The boys and girls in the Mandriva team have released Mandriva Linux 2010.0. This new Mandriva release obviously brings the latest and greatest from the open source and Linux communities, including the latest KDE and GNOME releases. Among other things, boot time has been a priority.Mandriva Linux 2010.0 comes with KDE 4.3.2, GNOME 2.28, OpenOffice 3.1.1, and Mozilla Firefox 3.5. The kernel is at version 2.6.31 in Mandriva 2010.0, and of course comes with a set of patches "to make sure it's tailored to the distribution".
The bootsplash is now managed by Plymouth, which brings kernel mode-setting to Mandriva's boot process without breaking compatibility with chips that do no yet support kernel mode-setting (by using the VESA framebuffer). It's also easier to customise than Splashy, and has a simple script language for easy theme creation.
Two new graphical environments have been added to Mandriva as well. Moblin has bene included and is completely integrated; you can use it by installing the task-moblin package. The Sugar desktop is is available too by installing the task-sugar package. Of note is that KDE3 has been deprecated entirely, and is no longer available.
You can download Mandriva Linux 2010.0 One or Free, or order the PowerPack.
