meant & means that you pay 100 bucks for >something that sucks. I like the Mandrake-style, making it possible to >test the entire distro without paying anything for it - thats fun for me >and risk for them of course. I am aware that compiling a distro is not >free and I will eventually even buy a whole set, but certainly not every >time. If I could not download the ISOs anymore, I would just wait for >one or two years or so till I bought another release and update just the >most vital applications. > >So I think the Mandrake-Club is a nice thing to create some kind of >relationsship between guys like me and a commercial organization like >mandrake. > >>>And changing to a different >>>license will go against everything MandrakeSoft stands for and will >>>never happen. >>> >>That is true and will never happen as loing as MandrakeSoft exists. They >>could not even if they would like to. All they can do is withdraw their >>own programs and put them under a different license. And that would be >>the end of a Mandrake Linux Distribution. >> >>Just my 180,00 Euro (Sorry, but that's what my opinion costs on the >>market! You get it for free (as in 'free beer')) >> >>wobo >>-- >>Registered Linux User 228909 Powered By Mandrake Linux 8.1 >>------------------------------------------------------------------- >>PDAs? Laptops? Linux? UnddasallesineinemWort? http://www.xtops.de ! >> >>---- >> All very interesting, but what the fellow who insists that Mandrakesoft sell the distro as a business model is missing are the facts:
1. SuSE is five times Mandrakesoft's size and is not totally GPL and has been around a lot longer and gets outsold by Mandrakesoft in terms of consumer sales volume. SuSE had to be bailed out last year by Intel and IBM to the tune of $45 million. Caldera is not GPL and has a per-seat license, and their linux division loses money, and their desktop consumer sales are around 1-2% of the market. Yet they can't quit linux because their UNIX business customers often want a single-source solution. Now are these the models Mandrakesoft should follow? 2. There is a significant cost in human and financial terms. Mandrakesoft has some wonderful engineers who could be making three times as much for many fewer hours of work elsewhere. Going to a model for sales most likely means that those engineers will have to be replaced, and their equivalents won't come cheap. What good does it do to double revenue if you multiply costs by 3? Or consider the 40% or so of the packages done by volunteers now... Will they stay? If they don't, what will it cost to do them in-house? Finally, what gets lost between having people who want to work there and people who are there to draw a paycheck? The management at Mandrakesoft is quite competent, and they have a good handle on _ALL_ the facts and have experienced the peculiarities of this niche market. Be certain that all models are considered and there are some reasonable causes for their choices. Civileme
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