If you happen to read Linux magazines that are not printed in the United States, you will recognize Mandrake and Conectiva as the names of two popular Linux distributions that have made large contributions to Linux and the Open Source movement.
Among other things, Mandrakesoft pioneered friendly installers and X Window system configuration utilities that do not require a PhD in Electrical Engineering. Similarly, Conectiva has a place in my heart forever for Synaptic, a graphical interface for system updates that has liberated thousands of aspiring Linux users from apt-get and associated xterms, all while working on an even friendlier Smart Update tool.
Shortly after announcing the merger of Mandrakesoft and Conectiva into Mandriva, the newly combined company released a transitional "limited edition" GNU/Linux distribution to bridge the gap between the two parent distributions. Mandriva Limited Edition 2005 may look a little different, but it's the same great Mandrakelinux desktop distribution that you're used to.
If anyone was wondering how you pronounce ‘Mandriva’, wonder no more! A Club member suggested I get Gael to do a recording of the pronounciation, in honour of the famous Linus soundbite on how to pronounce Linux, so for the record: this is how you do it.
It looks like the full Mandriva 2005 Limited Edition tree is available via FTP install from the mirrors. Good news for some, bad news for the expert list that is going to be flooded by questions on how to burn the entire tree to a CD :)
Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 10:50 AM CST Contributed by: Linegod
Following the recent new roadmap announcement, Mandriva (pronounced "Man-dree-vah"!) Linux Limited Edition 2005 is a transitional release between 10.1 Official and 2006 Official which will be released by the end of this year.
Limited Edition 2005 is the ideal product for Linux users who need the
most up-to-date and exciting features at the earliest opportunity,
without sacrificing stability and performance.
Mandriva Linux Limited Edition 2005 is immediately available for all Club members and contributors and provides:
- Linux kernel 2.6.11.6
- KDE 3.3.2 (with some backports from version 3.4, including
kpdf)
- GNOME 2.8.3
- Firefox 1.0.2
- GCC 3.4.3
- The GIMP 2.2
- Cdrecord 2.01.01a21 (with DVD+R dual-layer support)
- OpenOffice.org 1.1.4
- MySQL 4.1.11
- and many others!
Citing desires for both a "new identity" and an end to possible legal liability, Mandrakesoft changed its name to "Mandriva" last week, not long after announcing a merger with Conectiva and many details of a future product roadmap. But with some members of the Linux community unhappy about the changes, the newly combined company also plans to accommodate developers and power users with software releases outside yearly product releases, plus a new Web-based contest that will reward "Mandriva" evangelists with laptops and other prizes.
