Hi Civileme, Welcome back. I was wondering where you were. Merry Christmas to you.
-Sridhar 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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Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
