Interview of Mandriva CEO

原始出處: http://club.mandriva.com/xwiki/bin/Main/interview-fbancilhon-2006-03

Many news have been circulating over the web concerning Gael Duval's departure from Mandriva. Users and community members are concerned by the lay off of a key founder and would like to understand what happened and what is the impact. So let us start with the Gael situation: did you fire Gael?

最近在網路上有許多新聞圍繞著關於Gael Duval離開Mandriva這件事。一般使用者以及社群都關心並渴望了解這位主要的創辦人的離去的原因以及可能帶來的衝擊。因此，讓我們從Gael個人的情況開始了解：你是否開除了Gael?

Gael was not fired. This term would imply something wrong on his part, which was not the case. He was laid off.

Gael並不是被開除。這個字眼有他犯了錯的意思在裏面，然而就這個事件來說他並沒有錯。應該說他是被解僱了。

Why was he laid off?

他為什麼會被解僱呢？

The company lost money in the October-December 2005 quarter. This means that we spent more money that we generated. We can do this temporarily, because we have cash in the bank, but doing this over a long period of time would permanently damage the company. So we had to make the reasonable but hard decision to cut expenses. The expenses cuts were done in a way we estimate will not keep us from generating revenue. Everyone works very hard at Mandriva and fulfills a useful task. So, when you have to cut, it means you need to cut people who were doing a good job and a useful one, so it is painful for everyone, but you have to make the hard choice.

公司在2005的第四季呈現虧損狀態，這代表我們的支出比所得要高。這樣的情況雖然因為在銀行我們還有資金，還可以在支撐一陣子，但是這樣的情況若是持續，將會不斷的對公司造成損傷。因此，我們必須做出合理但卻又讓人掙扎的決定來減少支出。在我們的評估下，支出的裁減
對於收入而言，在某種程度上來說是有幫助的。每位員工在Mandriva裡都辛勤工作，也圓滿的完成任務。因此，當面臨裁員這個問題時，就代表你必須解僱的對象是那些在工作上有傑出表現的人，這對每個人來說都是痛苦的，但你就是得做出這樣痛苦的抉擇。

Why is Gael suing the company?

為什麼Gael要控告公司呢？

You need to ask this to Gael. France has labor laws that give strong protection to employees and make lay offs long, expensive and complicated (but not impossible). Many employees (about 1 out of 4) sue their employer after a lay off, most of the time to get the employer to pay extra cash on top of the “regular” severance package (about 5 months for people with some seniority).

這個問題你恐怕得去問Gael了。法國對於勞工在法律上提供了強力的保護，使得解僱這件事情對於資方來說變得耗時，花錢以及複雜(但並非不可能)。許多勞 工(每四個當中就有一個)在被解僱之後會控告他們原先的雇主，大部份都是為了得到資方所可能給付最多的資遣費(依照資歷的長短可能獲得大約五個月的薪 水)。

Was there a disagreement between Gael and the company management?

Geal與公司管理階層間是否有過爭執呢？

Not that I am aware of. We had and still have within the company and the management lively debates about the strategy and its implementation. Gael was part of some of these debates, even though he was remoted. I don't think we agreed on everything, but I never got the impression we had fundamental disagreements. I've always valued his opinion, and I still do.

至少就我所知是沒有的。我們從以前到現在一直對於公司營運的方針以及該如何實行有過踴躍的辯論，即使Gael離開了也是如此。我不認為我們對每件事都能夠彼此互相認同，但我不記得我們在基本理念上有過分歧。過去我一直重視他的意見，直到現在我依然如此。

Gael mentions a new project, Ulteo. Were you aware of it?

Gael提到了Ulteo這個新計劃。你知道這件事嗎？

Yes indeed. Gael brought this to me about a year ago I think (I might be wrong on the date). I looked at it carefully, we discussed it for some time with Gael and Jacques Le Marois. Our joint conclusion was that it would make more sense in a separate entity, which would have a partnership with Mandriva. I started looking for someone who could help Gael on this project on the business side and found a potential candidate. Then Gael came back and said he wanted to work further on the technology before discussing this and we left it there.

