AfterDawn: News

How much you can charge from free software? How do make any business by producing and giving away software for free? These are the fundamental questions that Linux distributors are constantly facing.

This is hardly a suprise for anyone. Giving aways stuff for free is nice, but in the end of the day it always comes back to money, profitability, cost.



Linux seller MandrakeSoft issued a plea for cash Friday, encouraging people to buy products, MandrakeClub memberships or company stock.

The company, based in Paris but drawing much of its revenue from North America, needs $4 million to pay debts and cover expenses in order to attain profitability. It's the second time this year the company has sought help from its customers.

"A very difficult time has arrived for us: We have a very big short-term cash issue," co-founder Gael Duval said in a statement.

MandrakeSoft isn't the only company to struggle with the business prospects of Linux, an open-source clone of the Unix operating system and one of several technologies once popular with investors. For example, the SCO Group changed its name to emphasize its Unix products, and Lineo, a maker of Linux for gadgets, this week was acquired under its new name Embedix by a Motorola unit.

SuSE, based in Germany and second to Red Hat in market share, declined in November to state whether it expects to be profitable for 2002. Rival TurboLinux has sold off a distributed computing software business and retrenched to its Japanese stronghold.

News.com

Written by: Lasse Penttinen @ 20 Dec 2002 13:32