FreeSoftNews

Interviewers: Scott Swigart and Sean Campbell

Interviewee: Helio Chissini de Castro

In this interview we talk with Helio Chissini de Castro. In specific, we talk about:

* The open source environment in Brazil
* The strengths of Mandriva Linux
* Organization and maintenance of Mandriva
* The future of open source software in Latin America

Sean Campbell: Can you tell us a little bit about your background, both with open source and outside of that?

Helio Chissini de Castro: Sure. I started in open source 10 years ago, when I finished university in a computer science major. I joined a company that works on desktop development called Choose, which works with ILOG tools. They work on Windows and UNIX C++ software, and they really have nothing to do with Linux and open source at all.

Read more at How Software is Built

Mandriva and Precedent Technologies (”PTech”), announce a new partnership, working together on the release in September in the United States of a new low-cost desktop, with Intel Atom CPUs and Mandriva Linux preinstalled on these machines.

Since signing their agreement, Mandriva, the leading European editor of Linux distributions, and Precedent Technologies, full service I.T solution provider, have been working together on a new low-cost PC called: TechSurfer.

Precedent Technologies (”PTech”) is a full service I.T solution provider, and offers customers a full spectrum of I.T Solutions. PTech manufactures Notebooks, PCs, Workstations and Servers. PTech is based out of Stockbridge, Georgia.

The agreement enables Mandriva and Precedent Technologies to form a strategic partnership to pursue Linux solutions to address new customers.

«Precedent Technologies has anxiously awaited an opportunity to enter the low-cost PC marketplace. We were hesitant to make this move because we wanted to ensure each system we produce provides value and performance, as well as quality. The existing offerings in the system builder channel were not adequate for our standards. We did not want to produce a product that came with less than our standard 3-year warranty. Now, we have finally put the right mix together to deliver a high quality, low-cost PC for web-centric computer users. This doesn’t only mark the launch of our first low-cost Pc. But this is also our leap into the open-source operating system community. The Mandriva product is extremely well constructed and will give our users a great computer experience. The team at Mandriva is excellent and very hands-on. We are so excited to work with them. Our existing relationship with Intel Corporation has always been wonderful. With the release of the Intel Atom processor, we are confident that we can deliver a product that is the best of many worlds: performance, low cost, and quality,» declared Patrick F. Carley, CEO Precedent Technologies (”PTech”).

• Read more: Mandriva and Precedent Technologies work together to offer a new low cost desktop: TechSurfer

Yes, today - July 23rd, 2008 - is the tenth anniversary of the release of Linux-Mandrake 5.1, the very first public release of what is now Mandriva Linux. It was versioned 5.1 as it was a fork of Red Hat 5.1 (it was more or less RH 5.1 with KDE 1.0 added).

Here is the original announcement in English, and here is the original thread, in French, from the fr.comp.os.linux usenet group. History will record that the very first comment on Linux-Mandrake was someone complaining that something wasn’t packaged (xemacs) - so some thing never change…:)

I did look for a usenet thread in English, but couldn’t find one. Looks like the French one is all there was.

(We celebrated the anniversary of Mandriva itself earlier in the year - in May - but today is the birthday of Mandriva Linux, the distribution).

Lately it’s hard to avoid the buzz about netbooks - the small, cheap laptop systems that were popularized by the Asus Eee PC (which, of course, Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring supports very well). Many in the community have asked if Mandriva is going to get directly involved in this market. Well, the answer is yes! Mandriva is providing the innovative operating system for the upcoming Gdium netbook system, produced by Emtec.

Read more at look to pictures at Mandriva Club

Many Mandriva Linux Community members have ben asking Mandriva to
provide a way to get One CDs. This is now possible through Mandriva
Store, you will be delivered within 2 or 3 days. A good way to spread
your favourite distribution in Linux parties or among your friends!

Our packs: 1 CD, 10 CDs or 30 CDs
Click here: http://www.mandriva.com/en/product/mandriva-linux-one

Because you also like to spread the friendly face of your favourite
distribution and its community, we have also added Mandriva Linux
stickers on Mandriva Store.

Stickers: 10 sets, 30 sets or 50 sets
Click here to get your stickers: http://store.mandriva.com/?cPath=63

The Mandriva Online team.

