[plug] Mandrake on the rocks?

[Derek Fountain]

> But you are correct, it'll sadden me if they go under. It really is a nice
> distro to install. If only they didn't install that silly service to turn
> on the num-lock.

Can't say I'm surprised. Putting millions into your product, then giving it 
away isn't a great business model, IMHO. It can be made to work, but there's 
only so much room in the market to support it. Redhat have that market sewn 
up, AFAICS.

I think SuSE have the model just about right at the moment. They don't make 
ISOs available, and protect their product by having a restrictive licence on 
their installer. Friends can share it on a non-profit basis, but somewhere 
along the line SuSE have made some money because someone had to buy the 
disks.

I guess the free software purists don't like it, but you can't half see the 
sense of it in their product. They can afford top quality engineers and 
produce a top quality product, and still turn a profit without relying on IPO 
money.