From: stryder@telenet.be.invalid   
      
   On Tuesday 22 May 2012 13:52, TJ conveyed the following to   
   alt.os.linux.mandriva...   
      
   > On 05/22/2012 01:31 AM, Aragorn wrote:   
   >   
   >> Mageia still looks and feels like Mandriva in every way,   
   >> except for the branding and the fact that the distribution clearly   
   >> has its own personality in terms of how its community and   
   >> QA/developer team work.  It really is a community distro, without a   
   >> corporate overlord breathing down the developers' necks.  And   
   >> personally, I like that.   
   >>   
   > I like it too, Aragorn, but I would have said it just a bit   
   > differently. I'd say "Mageia still looks and feels much like the   
   > Mandriva before 2011 in almost every way..."   
      
   Well, okay... ;-)   
      
   > It's always been my opinion that Mandriva is the one that forked off,   
   > because of that "corporate overlord." Mageia kept to the course that   
   > Mandriva probably would have taken, had all that corporate shakeup (or   
   > was it a shakeDOWN?) not happened.   
      
   Unfortunately, this corporatitis has always been around ever since   
   MandrakeSoft went to the stock markets.  Now, my personal considerations   
   with regard to stock markets and the entire financial-economic society   
   model all aside, it does appear to be the case that MandrakeSoft and   
   later on Mandriva have always somehow managed to attract the worst kind   
   of corporate management.   
      
   > I don't know if Mandriva Free and Mageia can both survive as separate   
   > community-based distros, but with all the Linux distros and   
   > derivatives out there, it's not inconceivable.   
      
   If Mandriva stays on the path where they are no longer supporting GNOME   
   or where they are offering desktop environment segregation as is the   
   case in PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu and several others, then I think there's a   
   place for both in the field.   
      
   Mageia could then remain the general purpose distribution for people who   
   are a little more experienced already and know how to make their own   
   choices at install time, and Mandriva could focus on the new users, who   
   prefer that their choices having been made for them.   
      
   But this is all academic, mind you.  Time will tell how Mandriva will   
   evolve and whether it will survive.  There is however no doubt in my   
   mind that Mageia is a survivor.  Community distros generally are.  Look   
   at what happened with OpenOffice and OpenSolaris when Oracle took over   
   Sun Microsystems.  They nuked OpenSolaris and it was immediately forked   
   as OpenIndiana.  And Oracle hadn't even nuked OpenOffice yet - and they   
   haven't chosen to do that, as they have handed it over to the Apache   
   Foundation - and immediately you got a fork, LibreOffice.   
      
   > What it takes is a group of people dedicated to the distro's survival,   
   > a group willing to work long hours for something other than a   
   > paycheck.   
      
   Exactly.  And this brings Free & Open Source Software back full circle.   
   That's how it should be, and how it is at its best.   
      
   > At present, Mageia has that. Does Mandriva?   
      
   That will remain to be seen.  Mandriva certainly did have that at one   
   point in time, and this is what Mageia is today, because most of the   
   Mageia developers are ex-Mandriva developers.  When that community left   
   from underneath Mandriva's corporate wings, it left a huge gap.   
      
   So the big question is, how many of those who stayed behind under the   
   control of that corporate overlord after the departure of those   
   developers who are now behind Mageia are there left to carry on with the   
   development of Mandriva Free after that corporate overlord backs out?   
      
   I don't mean to sow any FUD, but I do not think it inconceivable that   
   Mandriva's decision to finally make Mandriva Free into a community   
   distribution may have come a little too late.   
      
   We'll see.  The future's not written in stone.  Only the past is. ;-)   
      
   --   
   = Aragorn =   
   (registered GNU/Linux user #223157)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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