Advertising in Mandrake Linux 9.2 Edition

**mcdougrs** · 09-12-2003, 04:01 PM

With millions of downloads and sales every year, Mandrakesoft products are among the most popular Linux solutions available. You now have the opportunity to dramatically increase your visibility with a new advertising tool. Flexible, targetted and benefiting from Mandrake Linux's wordwide visibility, this new advertising opportunity is designed for our partners exclusively.

Read Full Story Here

It sounds like a good way to make money, but also a good way to annoy people too!

**stryder144** · 09-14-2003, 01:03 PM

At first it seemed a little invasive. But, after reading their partnership info, it doesn't seem too bad. Seems they prefer to have partners who are technology companies, Linux related if possible. I guess it is inevitable that this area will be exploited to keep people from going under financially. Not a bad idea, really. This is an area that is virtually untapped. Plus, I pretty much ignore the messages that I see during the installation of just about all software. So, I'm not too worried about that. Plus, with a little bit of work, I'm sure you can replace whatever ad-supported browser that comes with Mandy and put in your own favorite, non-adware browser that you prefer. Not a high price to pay in order to support a great distro.

Cheers

**Tyr_7BE** · 09-14-2003, 02:22 PM

It'll probably save the company, but at what cost...

**stryder144** · 09-14-2003, 02:41 PM

[quote author=Tyr_7BE link=board=19;threadid=7720;start=0#msg70564 date=1063549349]
It'll probably save the company, but at what cost...
[/quote]

That remains to be seen either way, unfortunately. I wish Mandy well, but am rather pessimistic, overall. Which is quite unfortunate, for Mandy 7.1 was the first distro that really got me hooked on Linux. I'm even going to be giving 9.1 a shot later today (if I like it I will buy a boxed set of it).

Cheers

**demian** · 09-14-2003, 08:28 PM

I don't see a problem with this at all. They they there's gonna be advertisments during installation procedure. Certain pre-defined bookmarks and default browser pages. Now you can't do much about ads during installation but the bookmarks are easily deleted and the default browser page can be changed to anything you like just as quickly (unless they think about hacking the browser source).

**mcdougrs** · 09-16-2003, 12:43 PM

I hadn't even thought that they would just change the default startup page... I just assumed they would hard code the default page into the source. But just changing the default start page in the preferences would be so much nicer. Even if they do change the code like some one said before installing a new browser would fix that!

**demian** · 09-17-2003, 10:49 PM

Mandrake realeased this statement and it doesn't even mention changing the default start page. They seem to be down to ads during installation and bookmarks. Seems fair to me.

**stryder144** · 09-18-2003, 09:51 AM

[quote author=demian link=board=19;threadid=7720;start=0#msg70777 date=1063838952]
Mandrake realeased this statement and it doesn't even mention changing the default start page. They seem to be down to ads during installation and bookmarks. Seems fair to me.
[/quote]

I would say that that is more than fair, actually. Since the cost to download and burn their great product is minimal at best, it only seems fair to me that they should be able to get some kind of monetary benefit. This decision says to me that they are trying really hard to play nice with the community while also trying to remain financially afloat. Considering their past financial problems, I'm surprised that they haven't gone to Libranet's model of providing only the iso's that are a generation or so behind. When I get back to America I'm going to try to hunt down a boxed Mandy set at Walmart. That way I can pay them back for such a great distro.

Cheers