State of Mandrake? (was: Re: [TriLUG] Server: Debian or Mandrake?)

[Scott G. Hall]

Tony Simone <tsimone at nc.rr.com> wrote:
 > I have a related question maybe someone more knowledgeable could
 > answer:  what is the future of Mandrake?  No, I'm not asking for
 > a fortune teller...  :)  Mandrakesoft seems to be flailing about
 > wildly as a company, and last time I looked it was in it's death
 > throes.  That said, Mandrake does have a dedicated (fanatical???)
 > user base that seems to keep propping it up.  I suspect that even
 > if they failed, those users may carry it on as a truly open project
 > (more like Debian maybe?).
 >
 > Any thoughts, feedback or knowledge here?  Thanks!

I would say just the opposite: it seems that Mandrake is *very* active,
and it keeping up with the security fixes and upgrades that the other
mainstream distros are doing.  There has been a lot of press lately,
most of which you can find on their home page:

    http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/

Mandrake 9.1 just came out (11-Apr-2003), and here are some review
articles pointed to from DistroWatch.Com:

CNET: http://www.cnet.com/software/0-806340-1204-20900592.html?tag=subnav
OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=3116
Open Mag: http://www.open-mag.com/01863583279.htm
UNIX Review: http://www.unixreview.com/documents/s=7459/uni1040142232705/
Linux Help: http://www.linuxhelp.net/reviews/mandrake90.php

Mandrake is also focusing on a personal version, an enterprise version,
and a super-server version just like the other mainstream distros and
UNIXes.  And from the various forums on the Net, defacto support from
MandrakeSoft seems to more involved than Red Hat or SuSE (only Xandros
seems better, but of course I actually paid for it :) )

--
Scott Hall

Raleigh, NC, USA
ScottGHall at BellSouth.Net