Once upon a time there was only Red Hat. Then Red Hat gave birth to Fedora and itself became RHEL only (Red Hat Enterprise Linux.) Now you have RHEL you pay for, longer life cycle for business, etc. Fedora is the open source free community based Linux OS for the rest of us.

Suse (changed ownership a couple of times,) Then along comes Novell and takes it over. So now you have Novell and Opensuse... ahhh, forget it.

You know the names, what they all do and who uses them. My question is this. Why didn't Mandriva do something like that? They could have had a commercial version (and called it Mandriva or maybe connecdriva?,) and kept a free and open source version (and called it Mandrake, a name I miss.) Maybe even have exclusive items or something for people if they wanted to join their club for a SMALL fee. But Mandrake itself would be free for all each release.

Instead they are going down hill and have blown themselves apart.

I am just very glad that some have decided to take what they can and restart it all under a different name (For example the Mandriva fork Mageia. I am grateful they are doing that but... Really? Are you sticking with that name?)

I think the smartest things I have seen is what Red Hat and Novell did. It helps keep the commercial version more business like while still getting the benefits of supporting a free open source Linux OS.

P.S. I was going to use Ubuntu as an example. But I don't think anyone other then Shuttleworth know what Ubuntu is doing and where Ubuntu is going. And even then I am not sure he knows until after he grabs his Magic 8-Ball.

This model only really works if you have most of your income coming from the Enterprise (or maybe, small enterprise) space. You have something adventurous/bleeding edge that the home users and the more impecunious SMEs are happy to use because they get it at a low price, and they help you debug/deglitch the main enterprise version. The enterprise users get the biggest beta testing program going and get something that doesn't have the teething problems of early releases on some other platforms **cough**vista**cough**cough**, and it is worthwhile for them to pay for that additional level of assurance.

But it only works if you can run your entire organisation off the income from the enterprise version, and Mandriva never had a big enterprise business, so it would be more difficult for them to do.

Now, maybe you can come up with another model where the hobbyist/SOHO/bleeding edge version is comparatively cheap (but, even comparatively cheap may give rise to what are unsupportable expectations of support, given the low price), but it isn't quite the same thing as the two that you mention.

Seems, and I know 20-20 hindsight, that Mandrake should have used it's resources to invest in the enterprise side rather then worrying about Connectiva, Lycrois and Linbox. Dosn't seem like those where good business moves.

I would have to think about another model for hobbyist/SOHO/bleeding edge version. But it seems that no matter what all you would need to do is keep the basic system free (no support except community based,) and have a few features free and for the SOHO they can buy extra that meets there needs, (Software, support, services.) That way you could have releases like Fedora has (Or even Debian SID,) have it so you have the testers/users at one level and then take it from there.

As far as Linux Distributions out there, I am not sure if any do that. Usually I am more of the hobbyist who does things as needed just for the fun/learning process I get from it with what ever Distro is my favorite(s) at the time.

But as always if you pay, then you get more official services. The more you pay would depend on the services you need or want. I always thought that was a great way to do things. Even more so when I see the lack of understanding on even the basic things with computers and most people. Some would rather spend 100 dollars or more an hour for labor so someone else can take care of the problem rather then taking the time, or being able to take the time, to learn and do it for themselves.

Me I am too cheap I just work it out myself

That's the advantage of selling to enterprises; if you sell to someone who is paying (including employment expenses, etc, etc), say, $100 per hour to keep sys admins sat behind a computer, buying support to save sys admin time seems like a no brainer.

I know what you mean, but I'm happier when stuff just works 'out of the box'...

This is true for me to a certain extent. I like having the basics work out of the box on my desktop (media, flash, java, etc.) or at least having there so it is easy to set up.

My normal routine for a fresh install.

* Install Linux Distro
* Install basics for Internet, media as well as watching DVD's I bought and have a right to watch.
* Install Truecrypt so I can access my backed up files as well as the Iceweasel (Firefox) information I backed up with Febe.

Then I take it from there. It usually doesn't take long and with the ease of all of that then I can focus on setting up other things, experimenting or at times blowing up my computer

Now with home servers/gateway I am finding I don't like to have too much right off. I like to get in, see what is going on and add what I want/need. My favorite in that area is SME Server.

Mandrake was my first distro, and it was a good one (8.0). For something that is very Mandrake-like, try PCLos.

Mandriva is the Windowized version of RedHat and that is what I love about it. You have to admit that Mandriva is a Version of RedHat. They tacked onto RPM.They alter Windows interface just enough to make it their own. Mandriva would have had to attack the market and won or try to survive in a smaller market with less infrastructure, less capital and less risk. Ubuntu attacked and won. I'm dealing with Fedora now after being very impressed with Mandriva 08 and abandoning Mandriva 10 until 11 comes out. Why the (blank) don't other distros organize their menus like a sane human being? If you ever want to see a horrible interface try Suse. Open Suse is not competing with anyone for free desktops. Mandriva loads packages twice as fast as Fedora easily. The activity indicators are all arguably the best. I have to admit that Fedora works better overall but Mandriva is easy to use and is not cumbersome. It's full featured but not bloated. Mandriva's Grub files are simpler as well. Mandriva is the most graphically appealing easy to use, best organized , Linux Distro hands down.

The enterprise model seems to either work wonders or fail miserably. It really depends if people are going to buy your enterprise product, and if the community is going to use the free community edition. A change in business model may or may not have saved Mandriva.

On the other hand, you have Novell. Their model is similar to Red Hat's, but from I hear, they're not doing so well.

Red Hat is thriving, even with popular rebuilds like CentOS.

Err, no I don't have to admit it is a version of RH. it uses the same package manager format as RedHat, but then so do several things, including SuSE, which in terms of 'distribution etymology' is a version of Slackware, not that you'd notice with either. There is probably zero Slackware code directly from those early days in SuSE, and I'd expect a similar amount of RH code in Mandriva.

@eveningsky339
You are right that Novell is a different case. Primarily Novell's SuSE Linux business is doing well (it is profitable and growing), the 'Red Box' traditional Netware business is in long-term decline, having been more-or-less killed by Microsoft, and things like the newer Identity Management business hasn't really established itself and is nowhere near coining it in sufficient terms to buoy up results for the whole business.

So, Novell is a very different case, but that isn't primarily connected to the SuSE part of the business; In fact, without the positive performance of the SuSE part, Novell would be in rather more trouble, which raises some interesting questions about the idea of splitting the Linux part of the business from the traditional part.