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Mandriva

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This article is about the company. For the Linux distribution produced by this company, see Mandriva Linux.
Mandriva S.A.
Company typeSociété Anonyme
Euronext: MLMAN
Grey Market: MDKFF
IndustrySoftware industry
Founded1998 (MandrakeSoft)
1995 (Conectiva)
HeadquartersParis, France
ProductsMandriva Linux
Websitewww.mandriva.com

Mandriva S.A. is a publicly traded Linux and open source software company with its headquarters in Paris, France and development centers in Metz, France[1] and Curitiba, Brazil. Mandriva, S.A. is the creator and maintainer of Mandriva Linux, describing itself as a "project initiator and a skills organizer in the Open Source arena", and a founding member of the Desktop Linux Consortium and other enterprise software such as Pulse and MBS.

History

Mandriva, S.A. began as MandrakeSoft in 1998.[2] It currently has about 70 employees (45 of whom are engineers) and has offices in France, the USA, and Brazil.[3][4] The company sells its products in more than 140 countries and estimates the number of Mandriva Linux users to be approximately 5 million, according to mandriva.com website.

MandrakeSoft changed its name to "Mandriva" after losing litigation to the Hearst Corporation over the name "Mandrake." The Hearst Corporation had a comic strip called Mandrake the Magician. The litigation concluded in February 2004, and appeals expired in early 2005. In 2005, MandrakeSoft acquired the assets of Lycoris, and purchased Conectiva. The name "Mandriva" was selected to reflect the names "MandrakeSoft" and "Conectiva."[5]

On 2008-01-16, Mandriva and Turbolinux announced a partnership to create a lab named Manbo-Labs, to share resources and technology to release a common base system for both companies' Linux distributions.[6]

At the end of the first semester 2012, the shareholding structure has been entirely changed and the company recapitalized with a massive injection of 4 million Euros. Jean-Manuel Croset, a Swiss native, is running the company as CEO. The company has repositionned itself towards enterprise and cloud offerings while remaining strongly rooted in Free Software. The Mandriva Linux distribution is being set up as an independent foundation with Mandriva S.A contributing but a small fraction of the efforts and resources to the community. [7]

Innovations

Mandriva has, like other Linux distributions, created several applications that give it a distinctive feel. Probably the most notable are the urpmi package management tools and the graphical system configuration tools in the Mandriva Control Center. Mandriva made one notable inroad into the semantic desktop with Nepomuk technology.

Another example is transfugdrake, a tool designed for easy migration of documents and settings from Microsoft Windows to Mandriva Linux.[8][9] It is a front end to Migration Assistant.[10]

Financial state

Shares of Mandrakesoft used to be traded on the Euronext Marché Libre exchange (ISIN code MLMAN) and on the US OTC Bulletin Board (Stock symbol MDKFF).[10] After a troubled financial history the company got recapitalized in 2012 and by the end of that year got rid of most of its debt. The new product portfolio and the different positionning are deemed to bring the company back on track. Shares of Mandrakesoft are again being traded on the Euronext Marché Libre exchange (ISIN code MLMAN) and on the US OTC Bulletin Board (Stock symbol MDKFF).

Mandriva Club

In addition to selling Linux distributions through its online store and authorized resellers, Mandriva previously sold subscriptions to the Mandriva Club. There were several levels of membership, at costs ranging from US$66 or €60 per year (as of 2007) to €600 per year.[11]

Club members gained access to the Club website, additional mirrors and torrents for downloading, free downloads of its boxed products (depending on membership level), interim releases of the Mandriva Linux distribution, and additional software updates. For example, only Gold-level and higher members could download Powerpack+ editions.

Many Mandriva commercial products came with short-term membership in the club; however, Mandriva Linux was completely usable without a club membership.

