Frenchman developer Jean-loup Gailly has quit MandrakeSoft after having some disagreements with John Corey and Henri Poole. Despite Gailly mentioned that the public "doesn't have to know all the internal stories about MandrakeSoft", he reckoned that Mandrake's American executives were misleading Mandrake's business. Read this in the exclusive interview he gave to OLinux.

OLinux: Can you tell us about your professional abilities and references?

Jean-loup Gailly : See http://gailly.net/cv/ (French) or http://gailly.net/cv/index-en.html (English).

OLinux: When exactly did you leave MandrakeSoft?

Gailly: At the beginning of April. The decision to leave was actually taken earlier.

OLinux: What are you doing since you made this decision?

Gailly: I am now Chief Software Architect at Vision IQ http://www.vision-iq.com .

OLinux: Why did you make this decision?

Gailly: Because of disagreements with John Corey and Henri Poole. I will not enter into the exact nature of the disagreements.

OLinux: Are you mad with some directors from Mandrake? If yes, why?

Gailly: I was glad for Mandrake when John Corey and Henri Poole left (I had left already). But I will not enter into the exact reasons, sorry.

OLinux: Would you reconsiderate your decision?

Gailly: I would not have left if John Corey and Henri Poole had left before me.

OLinux: Would you come back to work at Mandrake some time?

Gailly: I liked very much my job at Mandrake, but I have now started a new job that I like also. So I intend to be faithful to my new company.

OLinux: Is your departure from Mandrake related to the ongoing financial situation of the company?

Gailly: A part of my disagreements with Henri Poole and John Corey had to do with the way the company was managed and how the money was spent.

OLinux: What do you think about the current CEO, M. Jacques LeMarois? And about the current CTO, Fréderic Bastok?

Gailly: Jacques and Frederic, together with the third founder Gael Duval, are taking appropriate actions to make sure that Mandrake will succeed. I approve Jacques' decision concerning the former US executives.

OLinux: What do you think about the new Mandrake's donation page?

Gailly: This page was set up as a result of user requests. Many users want to pay Mandrake for the products and services provided (producing the Linux-Mandrake distribution and making the ISOs available by ftp costs money). But they prefer giving money directly rather than buying boxes they do not need since they download the product anyway. People who do not like the donation concept can of course continue to buy boxes, nobody is forcing them to use the donation page.

OLinux: Despite you do not handle with Linux anymore, how can you see the Open Source Market Crisis?

Gailly: Many very small Linux companies may have difficulties or even disappear. But the leaders such as RedHat and Mandrake are here to stay. Linux is getting more and more popular, and even Microsoft is starting to feel threatened, at least in the server market. There is a clear need for Linux products and services that companies such as Mandrake can provide.