This is sort of a first impressions report on both Mandriva Linux 2009.0 Alpha 2 and a bit of a report on what I’ve discovered about KDE 4 (4.1). I down loaded the iso for Mandriva Linux 2009.0 after going to http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/2009.0_Alpha_2, and selecting from one of the mirrors.

I’m currently running Mandriva Linux 2009.0 Live CD on a Virtual Box virtual machine on my laptop, I’ve assigned it 1 Gig of RAM and 32 Meg for the video. Mandriva 2009.0 Alpha 2 seems to be remarkably stable.

Mandriva 2009.0 Alpha 2 comes with KDE4 (4.1). Mandriva seem to have listened to the complaints about the new Kickoff menu and have configured the Classic Menu by default, I personally think this was a good decision.

Read more at LXer

The second alpha for Mandriva Linux 2009 is now available. There is information about the new release in various places:

• Mandriva Linux 2009 release notes: these will be updated to reflect the status of the current pre-release.
• Mandriva Linux 2009 Errata: these will be updated to reflect the status of the current pre-release.
• A guide to some major new features of Mandriva Linux 2009
• The release schedule and technical specifications for Mandriva Linux 2009: all of these may not be implemented.

Read more at Mandriva Wiki

Well, since I’ve gone through both Ubuntu and openSuSE Linux, and my curiosity about Unix systems in general has really started to kick in, I’ve decided to go through a few more variants to see what they are like, how they load on my laptops, and whether I might prefer one of them over my current favorite (Ubuntu). I might end up regretting this decision, but I assume there will be plenty of adventure and frustration along the way, and perhaps some learning and enlightenment.

Read more at ZDNet

Last fall when the two mega-distros openSUSE and Mandriva both hit the mirrors, it was difficult to decide which I liked better. In an attempt to narrow it down, I ran some light-hearted tests and found Mandriva won out in a side-by-side comparison. But things change rapidly in the Linux world and I wondered how a competition of the newest releases would come out. Mandriva 2008.1 was released this past April and openSUSE 11.0 was released just last week.

My history with Mandriva goes back eight years. It was the first Linux distribution I was able to make work and paved my way to freedom. openSUSE swept me off my feet when 10.0 was in development and I’ve followed it closely since. I like both of these distros very much and as this article will show, it is very difficult to pick a favorite. But lets try:

Read more at tuxmachines.org

Mandriva is offering you three months of Powerpack subscription for
free. From Monday, June 23rd to Monday, June 30th you can benefit from
a special 25% discount - like receiving the first three months free -
off the annual Powerpack subscription price. This special offer is also
valid for subscription renewals.

The Powerpack subscription gives you unlimited access to download the
Powerpack commercial edition of the most recent Mandriva Linux releases
for one year. The Powerpack edition of Mandriva Linux comes with
exclusive commercial software, such as the Cedega Windows gaming
compatibility system and Fluendo media codecs. Your Powerpack
subscription also comes with bonus access to several courses on the
Mandriva e-Training system. Finally you will be able to increase benefit
of Linux desktop experience using Mandriva dedicated web support.

If you are already a Powerpack subscriber this is an opportunity
for you to renew your membership while receiving three months free. You
don’t lose any time by renewing before your subscription expires - the
additional twelve months will be added from the current ending date
of your subscription.

Click here to get 3 months for free!
http://store.mandriva.com/product_info.php?products_id=73

To benefit from the special discount please enter the following
promotion code while subscribing: “PCS-CL0508″.

The Mandriva Online Team

Manage your acccount :
https://my.mandriva.com/newsletter/

Mandriva Linux 2009 comes a step closer to reality today with the unveiling of the release schedule and the technical specifications. All this information can be found on the Mandriva Linux 2009 Development page on the Mandriva Wiki. The schedule includes two alphas, two betas, and two release candidates, prior to the final release in early October 2008. The first alpha release is scheduled for June 25th - just a week away. The technical specifications are based on input from both the community and Mandriva staff, with each item assigned to a specific maintainer and given a priority level. Some of the more significant items include:

* Improved boot time
* Optional automatic removal of ‘orphans’ (no longer required packages) in the package management tools
* The use of the increasingly popular and fast-maturing PackageKit and PolicyKit technologies
* Improvements to the Mandriva Windows migration and parental control tools
* A live distribution upgrade mode for MandrivaUpdate
* A new design for the installer
* Migration to KDE 4, OpenOffice.org 3, and Firefox 3

There’s many more planned additions too, so take a look through the specifications for yourself to see what you might be finding when the final Mandriva Linux 2009 is available this October!

