Now that I have found the distro I prefer, I have no problems buying the product or donating the same amount it would cost to purchase M$ XP.

So I went to mandrakeclub.com and I was speechless as to what I found...
a memebership is $66-1320 per year?!!??

In no way is this a flame but I dont think I have ever spent that much on a M$ product. ... and this is per year! When I found this out I was almost discouraged to make a donation.

But maybe I am jumping to conclusions, so I seek your advice, why so much? Is this worth it? Am I alone on this one? Is there anyone who really does pay $1320 per year? I love mandrake but WTF???...Thats outrageous!

I somewhat agree. I think it is a bit sad that there are no more benefits from making a donation, whatever it is.

Yeah I have to agree, the Silver membership (Which is what most of us want) is priced so high that it discourages the casual user from contributing.

A 20-30.00/year unlimited download w/o support would bring in a slew of people and revenue on a continuing basis for them.

Geez I'd pay that just to be able to download the Mandrake customized driver RPM's which make things so painless.

At 132.00 for Silver I'm looking at other distros.

They also need a middle tier for businesses.

E.G. 380.00/year with unlimited downloads for non-supported versions.

I would agree. I would love to purchase the Official version but I'm not going going to spend that much on something I'm still testing out. Kinda caught in the dilemma where I dont want to spend money on it because I dont know if I'll like it enough to keep but if I do spend the money it will be easier to use and like.

I also agree it's a lot of money, but I forked over the $132 Silver Membership. I had some extra cash to burn and wanted to try Mandrake 10.1 before it went public. Is it worth it, you ask? I really don't know. I'm not happy or dissatisfied with Mandrake and the Mandrake club so I guess it was worth it.

I've been using Mandrake since 9.1 and 9.1, to me, was PERFECT so I felt I owed them something. With 10.1, I'm somewhat content. The only two issues that I can't get working with 10.1 is the dual monitors (I'm sure it will work once the new ATI drivers come out) and getting KDETV working. So for now, TV is only available in Windows XP. bleh!

That sux, man.

I thought the silver edition was so you got those drivers.

I also thought that was the difference between the free versions, only 4 of the 5 cd's

Thinking the other cd had all the goodies on it. Like ati and nvidia drivers, TV out and dual monitor support.

But all in all I'm really happy with 10.1 community download.

imho silver membership is well worth it esp now that we get the full powerpack dvd, and what with the development cycle of linux in general, your pretty much guaranteed two realeases during your membership cycle.

on the one front its no cheaper than just buying the latest dvd versions (media only) from mandrake, on the other front i'm looking at going 64 bit, and getting the usb-enabled move is great when you want to use someone else's pc. i surf the web at lunchtime at work safe in the knowledge the windoze boxes wont catch a cold.

get the thumbs up from me.