I love the idea of training.. if Mandrake put an expert in an irc channel 24/7 or even for specific times each day.. and his job was to answer club members questions.. and perhaps train them on stuff when the questions quiet down... (common ones could be refered to a mandrake page with the common answers...)...
Training is what would make mandrake club longterm profitable.. but why would they listen to this suggestion... Hell, they could do an online course..and offer a printable certificate at the end.. it probably won't mean alot real world.. but I bet they'd get swarms of signups if they did it. (I'd sign up too... just so I could lurk'n learn.. As for debian and its long term viability.... Debian is one of the oldest distro's.. its alot older then mandrake.. Also, the guys that do it do it for one reason.. they love it.. There is no money to be concerned about.. also, every ISP I have delt with.. and thats alot over the years, not just as a customer, but as a consultant.. for my clients and others have used Debian.. Truth be told,, I think that if it were possible to check,,, debian would probably be ahead of Redhat as far as installed base goes... Just not on the desktop.. most of the mail admins I'm sharing mailing lists are using Debian (the linux users that is.) Debian is probably the purest open source project of them all... at least thats my impression. If mandrake goes.. I'll use Debian or Gentoo for servers and redhat for desktop.. currently I use Mandrake for both.. which is why I don't want to change. but having said that.. there is no free lunch... if they want my money.. they give me something I want.. thats all there is to it.. I am not interested in games much.. I don't want software I can get free elsewhere.. I want training.. in various areas.. I am a sucker for learning.. I've taught myself 4 programming languages in the last 2 years.. just because I could... The chance to learn stuff.. anything of interest.. is worth my dollars. I know mandrake has alot of online docs.. but the way they have gone about it is so haphazzard that most people have no idea its there or what its for.... hmmm.. what else could they do??? I know.. hold off longer on the final releases of mandrake... instead of rushing them out.. take more snapshots.. offer them to only the club or cooker members as ISO's they could give something to the club members and get something in return as well.. more bug testing.. I like aspects of 8.2 and 9.0.. but nothing is better then 7.2 so far... (I still have lots of servers running it.) One last thing they should do off the top of my head... They should copy M$ and release a searchable knowledgebase.. not 100000 docs spread all over the place.. but a searchable database of issues and their solitions.. with unique id's and all.. make it available to clubmembers... (in my opinion, the M$ knowledgebase is the only worthwhile thing they have done in years.) Thats the stuff that will have people signing up... rgds Frank -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Anne Wilson Sent: Sunday, 22 December 2002 9:30 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [newbie] Mandrake Raising More Capital Comments in-line On Sunday 22 Dec 2002 12:09 pm, Franki wrote: > Well, I guess its my turn to have a say... > > I am off the opinion that the club is a shortterm earner at best.. > eventually people will pull out and if there are not new replacements it > will dry up.. there is alot more benefit to mandrake in the club then there > currently is to the users I think. > > having said that, if the make it more worth the while then I will force all > my client that use mandrake pay it for a year.. > > just like I insist all of those using dyndns pay them a 20 dollar donation > at signup... > > but right now, what am I gonna tell them?? you'll get a bunch of demo > software, some nvidia drivers and a few other bits and bobs.. not enough to > convince someone thats going on second hand loyalty (mine). > > They need to think long and hard about what they can offer.. perhaps online > realtime tutorials/training with chatrooms and stuff.. I don't know, but do > some more value adding.. Corporate users, if that's what we're talking about, would be hard to convince at the moment, I agree. But I like the idea that training might be offered. > > As for mandrake going under.. I'll be very sad if they do.. I have bought > powerpacks off them before.. and I was planning on buying 9.1, but if they > go down.. it would take me a week or two to get to the same level using > redhat.. (or gentoo ).. > > I love mandrake for the most part.. and would hate to see them go... but if > they do, I'll probably try to standardise on one of the not-for-profit > distro's like debian... it'd be a pain for a while, but at least its > unlikely to go under.. Why? Not questioning your knowledge - on the contrary, asking why you believe them to be sound. > > In the email to customers,, Mandrake should have made more reference to > what they owe.. when its likely to be over and a more detailed report of > future profitability.. they could have made it sound alot less like begging > for donations. It must be difficult to write an email like that - particularly when it must be in several languages. Anne
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