Apparently there are tales going around that there will be no Mandrake 9.1 –
that one of the most user-friendly distros around is not going to be around much
longer. Not surprising, what with all the recent pleas for cash coming from the
direction of Paris.But it’s just not so, says Gael Duval, one of the founders of Mandrake Linux,
whose charge it is now to communicate with curious reporters. We’d heard tell of
a memo floating around with former CEO Jacques Le Marois’ name on it (he’s still
president). Duval doesn’t confirm or deny the
existence of the memo, which purportedly contains statements to the effect that
Mandrake could file the French equivalent of a Chapter 11 in the near future.
Duval says, however, that more news is coming down the pike. “There are
currently many different options to solve the current situation,” he says. “We
will probably announce a range of actions in 10 days to 2 weeks.” He says that
there have been several investor offers.
If Mandrake’s cash situation is, as was stated by the company last
month
in
a
widely broadcast release, a near-term shortage only, with solvency practically
guaranteed at
some point in the not-too-distant future, then it would make sense and it is
likely that an investor or two could be persuaded to jump in and play Prince
Charming.
Besides, people have been predicting the death of Mandrake for about a year now.
Duval says there are rumors circulating now that the 9.0 release was the
last – but that’s what they said about 8.1 too. Duval says, “I want to make it clear that there will be a Mandrake 9.1, and we see no reason that [development] would stop after [that].”
