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Mandrakesoft Changes Name to Mandriva

joestar writes "Following its recent merger with Conectiva, Mandrakesoft has decided to change its name to 'Mandriva' for two reasons: "1. The recent Mandrakesoft - Conectiva merger calls for a new identity that better represents the combination of two key companies and their global presence. 2. The long-winding trademark lawsuit with Hearst Corporation has reached a point where we decided it is more reasonable for us to move forward.". Mandrake is dead, long life to Mandriva!"

57 of 458 comments (clear)

  1. Well by paranode · · Score: 5, Funny

    I preferred Conedrakesoft, but... whatever...

    1. Re:Well by ImaLamer · · Score: 2, Funny

      Cone drakesoft?

      Well, it is from France!

    2. Re:Well by Agrippa · · Score: 4, Funny

      Cheer up. It could of been renamed to "Manspire".

      .agrippa.

    3. Re:Well by MikeMacK · · Score: 3, Funny

      It sounds too much like this and I know that can't be good for business!

    4. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Mandrake/Linux, Manux... Manux: The Hands of Fate.

    5. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      A PhD has a lot of room to be talking.

    6. Re:Well by sharkey · · Score: 3, Funny

      urpmi --update mass-quantities

      --

      --
      "Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
    7. Re:Well by badmammajamma · · Score: 3, Funny

      Apparently Mangina was taken.

      --
      Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood. -- H. L. Mencken
    8. Re:Well by kdpickett · · Score: 2, Funny

      Mandriva has kind of a prison rape overtone to it for some reason... Not the best combo of words to lay down...

    9. Re:Well by Stevis · · Score: 3, Funny

      Not to mention when they randomly generate a company name by combining astronomical and electrical engineering terms, and get "Uranus-Hertz."

      --
      We've got two lives, one we're given, and the other one we make. --Mary Chapin Carpenter
    10. Re:Well by kai.chan · · Score: 2, Funny

      Any ideas for what the logo should look like?

  2. April Fools? by BJZQ8 · · Score: 3, Funny

    April Fools Day was the 1st...Oh wait, they're serious.

    1. Re:April Fools? by xanthines-R-yummy · · Score: 3, Funny
      It's April 1st there. They're in a different time zone!

      Oh, wait...

  3. Harddriva? by brontus3927 · · Score: 5, Funny

    So will all their *Drake tools now be *Driva tools? It just doesn't have the same ring to it.

    1. Re:Harddriva? by paranode · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't forget to compile the kernel modules for your SoundDriva too.

    2. Re:Harddriva? by rbochan · · Score: 4, Funny

      But they can now refer to their mailing lists as Mandrivel ;o)

      --
      ...Rob
      The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
    3. Re:Harddriva? by Amoeba · · Score: 4, Funny
      Don't forget to compile the kernel modules for your SoundDriva too.

      And do you pronounce Mandriva as "Man-drive-ah" or as "Man-dree-vah"? I'm thinking the first one would be best cause, Snap G! I gots my Soundriva up n running in dis mofo.

      Uh.. nevermind.

      --
      Do not taunt Happy-Fun Ball
    4. Re:Harddriva? by 2old2rockNroll · · Score: 5, Funny

      They have been renamed to the equally girly "Duck Tools"

      So the backup program is now called Duck Tape? Sorry.

  4. Stupidest. Name. Evar. by criscooil · · Score: 2, Funny

    They should have called it "Firebird Linux".

    --

    My life is an open book ... up to a point.

  5. Great name! by waynegoode · · Score: 5, Funny
    Mandriva

    I'm sure glad they didn't pick some wimpy combination of Mandrake and Conectiva. Now the three top distros at Distrowatch (choose last 3 months) will all have great-sounding, easy-to-pronounce names:

    1. Ubuntu
    2. Mandriva
    3. Mepis
    1. Re:Great name! by Stevyn · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ubuntu, sounds like a baseball strategy.

      Mandriva, sounds like a bunch of guys driving down the road

      Mepis, Me piss?

