Is Mandrake going "commercial"
 

Hi, this is just a quick question for reassurance ;^)

I was wondering, is Mandrake going to follow RH and dump its free version of Linux?
(Since I saw that last release of MandrakeMove)

I didn't know where to put this question, so I just posted it here, hope that's ok.

Thanks! :D

No. In fact, after RH turned away, they came out and reiterated their support for the communiuty...

http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/...corporate/2446

...they might still go bankrupt though.

You can download MandrakeMove now. It seems like that is how they are encouraging people to purchase new releases. The club members, or in the case of MM, the purchasers, get first crack at obtaining the release, then the download version follows shortly afterwards. In the MM case, there is a usb flash memory stick that comes with it also.

Check out PCLinuxOS if you like MandrakeMove. It is a 1 or 2 person distro based upon mandrake that gives MandrakeMove a run for its money (um,...I guess, but it is free). The next release is just about to come out. I have had problems installing it to disk, but the live cd aspect is brilliant.

http://www.pclinuxonline.com

Mandrake Move download is avilable ONLY for club members.

...whoops, thanks for the correction. I guess I don't pay attention to where I download from.

PS The rc5 of PCLinuxOS was released last night and Mandrake 10 beta 1 torrents are out too.

Mandrake may go bankrupt? What happens when they do? No more Mandrake support/versions? Are they that in the hole?

Well, it is an off chance now. It was over a year ago, and things seem to be going well. That is one of the speculatiuons why 9.2 seems to have been released asap, with a few bugs like the disappearing menus.

I have tried the 10.0 cookers and I can say that there is no going back for me, these are not even betas and they have been very stable.

Here is the original mandrake statement...
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/...soft/news/2405

...and in an interview today, Mr Mandrake himself (Bancilhon) says that things are back to normal.

http://www.newsforge.com/business/04...&tid=82&tid=94

"We are going to have two versions of the system. One will be "community," the other "official."

Community and official? This is going to get interesting ;^) At least they are not doing exactly what RH did. =^)

community vs official... hmmm what whould be the difference.

Probably official is going to have more preinstalled apps then the community version. I just hope it's not going to be like the Redhat - Fedora thing. ;^)

Oh no, looks like the next RH/Fedora epidemic...
Does this mean that I have to "migrate," again?

From the interview:

"Bancilhon said MandrakeSoft is not doing the same as Red Hat management has done with their split between Red Hat and Fedora. The "community" version of Mandrake will still be produced by company developers and supported by MandrakeSoft employees as part of their job, unlike the Fedora project which is produced outside of Red Hat's formal development structure and supported by volunteers."

Hope that answers your question! As for the migrating part, I'm not too sure, I better not guess so I don't mislead someone... =^)

Somewhere on the Mandrake site there is a page listing Mandrake's customer support points/objectives/promises so to speak...I read it back when it was posted on Slashdot a while back...so I don't have the link.

But in there, it reinstated their commitment to a free download version of their OS and the GPL. I don't think they are going to pull a RedHat anytime soon.

As for Mandrake going bankrupt...I was reading that they were in the black this quarter or something? Anyway...if the company went bankrupt, they were saying that the distro would live on in the community...

Thats good news! Thanks for the info ;)

If someone has not noticed this, then here's the link:

http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/pr-releaseprocess.php3

"The spirit of the new development road map is to keep providing a release similar to what was released in the past, which will now be called "Mandrake Linux Community." This is the regular Mandrake Linux distribution, based on Cooker, which goes through the traditional QA process. But from now on, a second 'rock-solid' version titled "Mandrake Linux Official" will be released two or three months after Mandrake Linux Community. This new version will include all Erratas applied to the initial release, and as a result will be particularly solid and problem-free. The Community release will be ideal for those who want the 'latest and greatest' features as soon as available, while the second release will be perfect for those who prefer to wait and avoid any potential glitches."

All is well.