Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris Archive

Kicking off the 2008 Spring development cycle in earnest, the first alpha is here. This alpha features X.org 7.3, KDE 3.5.8, KDE 4.0 RC2 (in /contrib), GNOME 2.21, kernel 2.6.24, OpenOffice.org 2.3, new NVIDIA and ATI proprietary drivers, PulseAudio by default and more. Read more at the Mandriva Club.

An update on the status of Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring development, including the publication of the release schedule and the technical specifications for this release. Highlights include PulseAudio, a switch to the fork of RPM that SUSE and Fedora are using, a parental control tool, mail import support for the Windows migration tool introduced in 2008, and automatic repository configuration via geoip.

"Mandriva Linux has a history of inconsistency; one release will be superb, and the next one will be so bug-ridden and feature-weak that it's unusable. The only commonality among all releases are the excellent system configuration tools, which have continued to evolve over the years to match an increasing level of complexity in the desktop software stack. True to form, Mandriva 2008.0 is an excellent release, following the terrible 2007.1, and the just as excellent 2007.0. Some of the important things that were dropped from the previous release (Cedega, LinDVD) are back, and some of the problems (huge K menu button, cluttered menus) have been mitigated."

The GNOME version of Mandriva Linux 2008 One has been released and is now available via BitTorrent or from the mirror sites. Featuring all the same new features as the other editions of Mandriva Linux 2008, with a fully up-to-date GNOME 2.20 desktop. In addition, another review of Mandriva 2008.

Mandriva Linux 2008 is now available for download on the official site (release announcement), and on the network of public mirror servers. 2008 includes all the latest software and enhancements over previous Mandriva releases. You will find KDE 3.5.7 and the new GNOME 2.20 already integrated, kernel 2.6.22.9 with fair scheduling support, OpenOffice.org 2.2.1, a 3D-accelerated desktop (Compiz Fusion and Metisse), Firefox 2.0.0.6, and much more. You can read about the new features of Mandriva Linux 2008 in depth in the Release Tour. The release notes contain important information on changes from previous releases. The errata will contain information on any future known issues and solutions for them.

"In less than two weeks time, six months after the great Mandriva 2007.1 Spring release, Mandriva 2008.0 will be ready and published. Currently, Release Candidate 2 is out, it's your last chance to test it and make sure everything is working before the final release! There were great ideas at the start of the development phase, and in in those six months that have passed, Mandriva has always been one of the most active projects on CIA.vc. This gives much hope for lots of improvements, so let's take a look at what can be expected from Mandriva 2008.0."

The first release candidate of Mandriva Linux 2008, codenamed Copernic, is now available. The release notes are available here. A guide to major new features (some of which are not yet implemented in this release candidate) is available here, and the detailed technical specifications are available here. This release candidate is available as a three CD or one DVD Free edition (containing no non-free software or drivers) for the x86-32 and x86-64 architectures, with a traditional installer, and as a mini-CD edition for both x86-32 and x86-64 architectures. A One combined live/install CD edition will be released in the near future (problems with unionfs prevented the One edition from being release at the same time as the other editions).

The second beta of Mandriva Linux 2008, codenamed Galilee, is now available. The release notes are available here. A guide to major new features (some of which are not yet implemented in this beta) is available here, and the detailed technical specifications are available here. This beta is available as a three CD or one DVD Free edition (containing no non-free software or drivers) for the x86-32 and x86-64 architectures, with a traditional installer. Future betas will be available in One live/install CD hybrid editions with proprietary drivers.

The PowerPack edition of Mandriva 2007 Spring is now available as a set of CDs. The files are available for immediate download for Standard members and above from the downloads section, either through BitTorrent (recommended) or through HTTP. Elsewhere, Ars Technica took a look at the Intel classmate PC running Mandriva Linux at aKademy 2007.

After the technical specifications were mostly finalized recently, a new page has been created on the Mandriva Wiki which gives a guide to the most interesting user-facing features that will be included in Mandriva Linux 2008, including the latest GNOME, KDE and kernel releases, Compiz Fusion, a new network management tool and more. Also available are the more in-depth technical specifications, and the development schedule providing the targeted dates for the various development releases and the final release.

Mandriva has made a formal statement of its position regarding the recent Microsoft deals by other Linux vendors. "Up to now, there has been absolutely no hard evidence from any of the FUD propagators that Linux and open source applications are in breach of any patents. So we think that, as in any democracy, people are innocent unless proven guilty and we can continue working in good faith. So we don't believe it is necessary for us to get protection from MS to do our job or to pay protection money to anyone."

A review of one month's use of Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring on a Toshiba Satellite 2410, by Sam Bailey: "For the last month (and a bit) I’ve been running Mandriva 2007.1 Spring PowerPack on my Toshiba Satellite 2410. To avoid people having to skip to the conclusion, I’m sticking with Mandriva Linux Spring on my laptop permanently!"

"Mandriva recently released its first distro of the year, dubbed Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring. Like previous releases, Spring is available in five editions, two of which can be freely downloaded. I installed and worked with the USD 76 Powerpack edition, which includes support and several gigabytes of packages. Not only does Powerpack score over other multiple CD/DVD free-of-cost distros, it also makes competing non-free distros eat dust."

Mayank Sharma from Linux.com tries Mandriva 2007 Spring on several machines. He finds the distro to be very stable, sporting a good package selection, just the documentation a bit sparse.