Gaël Duval speaks about the Mandrake + Conectiva merger Feb. 28, 2005 - Augusto Campos (augusto @ br-linux.org) BR-Linux.org interviewed Mandrakelinux founder and Mandrakesoft co-founder Gaël Duval about the recent acquisition of Conectiva. The interview is intended for the brazilian audience, and the translated (HTML) version is at http://br-linux.org/linux/?q=node/319 This text-only english version is available for the convenience of international readers. Feel free to link directly to this file, if you wish. BR-Linux.org - First of all, let me tell you that I like the Mandrake way of being part of the community. I was thrilled with your initial announcement, and I appreciate the continued offer of a download version with mostly free softwares (I think there's exceptions like mpg123, that isn't proprietary either). The announcement of financial difficulties had me worried, and the recovery made me very happy. Creative product offers like MandrakeMove or that LaCie portable hard disk with Mandrake Linux pre-installed always surprised me. What moments in Mandrake's history where the most thrilling for you? The begining, for sure. It's been extremely exciting for me to release Mandrakelinux, a new product that became quickly successful in many countries even before in France where I am. But the Conectiva-Mandrakesoft merger is also very exciting: we got the biggest media feedback ever since the creation of Mandrakesoft. BR-Linux.org - Conectiva maintains some softwares that seem very specific, and possibly that overlap offerings already included in Mandrake Linux - like apt-rpm, synaptics and the smart package manager. Will MandrakeSoft continue the life cycle of these products as internal developed softwares, possibly including them in MandrakeLinux, or will these projects be released to be maintained by the community directly? There is currently no public plan about how we are going to deal with these technologies. This is true in the two direction (both for Mandrakesoft and Conectiva). For instance it would be something great to have the Smart Package manager technology included in the resulting Mandrakesoft+Conectiva product. BR-Linux.org - Additionaly, Conectiva contributes largely to projects like the Linux kernel and KDE. I know that Mandrakesoft contributes to these projects as well. Will the current Conectiva developers in Brazil still contribute to these free software projects on the same basis, or do you foresee (or plan) changes in this area? There is currently no plan to stop these contributions. We, at Mandrakesoft, have always been very supportive of Open-Source community projects. We contributed to KDE, to GNOME, we bought Bochs to convert its proprietary license to a Free-Software license, and others! Furthermore, all Mandrakesoft developments are released under the GPL. BR-Linux.org - Brazilian government has sent many signals about being a strong supporter of free software, and the "Connected PC" project is receiving a lot of media attention currently, because it would be a relatively inexpensive PC with free software to be sold to the general population. MandrakeSoft has plans to be part of this project? Can you tell our readers something about your plans for the brazilian and south american markets? Conectiva will remain very autonomous regarding the Brazilian and South American markets because they know the market and we don't know it. We are going to merge our product lines progressively, but the south-America market will be addressed locally by Conectiva, so all offerings will remain in accordance with Brazil & SA needs. On the other hand, Conectiva should benefit from new services from Mandrakesoft, adapted to Brazil, such as a Corporate Club and others. (please tell me more about the "Connected PC" - do you have pointers to this projet? I don't know about it) BR-Linux.org - Conectiva Linux 10 was very well received by the community. Now the general press already let us know about the intention of releasing a convergent product by the end of this year. Can you tell us something about your plans for this product? Will it be the first LCC product? Will it carry the Conectiva brand name in Brazil? Will there be localized editions for Brazil? Will it have characteristics of a merged product, or will it be mostly more like a current Mandrake Linux with some parts of Conectiva included? We want to bring the best of Mandrakelinux into Conectiva and the best of Conectiva into Mandrakelinux. The goal is to have all the product and services offerings converge into a unique range. This is very important to boost our R&D and QA capabilities. But all products and services released by Conectiva to the local market will, of course, be adapted. Regarding the LCC, this doesn't change anything for the project: the goal is to release publicly and maintain a common "core LSB 2.0-compliant Linux distribution" both in RPM & DEB. Then, each Linux vendor can use this core product to build their products on the top of it. We hope to see that happen in particular for our Corporate line of products as soon as possible. BR-Linux.org - By the way, will the Conectiva brand, products and services be maintained? People are already placing bets on weird names like Mandraktiva, you know ;-) And what about Mandrake products and services in Brazil? I'm the first one in line for one of those external hard drives with your next distribution! We will communicate about the branding in about one month. BR-Linux.org - There's a lot of uninformed speculation about the Mandrake Club. Since it's not a common initiative in Brazil, and I gather it's not easy for most brazilian Mandrake fans to manage the international payments required, unfortunately people spread FUD about Mandrake updates and bugfixes being restricted to paying members, This is really not true. We provide a 100% free and full-featured product called "Mandrakelinux Download Edition" (currently 10.1 Official), which can be updated (security updates and bug fixes) for free and online with the "Mandrakeupdate" utiliy, without any restriction. or about non-paying users receiving stripped-down versions of Mandrake Linux. Could you clarify these myths to our readers? The Mandrakeclub was born to provide more to paying Members, not to give less to others. I never saw anybody complaining about the fact that new Mandrakelinux releases were available a few weeks in advance to Club Members. That's really a very balanced way to combine real Free Software support and business. And the more business we do, the more we can help Free Software to develop. BR-Linux.org - There are huge economic and financial differences between the european or north american Linux user and the typical brazilian or south american one. How does MandrakeSoft intend to address the issue on questions like club membership fees, or generally the price of products and services for end users? This is something that will be addressed by Conectiva. They will adapt the offering to Brazilian/SA market, including pricing. BR-Linux.org - What will be the status of Conectiva executives in the merged company? Conectiva executives remain Conectiva executives. And the developers and other employees? Do you foresee some of them moving to Paris? Will we see an increase in the number of brazilian developers working in the company? I think that (and I hope that) we will see several employees moving - temporarly or permanently - from France to Brazil, and from Brazil to France, depending on wishes and opportunities. Regarding the increase of employees, this is something that is possible when there are needs to grow, and financial means for that. The first step for us is to organize the merger, and make it efficient. BR-Linux.org - How did the two other members of LCC react to this merger? Very well. BR-Linux.org - How can the brazilian community be of any help in the transition period? We would be extremely happy to regularly get their feedback and suggestions about the merger, including positive and negative points. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- BR-Linux.org - Contact: augusto @ br-linux.org Feel free to link directly to this file, if you wish