On Friday 17 Jan 2003 10:43 pm, Ben Reser wrote: > Anne Wilson wrote on 16 Jan 2003, 9:41 > >
> As far as outside control. Mandrakesoft gave up control the instant > they started taking VC money and started selling their stock on a public > market. The company is in the hands of shareholders now (myself > included). However, most of these shareholders are undoubtably not Free > Software advocates. They are simply business people trying to make > money on a market. > > Paying off the debts gets debtors off Mandrake's back. It will not > get the shareholders off their backs. Unless they find money to buy > back those shares, they'll never be free of that encumbrance as a > company. On what do you base this statement? I'm a shareholder, too, and I have never seen anything to suggest that the shareholders are, in fact, on their backs. The kind of shareholders you are talking about have been too nervy to put money in, which hasn't helped Mandrake's short-term need, but is probably better for them in the long term. And before I'm accused of talking Mandrake up to safeguard my investment, let me say that from the start I accepted that Mandrake were not in a strong financial position and I could lose the lot. I went in because I liked both the distro and the ethics of Mandrake, and happened to have a sum at that moment that I could gamble without worry. I chose to spend it on them rather than an extra holiday or some other unnecessary luxury. > > Now the fact that they are public shouldn't necessarily be construed as > negative. Free software is an unusual business model the world has > never really dealt with before. It doesn't mean it can't work, but it > does mean it might take some unusual business structures to make it > work. > > The disadvantages of a public company is that shareholders are normally > very nervous of unusual business structures. Ultimately, this fear will > slow the companies moves down. > You could be right, if they are business investors. We really don't know enough about this to make judgements. > The question is then, will they be able to move fast enough to survive > in spite of this? This is a question to which I do not have the answer. > Though we will all find out with time. My feeling is that the courts will decide the pace. That is, they will control the financial decisions. Hopefully this will enable the team to get on with what they are best at, developing a distro. Despite the struggles people have with betas, often forgetting that they are in fact betas, we like what we get. Anne -- Registered Linux User No.293302
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