SearchEnterpriseLinux: MandrakeSoft CEO: Linux-Mandrake tops in retail

“Linux-Mandrake took the top spot in the Linux retail market in
2000, beating popular Red Hat by a slim margin, said Henri Poole,
MandrakeSoft chief executive officer. … On the eve of the
LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in New York, Poole talked with
searchEnterpriseLinux about the company’s plans for moving into a
new vertical market, about differentiating its technologies and
about recent events in the Linux world.”

“searchEnterpriseLinux: What features
differentiate MandrakeSoft from other distributions?

Poole: We got our reputation as being the
easiest to use and install version of Linux starting with the first
version. To sum it up, Mandrake was first created for a company of
(non-technical people). As the company evolved, we attracted
engineers who cared about making the software easy for someone else
to use. That’s different from what happens often in software
development, because often engineers are making software to use
themselves.”

“searchEnterpriseLinux: In what other ways has
MandrakeSoft made its solution different?

Poole: We created the first commercial
multi-window environment for Linux. We were the first
commercial player to create online updates available on the
desktop. We started out with the easiest to use installation
system, and it’s gotten better. That’s an area where our
competitors are catching up with us quickly. We were the first to
put in file journaling, Reiser FS. We have the first control panel,
one place where you can set up your system features, of all the
commercial distributions. The control panel is a common
feature of Windows, but up until now Linux users have had to hunt
around for controllers for various parts of your hardware. That’s
difficult for people who have moved over from the Windows
environment. “

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