I don't use the distro myself, but I know a lot of people who do

Choice is a great thing and it would be a shame to see a distro hit the wall .
Especially if you're a running a Mandy shop or your company is, now could be a good time for your Christmas cheer.

Bert

edit: I see this is not the first time either. Oh dear.

Mandrakes pretty good, I bought a copy of it out of desperation one time when I was stuck without Linux in Loredo with only a dialup connection.

I still have it although it's not installed at the moment. It's very closly related to RedHat.

Sorry to hear that we will be loosing on of the major distros.

Yeah let's help Mandrake it is second the best linux distribution after RedHat, personally i prefer Mandrake then RedHat becouse RedHat is becoming like Microsoft in linux system.After couple years RedHat will kill small distribution such as Mandrake Slack etc. And we will have Microsoft and RedHat Linux only.Think about this ....

no way,

I think we will have GNU Linux around for a while, whatever distro it is really does not matter. You can always build your own.

Never heard of building your own windows distro though, hey there's a good idea..


Microcrash XYZ

It would definitely hurt the Linux cause if Mandrake should go down.

I run Slackware, Redhat, and Mandrake on a routine basis so I could easily change to another distro if Mandrake should fall, but Mandrake just happens to be one of the best Linux newbie distros around, if not the very best. If it dies, a lot of newbies will become frustrated trying to use one of the more difficult distros, and very likely stick with their current OS (probably Windows).

If we truly want to see Linux rise in popularity, we need those easy-to-use distros such as Mandrake (in my opinion).

Well I did what I could to help.

I got Mandrake 9.0 for my affero prize.

So did I David, and am very happy with it!

I really hope Mandy doesn't go down, it was my stepping stone to linux, and has become SO MUCH more. It's my office distro, along with troubleshooting distro, printing distro (since I for the life of me cannot get my printer working in Slack) gaming distro, GUI distro, and many other non server, non command line type things distro.

Mandy is VERY good, and with any luck will stick around for a LONG LONG time.

Cool

I am sorry - but this is ridiculous.Incapable management screws up and then starts running around asking for contributions.Would you help - lets say United Airlines - when they are in trouble?Didn't think so.

Yeah, but United Airlines doesn't routinely give away its product either. This is a big problem for any Linux vendor -- how does one make a living from a product that is by nature free of charge?

I know this is not a popular idea - but they should charge for the downloads.I wouldn't have a problem with that.Plus there are distros making money.

A few, for now, from services side not the software.

Personally I think this is the time to invest in Mandrake.

Mandrake is too good of a distro, if I was a rich man I'd sponsor it...someone is bound to pick it up if it falls. Personally I don't believe it will.

I know the diehard, oldtime linux users think it's 2nd rate in performance, but for the desktop market moving from WindoZe it's the best thing out there.

Red Hat aims toward the server market and has relatively ignored the desktop user. It's install is fine for a lot of people, but for the bulk of people in the desktop arena moving from WindoZe it sucks.

I have never had a Red Hat install go without HEADACHES.

Mandrake installs for me every time, and on any machine I have installed it on.

I've been with Mandrake since I purchased their "Complete" 7.1 package 2 yrs ago.

I would rather deal with an American Distro, but Red Hat has turned up their noses at the desktop user in favor of the server market. It is always 2 steps behind the bleeding-edge, and is way too cautious.

Mandrake is always out front for the individual.

The people at Mandrake are _not_ going to let it disappear.

Personally I like RedHat better, They are not quite so bleeding edge, neither am I . I like to use the proven stuff over using the latest release of everything.

The RedHat up2date is the best system update tool I've seen. This is important on the interenet if you have a machine that might be vunerabe to attack.


I have Mandrake 8.1, it's nice. It installed without any problems, except for the external floppy on my laptop did not work.

I found that it was slightly behind the RedHat version at the time. I am getting 9.0

I will see how it stacks up this time.

I had Mandrake 8.1, then I didn't use it for a while...wnet back to Windows full time, had a HD crash, and some other problems.

I installed Mandrake 9.0 when it came out and was very pleasantly surprised...for the first time Linux began to feel "good" rather than just something to make me feel sore in the head.

The install went absolutely great, and now it seemed like Mdk was helping me out learning instead of being stubborn...making me pay for every little mistake.

Sure!...I still have a lot to learn, but now it feels like I have an OS buddy willing to help out.

Every time I have tried Red Hat it made me feel stupid...it didn't want to "help" me...it just wanted me to pay for every little mistake I made.

Now I can learn, and if I screw up a little...Mandrake seems to help me out some...Like recently when I installed xine.

I know this won't make any sense...it's just a feeling I guess.

BTW, I have tried to install RH almost as many times as Mandrake...and one several machines. The only one I could get it to work on was an old P120 w/2 1G drives.

Yea, I think RedHat sort of grows on you. I started RedHat at version 6.1 and by the time I installed 7.3 it just seemed to make sense.