Mandriva

[rolf]

In the foundation mailing list, I think it's pretty clear that Mandriva SA has granted license for the use of Mandriva in the name of the foundation, Open Mandriva, and in no other form. Mandriva SA is divesting themselves of all control in this community fork of Mandriva. It is providing something in the way of hardware support such as servers, iianm, and Charles Schultz is being instrumental in, at least, facilitating the transition of this community identity from its past affiliation with Mandrake/Mandriva out to the world, on its own, a separate, independent entity, to do what it can.

There is also Kate Lebedeff, who is a consultant, paid by Mandriva, apparently, who is working on setting up this new community. So, I have faith in the good intentions of Mandriva SA, as they seem to be putting some money where their mouth is. Wait and see.

[viking60]

Well it is pretty official now that cooker is Rosa/Russian.

The main development for the Mandriva SA server is done by Mageia(Oh the irony ) That leaves the question: What is Mandriva SA developing?
As I understand it they cherry-pick here and there and improve or modify the software (It is Linux so it is OK - but what are they giving back?).
Mageia has a forum, Rosa has a forum, and MiB have a forum. On which distro is the OpenMandriva forum going to be based, now that the Mandriva cooker has become the Rosa cooker?
What will the new Mandriva forum be about?

[jkerr82508]

Mandriva SA will continue to develop its enterprise products:
http://www.mandriva.com/en/pro/
Those are all open source and so are available to anyone to use. Mandriva SA presumably hopes to derive revenue from selling support - much the same way that Red Hat does with RHEL.

Mandriva SA is paying Oden Erikson to work part time on Mageia and, as Rolf explained, is paying a number of people to work on setting up OpenMandriva as well as contributing hardware and a limited right to use the Mandriva name.

It seems to me that Mandriva SA is "giving back" as much as can reasonably be expected.

The "plan " as I understand it, is that OpenMandriva, Rosa, Unity, and perhaps others, will use cooker as a common base. OpenMandriva will have its own build system, repositories etc. and release its own variant of linux. I don't have the technical knowledge to understand if or how this can be done.

The apparent dominant influence of Rosa on development raises doubts in my mind about how "independent" the OpenMandriva foundation will actually be. I have had suspicions for some time about the real motives of some of the people involved - but then I'm just an old cynic.

Jim

[viking60]

Thanks for great info - as always. The build system is the very reason why they all are moving to Rosa AFAICT. I tried to build a Gnome version with Unity and that was not possible anymore due to the outdated Mandriva build system (I really like the Unity concept). "Everybody" is going for the Rosa build system these days.
So I would be surprised if Mandriva go on with another build system - one the community is not using.
But you delivered breaking news (to me) regarding Oden Erikson and there they do not use the ROSA build system so

I am still a bit confused...

[jkerr82508]

So far as I understand the plan, OpenMandriva will use ABF (the Rosa build system) but will run a separate instance on their own server. The present arrangement where cooker is hosted by Rosa may be just temporary, but frankly, I'm probably more confused than anyone.

Jim

[dedanna1029]

Wow. Are they still selling Powerpack? http://www.mandriva.com/en/linux/which/

[viking60]

I am not sure how the Powerpack for 2011 works - I suspect that Mandriva should not sell it if they want to build a reputation. But I have not tested it so I dunno

[dedanna1029]

I'm tempted, when I get $s in again, to see what's happening with it, if, in fact, they still have it on that page.

[jkerr82508]

Keep in mind that 2011 EOL is 28th February 2013 - just a couple of months away.

Jim

[dedanna1029]

Well, yeah, that's why I say, if the link is still there at that page. Who knows, they may decide to do 2012, or 2013, whatever.

[rolf]

Papers, incorporation, Open Mandriva is a legal entity, now.

Mandriva S.A welcomes the OpenMandriva Association

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Charles Schulz

2013 has started well with the news of the official incorporation of the OpenMandriva Association. The OpenMandriva Association is the France-based legal entity that has been founded and created by the community and for the community to further the development of the former Mandriva Linux distribution. Mandriva S.A is pleased by these news, and welcomes the OpenMandriva Association as a partner it will work with in a mutually beneficial way...

[viking60]

So now the Community is truly free! Both of us/them
I have never truly understood the need for that paperwork. If you want to start an un-independent community from Mandriva SA; can you not simply start a forum and write "go Mandriva"?

It does make sense though if this community is to be a partner with Mandriva SA.... But for that we need a distro.... preferably a Mandriva distro.
What we have is Rosa

Ah this is to much for a simple magazine reader
I wish them the best of luck though - Mandriva should stay arround!