Three Mandriva 2006 Linux Editions Come to Market

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Having acquired rival Linux distributors Conectiva and Lycoris, Mandriva, formerly known as Mandrakesoft, is working hard to become the third big name in commercial Linux. There are a lot of other Linux distros who want to do the same thing, which is be known as a viable alternative to Red Hat and Novell, but unless the Debian Linuxes merge to create one giant distro, then Mandriva is probably best positioned to become a serious enterprise Linux contender.

Mandriva has spent a relatively large amount of money to acquire Conectiva and Lycoris to get to its number three status, and by and large the stock markets of the world that trade in its shares have responded favorably to the moves that Mandriva has made in the past year. A year ago, after Mandrakesoft emerged from the French equivalent of bankruptcy, its shares were trading on the Euronext market at around 6 euros a pop. Early in 2005, the company's shares crested above 8 euros a share, and then began a general downward trend as Mandrakesoft acquired Brazilian Linux distributor Conectiva in late February for 1.79 million euros, and then bought desktop Linux specialist Lycoris for an undisclosed amount in June. In its prior fiscal year, Mandrakesoft had 5.2 million euros in sales, so that spending was pretty large. Largely because of the uncertainty surrounding these deals--which make perfect sense from a marketing and technical perspective--the company's stock is once again trading down at around 6 euros a share. This includes a recent rebounding of its share price as it became evident that Mandriva was going to be able to get a converged Linux out the door this year that included the best of its three Linux distributions. At this point, Mandriva has a market capitalization of just under 35 million euros (about $42 million), which probably means that any company considering acquiring Mandriva will probably need somewhere from $50 to $60 million. Considering that Mandrakesoft was bankrupt two years ago, this is quite remarkable.

It seems unlikely, of course, that anyone will buy Mandriva, and the company is inclined to offer its own unique packaging, services, and support for enterprise-class Linux. The company didn't spend millions of euros acquiring Linux distros to make itself more attractive to a prospective buyer, but to make a run at the enterprise Linux market from a slightly different angle.

As has been the case in the past, Mandriva is delivering its latest Linux in three different versions: an entry desktop, a power desktop, and a beefier version of the power desktop version that also includes Linux server features. All three versions are based on the Linux 2.6.12 kernel, the xorg-x11 6.9 graphics library, and the GCC glibc 2.3.5 compiler. All three versions have improved support for Intel's Centrino wireless-enabled CPUs as well as the embedded graphics cards from nVidia and ATI that are used in popular laptops these days. Mandriva 2006 includes the most recent Java Virtual Machine as well. Mandriva has also weaved the Kat desktop search tool and an interactive, real-time firewall into its Linux with the 2006 edition.

Mandriva 2006 Discovery/Lx is merges the Mandriva distribution with the Lycoris desktop, which attempts to give Linux a look and feel that is closer to Windows XP than the standard Gnome or KDE graphical user interface does. Lycoris, you will remember, was founded in 2000 by Joseph Cheek, a former employee of the former Linuxcare and also of Microsoft who created a distro called Redmond Linux and based his company down the road from Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Lycoris, which is the Latin name for the Spider Lily, was one of the better desktop Linux implementations and was also noteworthy as a pioneer in the creation of Linux for tablet PCs and pocket PCs. It also had a simple means of adding and removing applications from the Linux stack. Lycoris also took over the SME Server project in late 2004 and was preparing to take a run at the server market, but eventually Mandriva's top brass convinced Cheek to sell his company to them and to join Mandriva to spearhead the development of a converged desktop Linux, of which Mandriva 2006 Discovery/Lx is the first example.

The Discovery/Lx, which is targeted at Linux beginners and that means, for the most part Windows users, comes in both a 32-bit X86 version and a 64-bit X64 version. It comes on a set of three CDs for each version, plus a LiveCD version for customers who want to run their Linux from the CD drive without installing it on their machine before they make a commitment to partition their disk drive.

Discovery/Lx uses the KDE 3.4 graphical user interface as it was modified to look like Windows XP, and also includes the OpenOffice 1.1.5 office suite, the FireFox 1.0.6 browser, the Adobe 7.0 reader, the RealPlayer 10.0 media player, and the Flash Player 7 flash player. Discovery/Lx includes the Kontact contact management and Kopete instant messaging client, and also includes the Quanta+ Web development tool, the GnuCash money management program, the Amarok and Kaffeine media players, the GIMP graphics tool, the Mindawn iTunes player, the K3B CD burning software, and the Ark zip program. The Opera browser is also included, as is an open source Skype VOIP client called Kype, which allows any user to make free calls to anyone with a Skype VOIP. (There are over 1,800 applications on the Discovery/Lx CDs.)

Mandriva says it has also improved support for WiFi networks, allowing seamless roaming between wireless networks. (Wireless network support has been a problem for all Linux distros in the past year, but they are all getting better.) Discovery/Lx comes with 30 days of Web-based tech support, a one-month subscription to the silver level of membership in the Mandriva Club online Linux community (with a coupon for a 25 percent discount on a year's subscription in the box), and a one-month subscription to the Mandriva Online patch and software updating service. Discovery/Lx comes in English and French versions, and costs 44.90 euros.

The Mandriva 2006 PowerPack version is based on Conectiva technology and is a more full-featured desktop environment that also includes 4,000 applications and some basic server functions. It offers the KDE 3.4 and Gnome 2.10 graphical interfaces and all of the same basic features as the Discovery/Lx version described about except that it also includes the beta of OpenOffice.org 2.0. Mandriva 2006 PowerPack is only distributed on DVD media (but is also, like Discovery/Lx, available through an electronic download). It also includes a full set of open-source development tools, which Discovery/Lx does not have.

This version of Mandriva 2006 comes with 60 days of Web-based tech support, a one-month subscription to the silver level of membership in the Mandriva Club online Linux community (also with a coupon for a 25 percent discount on a year's subscription in the box), and a one-month subscription to the Mandriva Online patch and software updating service. Mandriva 2006 PowerPack comes in English and French versions, plus a version called "international," which probably means Spanish and Portuguese but maybe not; it costs 79.90 euros.

Mandriva 2006 PowerPack+ is the power desktop and server implementation of the converged Mandrakesoft-Conectiva Linux that builds on the PowerPack edition by adding server functions. It comes with 90 days of Web-based tech support, one month of gold level membership in the Mandriva Club online Linux community (also with a coupon for a 25 percent discount on a year's subscription in the box), and a three-month subscription to the Mandriva Online patch and software updating service. It includes over 4,500 applications on a DVD or seven CD set. This version comes in English and French and costs 199 euros.

Presumably Spanish, Portuguese, and other Romance language support is coming from Mandriva in the short term. The three versions of Mandriva 2006 will begin shipping at the end of October, but the company is beginning to take orders for it now.