Mandriva Linux Community Newsletter #128

Welcome to the Mandriva Linux Community Newsletter - dedicated to keeping you up-to-date with the latest Mandriva-related news & info. The newsletter returns after a long break, with a slightly different format: we no longer have any servers with a sufficiently old copy of PHP to run the ancient, creaking script we used to use to generate the laid-out HTML version of the newsletter, so from now on it will simply be done with Wiki style tags instead. Sorry for the slightly less whizzy appearance. Moving right along!

Introduction

It has been, to your editor's shame, many months since the last issue of this newsletter, and far too much has happened at Mandriva in the mean time to cover it all in detail. This issue will take a broad overview of the most significant events of the last eight months. Following issues will (hopefully!) go back to being released more regularly, and covering events in the usual level of detail.

New releases

There have been two major Mandriva Linux releases since the last issue: Mandriva Linux 2008 and Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring. Both were well-received by both regular Mandriva users and the wider press, and many of you will have seen news stories and reviews about both releases. Significant features of the two releases included the introduction of Compiz Fusion and PulseAudio, a revised hardware detection system, a new consolidated network management tool, a new Windows migration tool, a new parental control tool, major improvements to the Mandriva package management tools, support for the popular Asus Eee line of ultra-portable systems, easy synchronization support for Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Nokia devices, and much more. You can read more about the most recent release, 2008 Spring, at the Wiki, and download it from the main site. The Powerpack edition is of course available from the Mandriva Store.

A new version of the popular Mandriva Flash, a full Mandriva Linux distribution on a USB key, was also released. The latest version is based on Mandriva Linux 2008, and comes on a much faster 4GB key than previous revisions. It, too, is available from the Mandriva Store.

Mandriva Club changes

A major change has been made to the operation of the Mandriva Club. Paid Club memberships are now no longer available. Club membership is available free to all, and with no different levels of membership. All Club features are now available to all members, with the exception of Powerpack download access, which has been split off into a separate service, called the Powerpack subscription. If you were previously a paying Club membership, you will have received an email explaining these changes, and your account will have been converted into a Powerpack subscription account. The Powerpack subscription is now available at a single flat rate price to all, and has no Club membership connotations attached: it's a simple download subscription service. It is, of course, available from the Mandriva Store. These changes were broadly welcomed as reducing the misperception of the Mandriva Club as a commercial exercise, and increasing the value of the Powerpack download service - we hope you agree!

Mandriva website overhaul

At the same time as the Club changes were introduced, the Mandriva website has been overhauled. The new design is intended to be simpler, more attractive, and easier to navigate. Particular attention was paid to making sure the most popular Mandriva products and downloads are emphasised, and making the free download editions of Mandriva prominent and easy to access.

One CD packs available from the Store

Several people have asked before if they could get professionally printed One CDs to distribute to friends or at local Linux events. We already provide packs of CDs to recognized community groups for events like the InstallFest, but we are now providing packs of CDs at a small price to cover the cost of duplication and printing from the Mandriva Store. You can buy the discs singly, in packs of ten, or in packs of thirty. The product pages can be found linked from the One page on the official site.

Partnerships

Mandriva recently formed a significant technical partnership with the Japanese distributor Turbolinux. The joint development effort that resulted from this partnership is known as Manbo Labs. It involves engineers from Mandriva and Turbolinux working together on maintaining the core components of the distributions, with the resulting packages shared between both products. Core packages such as the kernel and glibc are now maintained by this joint project, with the results already integrated into Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring. You can spot the packages now developed by Manbo Labs in Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring as their names have the suffix 'mnb' rather than the usual 'mdv'. Some commentators were worried that this partnership suggested some change in Mandriva's stance towards Microsoft's claimed software patents, as Turbolinux has some agreements with Microsoft regarding this kind of technology. However, this is not the case: nothing covered in the Manbo Labs agreement overlaps with any agreement between Turbolinux and Microsoft, and none of the work done by Manbo Labs relies on any kind of agreement or contract with Microsoft. Manbo Labs has so far been a great success in improving the resources available for the maintenance of core packages, and consequently in improving the quality of these packages, and we hope to continue and extend the arrangement in the future.

There have also been several new commercial partnerships. Exclusive partnerships have been formed with distributors in Israel, Lithuania, the Middle East, Denmark and Australia.

Major deals

Mandriva's status as an official operating system provider for Intel's Classmate PC has paid dividends in the form of a major deal with Nigeria to provide 17,000 Mandriva-powered Classmate PCs for a national educational project. Another major agreement was reached with the Angolan government for Mandriva to provide software, services, support and training for the country's attempt to introduce a national, open source-based information infrastructure. The Angolan project has now been in place and producing progress for several months.

Mandriva in the news

Of course, Mandriva has featured in many press stories since the last issue of this newsletter. Here's just a few of the most prominent. In January, the popular Distrowatch site visited Mandriva's head offices, writing up the experience in their weekly newsletter. Your editor had the pleasure of being interviewed by the leading Linux radio show, LugRadio. You can hear the interview in this episode of LugRadio, early on in the show. And of course, the new releases of Mandriva got their fair share of reviews.