From: bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com   
      
   On 12/25/25 14:11, rbowman wrote:   
   > On Thu, 25 Dec 2025 12:34:27 -0800, Bobbie Sellers wrote:   
   >   
   >> I did not start using Linux as early as you guys.   
   >> A friend of mine now passed on, helped me choose Mandriva. Then he could   
   >> not figure out how to get a copy to me. A pal in Norway shipped me a DVD   
   >> with Mandriva 2006 as 6 CD iso file.   
   >   
   > I had Mandrake on one box. In its day is was one of the easier Linuxes to   
   > install. I don't remember much about it other than installing it on an old   
   > machine that cost $20. I think that was the one where the BIOS limited the   
   > HDD to 528 MB. By then drives that small were very hard to find and more   
   > expensive that larger ones. I hit a couple of computer stores and asked   
   > what they did with the old %28 MB drive. 'Oh, we throw those in the   
   > dumpster.'   
   >   
   > Mandrake wound up in a trademark suit and became Mandriva. I think their   
   > artwork included a penguin with a magic wand. The Mandrake the Magician   
   > people didn't appreciate the cultural reference.   
      
   	The easy part of Mandrake involved one Gael Duval.   
   	When Mandrake allied with Connectiva to become Mandriva, Duval was fired.   
   	   
   	When Mandriva went down the tubes due to a bad business model and lack   
   	of Duval level inspiration some folks laughed.  Mandriva split at several   
   	points and PCLinuxOS is one of the earliest.  Then the Russians copied it   
     badly in my opinion. When Mandriva went out of business we got Mageia   
   which   
     moved systemd into the equation.  You can find the history Wikipedia   
   if you care   
     to do so.  I learned most of this stuff in the last 11 years.   
   	PCLinuxOS rejected systemd and some other things for a time but it   
     eventually learned to live with UEFI.   
   	The Russian version is still around. Alt Linux is the name I believe   
   but since   
     i am no longer a LUG librarian I have not tried it out since long   
   before the   
     Covid-19 restrictions went into place.   
      
   bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2026- Linux 6.12.63-pclos1- KDE Plasma   
   6.5.4   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)