Mandriva co-founder ousted from Linux firm

[Richard_The_Lionhearted]

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Let's have a moment of silence for our dear friend Gael Duval............................

Okay basically he's the cofounder of Mandriva(formerly Mandrake) and is currently fired from the firm. So what is everyone else's opinion on this? Do you think that it was/wasn't right to fire Gael Duval and would you also blame him for the downfall and if so then how.

[techieMoe]

I have no opinion of this fellow's getting fired. It happens every day in the business world. I do however have issues with his supposed "new project" called Ulteo. Given I only have one sentence to go by, but it bothers me:

"It will be an open-source system, and part of the concept is going to rely on broadband Internet access."

As one of the unprivileged that are stuck with dial-up only by our geography, I find the assumption made by game companies (and apparently now other software companies) that broadband is as ubiquitous as, say electricity to be insulting. In my country most everyone but the most rural of rural have electricity, but there are still great areas that have no hope for any type of broadband access. Every inquiry in my area leads to "you're just not in the plan."

Does this mean that with the move to more "online-distribution" models throughout the software industry that people like myself will be left out of "the plan"? Sorry to hijack the thread. That comment just irked me. Carry on.

[onlinebacon]

Well....

Who cares?

Mandriva is good, sure, but it doesnt matter if he was fired or not.

[TBD]

I found the article i read on it interesting ... I thought it was strange that the founder could be ousted .. until i read the whole story.

After Mandriva and Connectiva merged a few years ago - Mandriva was no longer in control of their own product.

Apparently the new guy wants to concentrate on Business systems and the ousted founder wanted to target Desktop users ... among other things.

[Richard_The_Lionhearted]

Well....

Who cares?

Mandriva is good, sure, but it doesnt matter if he was fired or not.

Does it really? Sure one person probably doesn't matter. But the influence that person had on the product does.

[fingal]

It's a shame! I read an interview with him recently - though it was in an old(ish) magazine - and he sounded upbeat about Mandriva's future. I thought about joining the Mandriva Club a few times, but felt it was over-priced, and perhaps that's part of the problem: I don't think they've got their business model right somehow.

If they are now going to target business users rather than the desktop, maybe I should start looking for a new distro?? SuSE don't seem to have these problems, so someone has got something very wrong.

[TBD]

They are still going to have a desktop model ... but those are free.
Business pays money ... and just before they merged (Connectiva and Mandrake) Mandrake was flirting with bankruptcy.

I think if your a big fish in the Linux world like Novell, Red Hat, FreeBSD, etc ... you have to target the business sector to keep cashflow positive and customers away from Microsoft.

[Jiraiya-sama]

It's a shame! I read an interview with him recently - though it was in an old(ish) magazine - and he sounded upbeat about Mandriva's future. I thought about joining the Mandriva Club a few times, but felt it was over-priced, and perhaps that's part of the problem: I don't think they've got their business model right somehow.

If they are now going to target business users rather than the desktop, maybe I should start looking for a new distro?? SuSE don't seem to have these problems, so someone has got something very wrong.

SuSE 10.1 is coming out april 13, you might wanna try then. i would try mandriva, but i don't feel like paying anything.

[fingal]

SuSE 10.1 is coming out april 13, you might wanna try then. i would try mandriva, but i don't feel like paying anything.

I'm very tempted to try (I think SuSE is superb). I've got so used to Mandriva that if I have problems I usually manage to work around them. I have a very functional desktop, and if I manage to resolve a couple of issues which I have (around my printer and package management) I won't need to change ... probably. I've been playing around with the 'Smart' package management system and this looks promising.

I wonder if Mandriva did the right thing acquiring Connectiva? They were in the red, but prior you their takeover of Connectiva they were in the blue. I think they were taking the view that 'as long as we are acquiring new companies we aren't being bought out'.

IMHO this is wrong and they would have been better doing what TBD said above ^ and getting into the business sector. Not easy perhaps given the competition, but probably a good move. The other issue is that they insist on shipping 'bleeding edge' apps with their distros. I have the free version, and once or twice I've thought, 'Hmmm: maybe I should try the pay-for product?' What put me off was the thought of paying X amount for something with buggy apps. (most aren't buggy but the thought was there and I'm a very cautious buyer).

So Mandriva offer a great little distro, with flaws you can live with. On the other hand they've fallen a little short of being quite good enough. I hope they pull through and continue the good work.

[daacosta]

I have no opinion of this fellow's getting fired. It happens every day in the business world. I do however have issues with his supposed "new project" called Ulteo. Given I only have one sentence to go by, but it bothers me:

"It will be an open-source system, and part of the concept is going to rely on broadband Internet access."

As one of the unprivileged that are stuck with dial-up only by our geography, I find the assumption made by game companies (and apparently now other software companies) that broadband is as ubiquitous as, say electricity to be insulting. In my country most everyone but the most rural of rural have electricity, but there are still great areas that have no hope for any type of broadband access. Every inquiry in my area leads to "you're just not in the plan."

Not to talk about the golden parachutes for fellows like him... I am also stuck with dial-up and echo your opinion...