WB. I just ordered a few boxes for resale and a request for warrants which is about what I can do for the immediate term.
Near term, demand generation is probably the key. It's past time for a Mandrake 9.0 party. We keep an image on the LAN and we might snag a few folks to come in and get the GPL version. We are pretty good at installations which we can offer as a service including stuff like phpGroupWare and osCommerce. Does anyone have a litany of Mandrake services which might encourage businesses to bite? Jim Tarvid On Monday 23 December 2002 09:18 pm, civileme wrote: > I have some good news and some urgent news > > 1. I will be returning to the lists. I will have an email address that > can handle list level traffic. > > 2. All of you are desperately needed to complete the push to get > Mandrakesoft on a self-sustaining level. > > For the second one, here is the real story: > > Mandrakesoft started on a shoestring and a hope, originally as a > spare-time project for one person. It was immensely popular from > inception and soon MADE A PROFIT. > > Then arrived the venture capitalists.... > > They invested monies but wanted an international team of executives to > manage the company. Such a team was acquired. > > Under that team, the expenses went up about 400% without a concomitant > increase in revenue. The direction was modified from a linux > distributor to an internet education company with a hook to linux. > > The soundness of that idea was never proven, as the dot.com bubble > burst and investors worldwide went into full retreat. For Mandrakesoft > this was a curse and a blessing. The curse was the negative cash > position and high burn rate and the blessing was a return to being a > linux company. > > Mandrakesoft has made huge strides in bringing revenue up to meet > expenses and in cutting expenses. They tended to trust the word of > others which has made their forecasts look overly optimistic several > times. > > But now the break-even point, in the worst-case scenario, is in sight > and in a few months. The short term still requires more cash than they > have now, to get out that next release. > > In that next release will be a special piece of software I am > contributing. With little to do since my layoff, I have designed a > semi-intelligent linux binary installer that can handle most of what you > are able to download. It even has hooks to look for things like WineX > and to attempt to install windows executables if you have an emulator > for them. > > But if you want to see that next release, consider a club membership or > giving club memberships as Christmas gifts or buying stock at > approximately the right price. (BTW, MIcrosoft stock which sells at > Like $52 /share has 8 billion shares outstanding on a company that > earns $25 billion a year in revenue BEFORE expenses-- I call that a > heavily watered stock) Mandrakesoft stock is selling for what the > company is probably worth. Remember its assets are PEOPLE and their > products. People like Pixel and Gael Duval and Denis Havlik and > Guillaume Cottenceau make the product and the company what it is. > Mandrake also has a hidden asset in the loyalty of contributors, And > they are finally selling the right way--software is free if you want it > and rather expensive if you expect extensive support. > > So anyway, expect to see me return to the lists now that I have an email > that will handle it without quota problems and (I hope) without any more > crack attacks or DDOSes which is what originally set me to dropping my > mailserver and forwarding to a hidden webmail host. > > Still loyal to MandrakeLinux, > > Civileme
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