Last week we released Phoronix Test Suite 1.0 and one of the article requests we received as a result was to do a side-by-side comparison between the popular desktop Linux distributions. Ask and you shall receive. Today we have up 28 test results from Ubuntu 8.04, Fedora 9, and Mandriva 2008.1.

Read more at Phoronix

Mandriva just celebrated its Tenth Anniversary, both as a company and as a distribution. “The Mandriva community celebrated in style over the last weekend in May, with a party in the Eiffel Tower in Paris attended by many staff, former staff, community members and partners. There was also an - indoor - picnic, and the now-traditional Dance Dance Revolution party.”

Read more at LWN.net

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!

Read more at Mandriva

Subject : Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring is now shipping!

The ultimate in Linux is closer than ever. Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring boxes
are now shipping! Those who pre-ordered their copy will have it delivered in
a couple of days.

Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring: 10 years of innovation!

• Read more: Subject : Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring is now shipping!

We tested openSUSE, Ubuntu 8.4, PCLinuxOS, Mandriva Linux One, Fedora, SimplyMEPIS, and CentOS 5.1. All performed well, and each had at least one truly outstanding feature.

In the last couple of years, desktop-friendly Linux distributions have taken enormous leaps — they’re easier to install, better maintained, and more powerful than ever before. There’s also that many more of them — which means that many more possibilities to sift through.

In this roundup I’ve looked at seven Linux distributions, all mainly aimed at desktop users. Some ought to be household names; some are less widely sung but still worth looking at. All are meant to be top-of-the-line, “throw-and-go” distros for general use, so I paid careful attention to how they behaved on a fairly broad range of hardware — how display, networking, or other default configurations were set to behave both out of the box and after an update (if one was available).

Each of these distributions was installed on five machines:
Read more at InformationWeek

Get two Mandriva Linux releases at an exceptional price!

Mandriva has just launched its 2008 Spring version and many Mandriva Linux
users have purchased the Powerpack download version. Today many users ask
themselves what is the advantage of the Powerpack subscription offer.

http://store.mandriva.com/product_info.php?products_id=73

We may wonder, what is the difference between the Powerpack Subscription and
the Powerpack download, box and DVD versions?

• Read more: Get two Mandriva Linux releases at an exceptional price!

Worldwide 2008 Mandriva Linux Spring Installfest

Mandriva rallies the community of Linux users in many cities across the globe on June, the 14th, 2008.

In order to bring Linux to new users and present the new features and technologies available in Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring, Mandriva is mobilizing its network of Linux User Groups (LUGs) to coordinate a worldwide Installfest on June, 14th , 2008.

Installations of Mandriva Linux One and Free will take place all around the world, thanks to the Linux community. Major participating locations will include the United States, China, Poland, Argentina and France. Expert Mandriva Linux users are invited to assist beginners to help them get started with the operating system. Participants will be able to:

• Read more: Worldwide 2008 Mandriva Linux Spring Installfest

USB Key Linux distributions seem to be the craze at the moment.  With sites like pendrivelinux.com giving Linux users detailed instructions on how to install their favorite Linux distribution to a USB key one might think that there is no need for a commercial Linux distriobution to offer up a USB key.  Well,  Mandriva Linux has done just that for sometime now.  Starting with their 2 gig USB release and now with their latest release of Mandriva Flash 2008 on a 4 gig USB key.

The Mandriva Flash 2008 4 gig USB Key is bundled on a Dane-Elec USB Key.  It’s sturdy construction and proven reliability makes Dane-Elec a good chioce for Mandriva to place their OS on.

Bootup

With any USB Key Linux distribution you must make sure that your computer can boot from a USB port.  Our Intel based motherboard had the proper BIOS settings to allow this function to happen.  But,  Mandriva is one step ahead of us as usual and on the USB Key they have place a boot.iso which is a small sized ISO image that will allow one to boot from a computer that may not have the ability to boot from a USB port.  This is a great feature and small enough ISO image to be placed on a business card sized CDR.  For my purpose of review I was able to boot from USB port but I did test the boot.iso and had no problems booting into the Mandriva Flash 2008 OS.

Read more at Review Linux