Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris Archive

"It's not often that you see a desktop operating system aimed at power users. Usually an experienced user is expected to build the operating system from the command line ala FreeBSD, Gentoo, Debian, Slackware, or Linux From Scratch. Either of those options can take hours of research, config file hacking, and software downloading and installing. Mandriva Linux PowerPack Edition is quite a departure from both of those scenarios."

A controversy surrounding Lycoris (which got acquired by Mandriva) is brewing. Apparently, Rus Bayne, ex-vice president of sales at Lycoris, is trying to start up a new distribution-- but allegedly "ripping off" Lycoris along the way. Read the thread on Lycoris' community site and judge for yourself.

"This page describes the installation I did with the clubmember download dvd of Mandriva Linux 2006 Powerpack." And, "This page describes how I configure Mandriva on my systems." Maybe not for the advanced Linux users, but still very much interesting for the unexperienced Linux users among us.

"In accordance with its commitment to empowering users worldwide with the most innovative Linux operating system, Mandriva today released Mandriva 2006. The new version of the company's flagship product merges pioneer technologies from Conectiva and Lycoris, as well as spanning for the first time a one-year release cycle." Buy it from the Mandriva store, or wait until the download version is released. Update: Gael Duval, the founder of Mandriva, just notified me that Mandriva 2006 can be installed via ftp. Mirrors are here, choose "public ftp mirrors". CD images are not yet available.

Mandriva Linux 2006 RC2 has been released. You can read the release notes here, download locations are underneath the release notes. This will be the last RC before 2006 goes final.

While Dell recommends the use of Windows XP Professional, in France Dell and Mandriva have announced the availability of a Dell laptop preloaded with Mandriva Linux. This is the first time any Dell laptop with pre-installed Linux has been sold or supported by Dell. Previously, only Dell N-Series Precision Workstations with Red Hat Linux were available from Dell.

Mandriva Linux 2006 Beta 3 was quietly released on Tuesday. No mention of the release is as of yet posted at MandrivaLinux, but a 3 ISO set and a Mini CD are available for download. You can read the changelog, and there's also a review available (screenshots included).

The second beta of Mandriva Linux 2006 has been released. Read the release notes, and download it from one of the mirros listed on that same page. Update: screenshot gallery.

Read a long review titled "Mandrake Revisited: A Lycoris user revisits the OS he left years earlier". On a separate note, Linux Format issue 70 presents a Gaël Duval interview.

"In this article I describe my experience with Mandrake/Mandriva and try to explain why it suits a starter in Linux and is still a usefull distro when you get more experience." Note that ReviewLinux.com has adopted a very confusing way of browsing through the article: you need to use the tabs on top.

TuxMachines has a quick look at Mandriva Linux 2006 Beta 1. This beta has been quietly released over the weekend; DistroWatch lists the mirrors where you can download. You can see the full package list here, and a screenshot gallery here.

While none of this appears to be revolutionary now, the fact remains that Lycoris was the first to perfect the "desktop Linux" formula. Mandrakesoft, SUSE, Caldera and even please-use-windows Red Hat helped Linux greatly on its journey toward the consumer desktop, but it was Lycoris who perfected the formula for the first time."

TuxJournal interviews Mandriva's co-founder Gael Duval.

While some in the Linux community are scratching their heads over the latest acquisition by Mandriva, one prominent member has a notion what the French distribution company is doing, and wholeheartedly approves. Also, Mandriva has announced the release of its Multi Network Firewall (MNF), version 2.