是的。Gael大約在一年前向我提到這件事(日期上我或許有點記錯)。我仔細的去研究它，也和Gael、Jacques Le Marois等人討論過。我們最後共同的結論是這個計劃若是獨立出來並和Mandriva維持合作關係會比較合理。我開始幫Gael尋找這個計劃在生意上 的幫手，也找到了可能的人選。之後Gael回來告訴我希望能在討論這個計劃以前，能夠在技術的部份花更多心思，我們也因此暫時擱置這件事了。

Let us now turn to the company strategy: is Gael's departure a sign of a shift in strategy?

讓我們現在回到公司的經營方針：Gael的離開是否象徵著公司未來戰略上的改變

Absolutely not. We believe the current strategy is sound.

絕對不是。我們相信目前我們公司的方針是穩固自己

So let us try to understand that strategy better. Many users have a hard time understanding your strategy and finding their way in your product offering. Are you aware of this?

那讓我們更深入的了解你們的方針。許多使用者對於你們公司經營的方針以及提供的產品感到困惑。你知道有這樣的情況嗎？

Yes, we need to make our story more readable, we have some action in process to improve that situation.

是的，我們必須使公司的情況讓人更容易理解，對於這方面我們已經開始著手改善了

So help up clarify it: who are the target customers of Mandriva?

那就來幫助我們釐清吧：誰是Mandriva鎖定的客戶呢？

We have two quite different targets: individual users and organizations. For these two targets, we have different products and offering, different sales channels and different strategies. As we move forward, we will try to distinguish more the organizations taking care of both segments.

我們有兩個主要不同的目標：個別使用者以及組織機關。對於這兩個目標，我們有不同的產品以及服務，不同銷售管道以及不同的策略。隨著我們向前邁進，我們會嘗試去區別組織的差異並兼顧這兩個區域。

The individual users made the original target users of the company, this is what MandrakeSoft was servicing, and we have a large numbers of individual users worldwide. We are fully committed to these users and to delivering exciting technology to them. We address them through retail stores and distributors worldwide, through e-commerce, through the club and through OEM agreements with large hardware vendors such as HP, Dell, IBM or NEC and local players such as Positivo in Brazil. The products are Free Mandriva, Discovery, PowerPack and PowerPack+ and the key service is Mandriva On Line. For these users, we have recently announced Mandriva One and Mandriva Kiosk, from which we expect a lot. We are committed to our individual users. A large part of the Mandriva team is dedicated to the individual user market both in terms of engineering, services, marketing and communication.

個人用戶是這間公司原始的目標客戶，也是MandrakeSoft原本服務的對象，而我們在世界各地也有廣泛的個別用戶。我們致力於服務這些客戶，也提供 新奇有趣的技術給這些使用者。我們透過零售商店、各處的散佈據點、電子通路、club、以及包括HP, Dell, IBM or NEC這些OEM大廠還有區域性使用族群如巴西的Positivo來傳遞我們的服務。這些商品包括了Free Mandriva, Discovery, PowerPack and PowerPack+，而最關鍵的服務當屬Mandriva On Line。近期而言，我們對這些使用者提供我們所寄予厚望的商品就是Mandriva One還有Mandriva Kiosk。我們盡力的在服務這些個別用戶。在Mandriva的團隊則是有一大部份專責於這些個別用戶在市場上包括技術、服務、行銷以及溝通。

About 3 years ago, we announced our decision to start developing a new business line for organizations (enterprises and government agencies). Thus we have put in place a new product line (Corporate Server and Corporate Desktop), we have put in place a consulting, training and support organization. We address this market essentially through our direct sales organization in France, Brazil and the US. We have announced for this market the new administration tool, Pulse and put in place our Corporate Club offer. We also offer specialized and embedded services.

大約三年前。我們宣佈將會開發一條負責組織機關的新事業線(企業或是政府機關)。因此我們投入了新的生產線(Corporate Server and Corporate Desktop)、諮詢服務、訓練服務以及組織機關的支援。我們公司主要是透過在法國、巴西以及美國的銷售事業部來傳遞這樣的服務。我們向市場宣稱了這個 新的管理工具，Pulse，並投入到Corporate Club的服務內容裡。我們也同時提供了特殊用途或是嵌入式的服務。

Is one of these targets being developed at the expense of the other? I don't think so, I believe on the contrary that they complement each other: they have some common r&d investment in the kernel and on hardware certification. We also find often that they feed each other: some individual users have learned about Mandriva from their enterprise and in many enterprise sales situations, we are meeting some of our individual users.

