Linux Pre-Installation Is Growing

Gaël Duval Tells Why Mandrake Linux Is Better Than MS Windows

Microsoft PR Does Not Refute Mandrake Linux Better Than Windows

Mike Angelo -- 11 July 2003 (C) -- Page 2

Here is our e-mail discussion about Microsoft's response with Mandrake Linux founder Gaël Duval:

MozillaQuest Magazine: What is your response to this statement from Microsoft?

Gaël Duval: We believe customers are going to chose Mandrake Linux systems more and more instead of proprietary operating systems, because customers need an affordable operating system built on public specifications, shipped in standard with everything needed for daily office work and modern multimedia tasks, and because customers need a stable and secure operating system that cannot be infected with all the viruses that are commonly received every day in email attachments and at other places on the Internet.

-MozillaQuest Magazine: Are you saying here that Mandrake Linux is more affordable than is MS Windows?

-Gaël Duval: Yes, it's far more affordable. For instance, you can get the Mandrake Linux 9.1 + complete Office suite for $39.99 USD. And this includes 30 days support.

--MozillaQuest Magazine: Could you elaborate here please? For example are you referring to K-Office, OpenOffice, AbiWord, StarOffice, etc.?

--Gaël Duval: Mandrake 9.1 ships with KOffice & OpenOffice.

--MozillaQuest Magazine: Which of these applications are included in the HP-Mandrake computers?

--Gaël Duval: Both.

--MozillaQuest Magazine: Are you comparing the Office applications that come with Mandrake 9.1 for $39 to the Microsoft Office suite, or are you trying to show here that with the Mandrake Linux 9.1 Basic OS you get fully-fledged office-suite products such as K-Word, AbiWord, OpenOffice Writer as compared to the crippled, poorly-featured, office products that come with MS Windows such as Wordpad, and so forth?

--Gaël Duval: Yes I'm comparing the Office applications that come with Mandrake 9.1 to the MS Office suite.

-MozillaQuest Magazine: Could you elaborate, please, about how Mandrake Linux is better than MS Windows for less cost?

-Gaël Duval: The product itself is less expensive, and as it's basically much more stable, you don't lose time to reboot or fix system bugs and viruses all the time. This is a money-saver.

-MozillaQuest Magazine: Is MS Windows more susceptible to viruses than is Mandrake Linux? Do you have any data or examples to support that?

-Gaël Duval: Currently there is not any existing virus that threatens Mandrake Linux (any version since July, 23rd 1998).

---MozillaQuest Magazine: The system crashes and system lockups (stability issues) are an important comparison that you raise here. Could you elaborate on this some and also do you have any statistical comparisons of Mandrake Linux 9.1 stability verses MS Windows stability?

--Gaël Duval: No, but for sure many people will understand to what I'm referring. We all know about many people losing time to repair their Windows OS because of stability issues and viruses.

Gaël Duval: We work hard to advertise Mandrake Linux because people who try it consider it to be the most exciting operating-system experience available today.

MozillaQuest Magazine: If what Microsoft says is true, then why is HP offering Linux-based computers?

Gaël Duval: Because there is a demand, so there is a business.

Gaël Duval seems to be right on mark about the demand. In discussing Microsoft's response to our HP-Mandrake computers article, IBM's Stacy Simpson pointed out: recent announcements, such as the City of Munich's decision to move 14,000 PCs and 16,000 users from Windows to Linux, in a move to make Linux their standard desktop operating system environment.

Red Hat Spokesperson Leigh Day told MozillaQuest Magazine that its OEM partners such as HP, Dell, Fujitsu, IBM, . . . have seen major customer demand for a stable, high performance platform [GNU/Linux] with no vendor lock-in.

Despite Microsoft, Linux Pre-Installation Is Growing

Despite Microsoft's naked claim that its customers will continue to select Windows XP Pro/Home as the right choice for their desktop OS, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and computer system vendors are increasing their offerings of computer systems shipped with GNU/Linux installed.

OEMs and computer system vendors (CSVs) are catching on to the benefits of GNU/Linux-based systems compared to MS Windows-based systems. And customers are buying computer systems with GNU/Linux, rather than MS Windows, installed.

In a discussion about HP's pre-installed Mandrake Linux 9.1 computers, HP spokesperson Elizabeth Phillips mentioned: Mandrake has a lot to offer, that's why we continue to offer them as an option . . . Linux is a small but growing part of the desktop market and so the information about Linux and options like Mandrake is still spreading. HP's support of Mandrake and this PC offer helps promote Linux overall. This is one of the most important things that we can do in this respect.

HP also offers pre-built Red Hat Linux-based computers too. Additionally, Red Hat spokesperson Leigh Day told MozillaQuest Magazine that: IBM, Fujitsu and Dell all have agreements to preload and resell Red Hat Enterprise services.

IBM spokesperson Stacy Simpson mentioned that: As a service to our customers, IBM Global Services will pre-load the customers' choice of Linux on our systems.

Walmart currently sells Microtel systems with the Lycoris Linux-based Desktop/LX operating system pre-installed. There are other computer system vendors and OEMs shipping boxes with GNU/Linux operating systems pre-installed, also.

Pre-Installing Linux on Systems Is Important

What's happening is that (a) Linux distribution providers such as Lycoris, Mandrake, SuSE, and Red Hat, (b) plus computer system vendors such as Dell, HP, and IBM, (c) along with resellers such as Walmat (d) are working with each other to provide home, business, and enterprise computer consumers with a variety of pre-installed GNU/Linux-based computer systems.

When Linux and Microsoft (MS) Windows operating systems are pre-installed by hardware vendors on new computers, Linux and Windows are in many ways on an even footing. Moreover, the GNU/Linux OS with the KDE desktop suite likely is superior to both the MS-DOS-kernel-based and MS-NT-kernel-based MS Windows desktop environments.

Mandrake Linux 9.1 is an easy-to-install and easy-to-use GNU/Linux operating system distribution. We have not completed our Mandrake Linux 9.1 testing yet. However so far, it seems to be even better than Mandrake Linux 9.0, which we gave very high marks.

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