hi all!

check out these links:

http://trends.newsforge.com/article..../03/21/1841239
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news...le.php/3591621
http://www.indidea.org/gael/en/fired-message.php
http://club.mandriva.com/xwiki/bin/M...cilhon-2006-03

So... the founder of Mandrake Linux which later became Mandriva Linux got fired! What do you all think about this?

-------------------------------------------------------

Here's what I think.

Sure a company has to make profit in order to stay afloat in todays cut-throat world, sure cutting down on expenses and increasing profit margins is a good way to do it... BUT this is linux we are talking about. Linux is like an Alfa Romeo (an Italian make of car). Not everything in an Alfa Romeo is of the best build quality, things fall apart if you run over a pebble, the design isnt the most ergonomic in the world, and neither is it the most practical... yet these cars have so much soul in them and they look absolutely gorgeous. Despite all the downfalls you just cannot help but love an Alfa.

Now I am not saying that linux is crappy... but we have to admit that its not perfect, and there are many aspects that can be improved on, a bit annoying at times... but something keeps us using it. For me, apart from all the stability, freedom, configurability (does that word exist?), and the fact it kicks Windows' backside, the Linux community is one of the major reasons I'm sticking with Linux. There's a feeling of brotherhood, I-scratch-your-back-and-you-scratch-mine mentality, you develop an application and give to me to use for free! (I can't code to save my life). This community spirit is unique in the computing world.

Why am I blabbering on about this? Well, to me, Duval does not in any circumstance deserve what he got. It doesnt matter how broke Mandriva is. If Mandriva crumbles I say let Duval crumble with it if thats what he wants... Kicking him off the bandwagon is NOT right. No excuses. After all these years of toil he has put into building what I think is the best distribution for newbies, should he be left in the cold to fend for himself? ( http://www.ulteo.com ) I think not. Making money is not a good enough reason for that. Look at Debian, Slackware, Gentoo, Ubuntu (which will even send you free cds!) they are some of the best distros out there. Are they crying for a quick buck? Are they backstabbing the pillars of their foundation?

I feel Mandriva has taken a wrong turn here. They are losing track of the community... ther roots. And the community should never be underestimated. Lose the support of the community and Mandriva will have a hard time selling their products to ANYBODY when the same product will be available for free.

Sure we need money to put food on the table, sure we need to make profits to stay afloat, but lets remember one thing... above all we need people. And we should treat all the way we would like to be treated.

What am I going to do about this? I'll start looking for another distribution (many are raving about Ubuntu!) If things dont go they way i think is right... I'll be switching soon.

Mr. Duval, I wish you the best in your future endevours.

librano.

As a long term Mandriva user, I was really disappointed with this. The problem for Mandriva is that over the last 3 or so years its not been an innovator but a follower and the quality of its products has gone downhill. Who is to blame for this? I blame the corporate people in Mandriva because they don't care about making a good distro anymore, all they want is to milk as much money as they can from users whilst the product does not improve. The CEO is incompetent but he stays and vital people like engineers and commumity liason people are given the sack? This does not make any business sense to me.

Instead of a knee jerk reaction to the poor financial results, they should have assessed the way they run the business and looked at why their distro is losing popularity. To me the losses are a result of buggy releases, too much emphasis on the club and forgetting those in the community that helped Mandriva come out of bankruptcy protection with their donations (and club memberships). Delaying the release of isos of the free release makes people look elsewhere if they want a distro with up to date features.

Another problem with Mandriva is marketing, how do they expect to make more money if the only place you can purchae their products is on their site. I can walk into a local PCWorld, Borders Bookshop etc and get a copy of Suse, but Mandriva is nowhere in sight. If they don't push their products to the markets then nobody will buy them. The acqusitions of Conectiva and Lycoris also seem to have been poorly thought out because nothing in the current Mandriva releases shows much integration from those two distros.

As for firing Duval, this is probably going to backfire because Duval is a relly cool guy and had a good relationship with the Linux community. If Mandriva had maintained a good community spirit then it would have more people helping out in development and contribs improving the quality of its products. Many people are jumping ship to other distros because of the buggy releases and I am sure the firing of Duval will result in many more deserters.

i have already talked briefly with him through email about packaging some of my software in his new endevor.

http://www.ulteo.com/

plus he plans on donating some of the proceeds to charitable orginizations.

ps. reddazz, you made some excellent points and i agree with you fully.

Duval was apparently "laid off", according to the Mandriva CEO, as if there wasn't enough work for him... That's bloody amusing that is, well not the part where Duval got laid off but the reasons why.
I don't believe his presence at Mandriva lost them money so what are the actual reasons for him being laid off? I sure would like to know.

What does this mean then?

Reality:
I reckon that this decision will have it's impact, but it's too soon to say what the outcome will be. I heard Duval has filed a lawsuit against Mandriva for being "unjustly" laid off and we'll just have to wait and see what the verdict says.

Moraly:
Dear Mandriva board and CEO, you just ran in into a moral red light. It meant "go no further" but I suppose color blindness is a widespread virus, especially when all you see is the GREEN stuff in every aspect of your business.

I hope Duval continues to contribute somewhere else, he would bring great knowledge to any group he chooses to join in the open source community.

CEO probably had to cut costs so he could give himself a big year end bonus. No doubt Madriva permanently lost many loyal customers over this move. Personally, I'll never use the distro again and am looking forward to trying out Ulteo Linux.