It seems that Mandrake is in very definite Financial trouble -- hovering in / out of bankuptcy.

While most posters on these boards are technical rather than financial people I was wondering given the perilous state of Mandrake whether 10.0 will be its final release -- and if so what will replace it.

I really don't like the whole concept of Fedora -- it's an unstable business model (sorry for going back to the "moneybags" again -- but in the corporate world this is what drives big companies and Fedora without Red Hat will surely fail as well -- and it's inevitable as Red Hat is also "scratting around" for more of the "Green Stuff" and Fedora is just an expense as far as they are concerned).

Just as Linux is beginning to make inroads into "The Evil Empire" some of these companies seem to be shooting themselves in the foot and passing the initiative to M$ again.

So it looks like SUSE seems to be the best model for individual users to stick with for the long term if you don't want to do a lot of your own development -- with Debian, Slackware and Gentoo for those more interested in tweaking their own systems.

In the long run it might be better to have fewer distro's -- but I hate to see the whole process going down the M$ road where we all have to pay for everything.

"mandrake exits bankruptcy"

http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/...corporate/2462

Sounds good -- let's hope it's real -- as a lot of plans can go awry.

Thanks for the link. Nice to see they actually made some money for once

Looks like 10.0 is not the end (yet):

"Schedule estimation for Mandrakelinux 10.1"
http://qa.mandrakesoft.com/twiki/bin...ndrakelinux101

your link is bad

i like it~

People should understand that companies need money. I have no problem paying $60 for a full DVD that contains LOTS and LOTS of applications. Software doesn't have to be free to be a great option.

Mandrake should ask for donations or mayby put a timer on there software....after 3 months or so pay a donation or applications start to not function!

Matt

I payed for my Mandrake CDs, and the fact that they are coming out of bankruptcy means that a lot of other people are also paying and buying.

I don't have anything against people asking for donations (but don't twist my arm in order to get them).
If they do go the route of expiration periods and activation codes, then there will be no more Mandrake Linux.
Not because people don't want to pay, but because everyone hates "self-destructing" software.

Also, how would you feel if critical information (like your patient information) in a hospital systems is required to save your life (or the life of someone you know), but the doctors can't get to it, because the software expires or it prompts for "Please Input your Credit Card Number For Your Donation".

I like Mandrake and GNU/Linux for the Freedom it gives me, I don't like restrictive licenses and expiration periods, and I'm willing to pay for that.

Like I said, I'm in for paying because it's a great value combo.

Mandrake won't go bankrupt. Why are you even worried? Hell is more likely to freeze over before linux is down to 3-4 distros... (just so you know, there are double-digit linux distros...)