Mandriva Linux might not have the name recognition of Ubuntu, Fedora, or Red Hat. But the operating system has a pretty loyal following, and the folks behind Mandriva have been quite supportive of the netbook community, incorporating support for Intel Atom processors and small screens into their Linux distribution for almost as long as netbooks have been around. Last year Mandriva also launched a netbook-friendly version of the operating system using the Moblin Linux interface. The company also offers a light-weight “instant on” environment that you can boot in just 10 seconds.
Now it looks like the French company behind Mandriva Linux is for sale. It’s not clear what this means for the future of the platform, but I’d be surprised if it went away entirely. A few potential buyers have come forward, and odds are nobody would be silly enough to buy Mandriva only to kill the open source Linux distribution off.
via OS News
Mandriva is more recognizable under their old name, Mandrake, and was a pioneer in easy-to-use Linux, and still is to some degree. Ubuntu and the millions poured into it by it’s owner have garnered much of the spotlight these days, but Mandriva is actually a much better product, IMO. It also comes in either subscription based download or boxed retail form with legal codecs and a legal DVD application, for those that are concerned about that sort of thing. That’s something that’s lacking from the others.
Mandriva will hopefully survive and even get better and more popular. If all else, it could hopefully survive as a community distribution, much like Fedora.
Good Luck, Mandriva!
These are crucial times for this great OS
I preferred Mandriva, before that Mandrake Linux in my early days of Linux. It comes with a nice hardware info section and other tools that other even Ubuntu don’t. It is strong in Europe and I hope someone buys it.There are a number of Linux versions to choose from though and I don’t know if they can all survive. I personally consider Linux the best operating system available.There is a great feeling of freedom when using it.Windows 7 takes what, 16 gb to install? Ubuntu takes 2gb.