以上這些新事業目標的開發投入是否會犧牲到其他計劃的執行呢？我並不這麼認為。相反的，我認為這些計劃反而是互補的：它們在核心以及硬體的驗證上有著共通 的研發投入。我們也常發現這些事業計劃其實是對彼此互惠的：其實有許多使用者是透過事業機關或者相關的銷售平台來認識Mandriva的，我們也曾和這樣 的個別使用者有過接觸。

Is Mandriva going away from providing a free version of its products?

Mandriva會不會不再提供免費的產品呢？

There is continuous rumor that we want to depart from the open source model, that we want to charge for things that were free, that we want to drop individual customers. So let me restate what I have said many times: First, everything we develop and distribute is distributed under GPL. Second, we remain committed to provide a complete free distro (Free Mandriva and soon Mandriva One) and to make its update free.

關於我們公司將不再遵循開源碼模式、我們要把原先免費的產品開始以付費型態銷售、我們將放棄個人用戶的銷售開發之類的謠言一直不斷在流傳。就讓我在重新聲 明一次：第一，我們所開發以及發佈的任何產品都遵守著GPL的規範。第二，我們仍舊會提供完全免費的distro以及其update (Free Mandriva and soon Mandriva One)

However, and we've always been clear on this, we want to be profitable, so we need to generate revenues. We do this by providing, besides the free products some commercial products and some services that we charge for. As we provide more technology and products, we try to bring both more free stuff and more commercial stuff.

無論如何，有一點我們一直了然於胸的是我們必須要獲利，所以我們必須去開拓營收。我們由提供產品來獲利，除了免費的產品外，一些商業應用層面的商品以及服務都是獲利的來源。隨著我們創造越多的技術和產品，我們也嘗試著去提供更多免費的或有商業利潤的事物。

For instance, in the new Mandriva One + Kiosk offering, there is free stuff (Mandriva One) and stuff we will charge for, or make part of the Club (Kiosk). Look back at the three past years: we have never turned a free product or service into something we charge for. I'm not asking anyone to just take my word, I just say: please look at our track record.

以Mandriva One + Kiosk這項商品來說，它包含了免費的項目 (Mandriva One) 以及我們會索取費用的項目，又或者會成為Club(Kiosk)服務項目的一部分。回顧我們過去三年的情況，我們從未將一項本來是免費的商品或者是服務轉 成必須索取費用的。我並不是要求大家一定要相信我這番話，我想表達的是：請看看我們過去的紀錄吧。

People get the sense that some of your products are free, but that you want to charge for updates. Do you charge for updates?

很多人的觀念是你們某些產品是免費的，不過在update的部份是需要收費的。你們會對update收取費用嗎？

We do not: for Free Mandriva, Mandriva One, Discovery, Power Pack and Power Pack+, updates are freely available and provided by us. We provide on top of this Mandriva On Line, which is a service that makes the updates easier: an icon on your desktop gives you the status (green you're up to date, red you're not), when the icon is red, you can ask for update by a simple click. We charge 20€ annually for this service. What you pay is the ease of use, not the updates.

對於Free Mandriva, Mandriva One, Discovery, Power Pack and Power Pack+這幾個產品而言，我們提供update而且是不收費的。在這之上我們提供了Mandriva On Line，這是一項讓update變得更為容易的一項服務：在你的桌面上有個顯示狀態的圖示(綠色表示已是更新後的狀態，而紅色則相反)，當圖示呈現綠色 時，你可以輕鬆的透過點選來更新。對於這項服務我們每年收取20€。你所購買的是更新的便利性而並非更新本身。

What is Mandriva One?

什麼是Mandriva One?

Mandriva One is a Mandriva 2006-based distro, which holds on a single CD and which is both live and install. It's coming out any day now. It will first go to club members (because we like to give them an advance peek at things), then it will be free for all.

Mandriva One是一個 Mandriva 2006-based 的套件，它可以是個live CD也具有安裝的功能。這項產品即將問世了。它會先給會員下載(因為我們傾向給這些會員們嚐鮮)，之後便會開放給眾人免費下載。

What is Mandriva Kiosk?

什麼是Mandriva Kiosk?