When Mandriva Linux 2008.0 was released in October 2007, Mandriva made club membership free of charge to all comers, splitting download subscriptions off into a separate service.[12]

Mandriva also has a Mandriva Corporate Club for larger organizations.[13]

Acquisitions

On October 4, 2004, Mandrakesoft acquired the professional support company Edge IT, which focused on the corporate market in France and had 6 employees.[14]

On February 24, 2005, Mandrakesoft acquired Brazilian Linux distributor Conectiva for €1.79 million (2.3 million US dollars at the time).[15]

On June 15, 2005, Mandriva acquired Lycoris (formerly, Redmond Linux Corporation).[16]

On October 5, 2006, Mandriva signed an agreement to acquire Linbox, a Linux enterprise software infrastructure company. The agreement included the acquisition of all shares of Linbox for a total of $1.739 million in Mandriva stock, plus an earn out of up to $401,000 based on the 2006 Linbox financials.[17]

On January 30, 2012, Mandriva announced that the external entity bid was rejected by a minority share holder and the deal did not go through. At the end of the first semester 2012, a solution to the situation that had appeared in January of the same year was found and a settlement achieved. Mandriva is now owned by several different shareholders and entirely recapitalized. [18]

Products

  • Mandriva Linux - Free of cost versions include Mandriva Free (open source version) and Mandriva One (Live CD with some proprietary components). The paid version is called Powerpack and includes licensed codecs for common audio and video file formats, Google applications and 3 months of web support.
  • Mandriva Directory Server - An open source LDAP server that aims to be easy to administer via a web GUI. Similar in aims to Fedora Directory Server
  • Pulse2 - Open Source tool that simplifies application deployment, inventory, and maintenance of an IT network, also available as SaaS version as of November 2012[19].
  • Mandriva Enterprise Server - A corporate, Linux based server platform, soon to be replaced with the announced Mandriva Business Server. The server comes not just with the standard Linux tools but also with advanced interfaces for configuration and specific packaging of VoIP, IM, mail, calendaring tools.[20]
  • MandrivaClass - An e-learning solution enabling long distance, distributed virtual classrooms.[21]

References

  1. ^ Presentation, slide 4
  2. ^ Corrêa, Fernando Ribeiro (2000). "Linux in France: Guess MandrakeSoft's Next Move". Linux Gazette (53). Retrieved 2007-05-27. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  3. ^ "Mandriva aims its Linux at Mexican enterprises". DesktopLinux.com. 2006-12-27. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  4. ^ "Corporate information about Mandriva - Mandriva Linux". Mandriva Linux. Archived from the original on 2006-05-05. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  5. ^ "Mandrakesoft Announces Name Change!" (Press release). Mandriva Linux. 2005-04-07. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  6. ^ Mandriva and Turbolinux announce a partnership and create a joint development lab called Manbo-Labs
  7. ^ http://blog.mandriva.com/en/2012/11/02/cloudpulse/
  8. ^ [cvs] Index of /soft/transfugdrake
  9. ^ [cvs] View of /soft/transfugdrake/README
  10. ^ "migration-assistant". launchpad.net. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
  11. ^ "Welcome to the Mandriva Linux Users Club Page". Archived from the original on 2007-10-02. Retrieved 2007-10-03.
  12. ^ "Arkub" (2007-10-26 at 04:12). "Mandriva Club: Where is the Club?". Retrieved 2007-11-03. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ "Welcome To The Mandriva Corporate Club". Retrieved 2007-10-03.
  14. ^ O'Gara, Maureen (2004-12-04). "Mandrakesoft Back in the Black". Enterprise Open Source Magazine. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  15. ^ "Linux companies Mandrakesoft and Conectiva Announce Definitive Merger Agreement" (Press release). Mandriva Linux. 2005-02-24. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  16. ^ "Mandriva acquires Lycoris, boosts US presence, desktop prowess". DesktopLinux.com. 2005-06-15. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  17. ^ "Mandriva Acquires Linbox for €1.3 million". boursier.com. Retrieved 2007-12-12.Template:Language icon
  18. ^ "Not This Time". Retrieved 2012-01-30.
  19. ^ Presentation of Pulse2 on SoftPedia
  20. ^ Presentation of Enterprise Server on OSnews
  21. ^ Presentation of MandrivaClass on SoftPedia
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