Dear folks:
I recently spoke to my computer hardware dealer about upgrading some of
my computer parts. He told me that once he was done he would install
RedHat 6.0 for me. I told him I wanted Mandrake and this is what he
said:
"Mandrake is dead. The whole idea behind Mandrake was to integrate KDE
with RedHat. Now that RedHat has KDE as an option, what's the need for
Mandrake?"
In response I muttered a couple of things about extra tidbits that come
with Mandrake but I did not sound very convincing, even to myself. I
think that Mandrake needs a new mission statement or manifesto; what's
present on the website is no longer satisfactory. I want to stick with
Mandrake in part because I believe that RedHat's former anti-KDE
attitude truly hurt (or at least slowed down) the Linux cause and I do
not really want to reward them for merely caving in to the pressure that
distros like Mandrake put them under. Unless Mandrake Linux convincingly
and clearly reassesses its raison d'etre and redirects its focus to
present and potential members of the Linux community, I am afraid that
this wonderful distro will indeed become irrelevant. Now it may be that
the leaders of the Mandrake organization are clear about this, but the
info on the web page
(e.g. http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/fpolicy.html and
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/ffaq.html ) does not reflect this in a
coherent and convincing way.
Best wishes to all
Idris