We have found that non technical users find it difficult sometimes to install new products and new versions of products. So the Kiosk is a response to this. The Kiosk will have a library of Bundles (a bundle is a set of RPMs that make a consistent application) and downloading and installing a bundle is done in a single click. Kiosk will be available as a paid service and will be free for Club Members silver and above.

我們發現初學者對於安裝新軟體或是新版本的產品有時會感到不是那樣容易。Kiosk就是因應這些需求而生的。Kiosk將會有一套library用在 bundles (這裡指一組構成一穩固應用程序的RPMs*)，而下載這些軟體並安裝只需透過一個按鈕即可。Kiosk會是一項收費服務，而對於silver以上的 club會員會是免費的。
(* urpmi / gurpmi 的 advance 版嗎？)

Are you a company out to make profits?

你們是不是一個致力於營利的企業呢？

Yes absolutely; our goal is to be profitable and growing so that we can develop great products, provide great services, and pay our employees. There is however one important difference with an ordinary company: in a standard company, you have to keep happy your customers, your employees and your shareholders. We do this at Mandriva, but we also have to keep happy our contributors, the community and our “free” users.

這是毫無疑問的;我們的目標是成為一個賺錢的、壯大的公司使我們能夠創造出好的商品，提供好的服務，也付的出薪水給我們的員工。這其中和一般公司存在著一 點重要的差異：在一般的公司來說，你必須讓你的顧客、員工、股東們滿意。這一點在Mandriva也是一樣的，但是我們還需要讓那些對我們有幫助貢獻的 人、社群以及使用我們免費商品的使用者滿意。

Mozilla/Firefox & flash中文

往常安裝flash plugin在Mozilla/Firefox中，總是能夠正常顯示中文flash動畫，但是直接自網站下載的firefox瀏覽器搭配原來的plugin卻是沒辦法讓flash動畫正常顯示中文。

解決的方法：編輯firefox的script檔案，加入如下內容

export LC_ALL=zh_TW

一切就沒問題囉

[轉貼]另一種安裝顯示卡驅動程式的方法：dkms

==原為yochenhsieh發表於bbs.sayya.org==

dkms = Dynamic Kernel Module Support

以往若要安裝驅動程式，多半要從Ati或nVidia下載安裝
並且如果您更新了核心，就要再重裝一次(因為需要編譯模組)

dkms的好處是，安裝這種驅動程式可以完全使用urpmi完成
在PLF http://plf.zarb.org 的套件庫中就有
dkms-ati 與 ati-xorg 或
dkms-nvidia 與 nvidia-xorg 等套件
(較舊的nVidia晶片請用 dkms-nvidia_legacy 與 nvidia_legacy-xorg)
此外您還需要核心原始碼以及編譯模組需要的相關套件
安裝後，只要dkms這個服務有啟動(可從Mandriva控制中心檢查)
開機時就會自動編譯模組
就算您更新了核心也不需要自己處理驅動程式的問題

MDV2006 & GIMP

之前一直困擾的一個麻煩終於知道問題出在哪裡了。MDV2006中在個人的資料夾中多了幾個特別的資料夾，分別是影像、圖片、音樂、下載(應該沒記錯)， 如果把圖片檔案放在這幾個資料夾中，再用gimp開啟的話，第一次也許開的開，第二次就會馬上讓gimp當掉了。如果用終端機啟動的話會發現如下的錯誤訊 息：

Gimp-File-WARNING **: gimp_recent_item_set_uri: URI can't be converted to UTF-8

這樣的問題一旦發生，之後要在開啟放在其他資料夾中的jpg檔(不知道是不是只有影響到jpg檔，目前測試結果看起來是這樣)同樣會讓gimp立刻當掉，也就是原先可以開啟的jpg檔案，也無法開啟了。解決的方法如下：
1.避免將圖片檔案存放在這些資料夾中(這是廢話了)
2.如果非要放在這些資料夾中，那得作一些修改;先到家目錄中的 .mdk-folders 中逐一修改 *.desktop檔案(ex: pictures-mdk.desktop)，把裡面的 utf8 設定改作 zh_TW 就可以正常用 gimp開啟這些資料夾中的圖片(jpg)了
3.如果之前的錯誤已經發生了，還有一些動作要作，就是刪除家目錄下的 .recently-used 這個檔案

以上步驟完成後，同樣的issue就不會有了。