Category: Mandriva
News regarding the fate of Mandriva has not been coming hard and fast despite the failing fortunes of this once popular Linux distribution. However, a recent corporate blog post by current Mandriva COO Jean-Manuel Croset reveals the uncertain future of Mandriva Linux. The COO humbly requested for a response from the Mandriva community, citing the the community@mandriva.com address as a contact point. The comments to the post swung from harsh and hardly constructive to sincere support and wistful regret. A lot of the comments came from jaded Linux users disappointed with recent releases of Mandriva.
What was striking for me was how the negative comments revealed just how fractured and how fragmented Linux users are. There was hardly any indication that all of the readers were part of the same Linux community. On the contrary, the comments seem to come from the Mageia Community, Fedora Community, and x-Community. It sucks that there were a few who attacked the COO and Mandriva's missteps. However, it was also heartening to see the amount of nostalgia and respect shown by a few regarding Mandriva OS.
Mr. Croset cited three main points to focus on when responding to his post and I'll be focusing on those three. My personal response to Mr. Jean-Manual Croset are as follows:
1. Who is in the community and want to (re)invest his time in the future and especially the distribution?
I'm a Linux desktop user and wrote a few tutorials on Mandriva releases on my blog and at the Mandriva wiki site.
2. What interests you in the Mandriva Linux distribution, from a technical and human point of view?
Although there are now plenty of Linux distributions available today with excellent features and strong development, there is something to be said about Mandriva's pedigree and overall reputation. Mandriva has an established history and name. Non-Linux users aren't familiar with the name "openSUSE" but may light up at the mention of Mandriva. Aside from the intangible benefits offered by Mandriva, Mandriva is still one of the more sturdy distributions representing the best of Linux's hardware compatibility, usability, and flexibility. Mandriva is friendly without sacrificing functionality. The Mandriva Linux Control Center is still one of the more friendly interfaces for using and configuring a Linux distribution. openSUSE's Yast can be intimidating while Fedora users are expected to know which packages to install to have complete control over their system. Ubuntu did away with any functional center altogether as to not discourage users.
Mandriva is a great distribution for casual use and entertainment. It's also a great release for hobbyists and users who want to give Linux a try. Customized and configured correctly, it can be used to power a home network for daily use.
3. How would you like to get involved in the development of the distribution, in which form?
I can contribute as a hardware tester and technical writer for documentations.
With plenty of Linux distributions out there, does Mandriva Linux have a place in the pantheon of Linux? Definitely. Is it still a product that would serve as a commercial product? In this financial climate and rampant software piracy, probably not. I would understand if Mandriva would step back and let the distribution go. There really is no shame or love lost. As evidenced by the reaction from the Linux community, there are plenty of people of out there who will always remember and respect the glory days of Mandriva Linux.
0 comments:
Post a Comment