By Rachel Chalmers
Controversial pre-IPO company LinuxOne Inc has lost its only reputable business partner from within the Linux community. MandrakeSoft, the publisher of the Linux-Mandrake distribution, says it has cut its ties with the Mountain View, California-based start-up. We were still in discussions with them to help us in China, MandrakeSoft’s Jacques LaMarois told ComputerWire in an email. Once they started their curious IPO, we stopped any relationship with them and continued to work with our other business partners in China. Robert Philips, a spokesperson for LinuxOne, agreed that his company had had a relationship with MandrakeSoft. When told of LaMarois’ comments, he added: [The relationship] hasn’t been really active. For that, I’d have to ask [LinuxOne president] Dr Chiou. Dr Chiou was traveling and unavailable for comment.
To many insiders, LinuxOne’s September 22 S1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission raised more questions that it answered (CI No 3,787). In particular, observers wanted to know why the company has no underwriters and why its Linux distribution is almost indistinguishable from that of Red Hat Inc. I don’t want to see my company tarred with their brush, said prominent Linux developer Bruce Perens at the time. I’ve been trying to point out to investors and the press, ‘Hey this doesn’t seem right.’ As well as being the impetus for LinuxOne’s first press release, the partnership with MandrakeSoft was LinuxOne’s chief claim to respectability. Now, it seems, that partnership is over.
