Mandriva Pink Slips Adam Williamson too
Submitted by srlinuxx on Thu, 11/27/2008 - 14:42.
Well, I was rather expecting this after reading Vincent’s blog this morning (and to be honest, doing some basic mental arithmetic on our recent financial results), but I have been told that as of December 31st, I’ll no longer be working for Mandriva, as all external contractors are being canned.
I’ve had a great time working for Mandriva, and hopefully whatever job I find next will leave me enough time and flexibility to keep working on the distribution as a volunteer. I’ll try and still be around the user community after my contract expires, too.
Mandriva just made a big mistake - BIG
To quote Pretty Woman. Adam is the best thing they had going for them when it came to the forums. Good sensible advice delivered in a way that people could understand.
Hand writing on the wall ? Adam was not invited to parties ?
The seismic change in Linux is in the netbooks. Where computer architecture is always the same for any operating system. Distros catering to older and newer computers are not streamlined enough to suit netbook manufacturers(they roll their own). Second operating system even with virtualization, no longer get people exited enough to get a free copy.
Then cloud computing came suddenly, caught GCC unprepared. Who needs gnome apps on the net with mono in Python? when Ajax and even email websites are waiting in the wing?
When we get technology well enough to use fastest flash cards to replace DDR; all operating systems will have to change too. USB bus can be as fast as 75 ghz someday.
Progress in hardware left the Linux open source community in the dust. We need to know the hardware design direction to anticipate progress in software programming.
Atang, lay off the paint
Atang,
lay off the paint chips. That is all.
Insert_Ending_Here
Atang
Atang1, what are you smoking, man?
No offence, but one day your "posix packets" and "Eclipse SOA cloud computing" stopped being funny and became worrysome. Either you have access to some real weed, either you are a really long-time joker or... maybe you need a girlfriend
Best,
virvan
Mistake
Big mistake. Why lay off the talent?
___
/me always wondered if atang was some kind of inexpensive shill
re: Mistake
Um.....because they have no money? Mandriva is dreaming if they think their current "business model" can turn a profit. They have to cut expenses before they can beg for another handout.
re: re: Mistake
Yes, they're going to have to pinch a lot of pennies to survive. But canning the human support face who has done much to assist the faithful in installing, configuring, and maintaining Mandriva distros, as Mandriva was beginning to win back a quality reputation, is a dreadful mistake. It's not about the necessity of layoffs, it's about Mandriva's choices of who specifically gets the pink slips.
re: (x3) Mistake
Of course it is. But if they had "smart" management, they'd be turning a profit and wouldn't need to cut expenses. In any case, it's a short term, bottom line pad, that will most likely be futile and end in doom.
Ditto.
I'm with you on that one. AlanW should stay.
Gael did not bring in revenue ? Was let go ? History ?
Mandriva had loss almost equal to revenue of $3 million US. Which means expenses(revenue plus loss) were very high. Mandriva's burn rate(a venture capital term) was $6 million US a year in the past?
Adam could have helped to bring in more revenue, maybe, if over $3 million by himself?
Fundamentally, Mandriva has to find more paying customers that can use Linux technology specialization that they do not have at the moment. They lost HP to Novell because of 3G modem instant on feature. Smoking weeds isn't going to do the job of turning it around, business wise. New management is needed to replace cooker club subscriptions.