      At least I can say, "well Gentoo is a species of penguins you ignorant pisser."

    2. Re:Great name! by UrgleHoth · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, on the topic of great sounding distros, How about naming one "Cthulhu" (barring any existing copyright issues). Bonus would be the slogan, "Cthulhu Linux, it'll suck your face off."

      --

      Dogma - "let's just say we'd like to avoid any empirical entanglements."
    3. Re:Great name! by ScoLgo · · Score: 3, Funny

      Say what you will. I'm just glad they kept the 'r' in there. Otherwise, their mascot might've been John Madden dressed like Mariah Carey.

      Yipes!!

      --
      "Michael, I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing - and it was everything that I thought it could be."
  6. They can't be serious! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    What's more ridiculous than this name?

    Maybe Linspire...

  7. Sounds like... by mikefoley · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...the name of a tranny stripper..

    Eeesh...

    --
    What's my Karma Mr. Burns? "Excellent"
    1. Re:Sounds like... by Mr+Guy · · Score: 5, Funny

      I read it as "Man dree vuh" and thought it sounded like a small Eastern bloc country occupied by the Soviets after World War II.

      Do you haf za news from Mandreevah!

      Dah! Vee haf crushed da reseestance in Mandreevah! Long live mother Russia!

    2. Re:Sounds like... by Mad_Rain · · Score: 2, Funny

      I read it as "Man dree vuh" and thought it sounded like a small Eastern bloc country occupied by the Soviets after World War II.

      I can't believe no one has said this yet:

      In Soviet Russia, Mandriva renames YOU!

      ew, now I feel all... dirty. Blech.

      --
      "What do you think?" "I think 'What, do you think?!'"
  8. Represents WHAT??? by hesiod · · Score: 3, Funny

    > the recent Mandrakesoft - Conectiva merger calls for a new identity that better represents the combination of two key companies and their global presence.

    How does "Mandriva" "represent their Global Presence?" If I had no idea what they made and was asked to guess, it would be some sort of male driving school... Or a singing fruit (mandarin, Diva)... But in no way does Mandriva make me think "Linux, of course!"

  9. No self-respecting man would install "mandriva" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I mean, come on. This is a name just asking to be picked on. I wonder if I'll someday be able to install mandriva on my performa. That would be awesomea.

    Unless this is a method for hardening its security-- y'know, everyone picks on mandriva, so it has to toughen itself up. Like naming your son Sue or something.

  10. Re:Names by baudilus · · Score: 5, Funny
    A rose by any other name......
    .....could still not be as stupid sounding as "Mandriva."
  11. Next up.... by cprincipe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Noveluse

    --

    bun-fhuinneog agam!

  12. Microsoft is right.... by gmuslera · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... Linux MUST be hard to use, see how difficult will be to pronounce the name of most of their main distributions (SuSE with mixed case? Ubuntu? And now... Mandriva? even is hard to pronounce linux), then installing/using them should be even harder.

  13. Thinking that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny


    Mangina might've been a better name.

  14. Disturbing name. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    This reminds me too much of the spanish word "maricon", which roughly translates to "queer" or "fag" when used to reference a homosexual.

  15. It's curable by George+Tirebuyer · · Score: 3, Funny

    I swear I caught this once and a shot of Trobicin fixed it.

  16. Has anyone else noticed ... ? by Chromodromic · · Score: 5, Funny

    That if, say, you're an English speaker unfamiliar with the "i's" long "e" sound, you'll be likely to pronounce it "Man-dreyeva", which sounds like New York slang for "Mandriver", which sounds like gay porn?

    Not that there's anything wrong with that ...

    Well, actually, for a product name, yes there is. That's awful. God. A name only an engineer could love.

    --
    Chr0m0Dr0m!C
  17. In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    RedHat and Astaro Security Linux have merged to become Red Ass Linux

    All welcome our Red Ass overlords!

  18. Avirdnam by Swamii · · Score: 5, Funny

    You know that when your company's sounds better pronounced backwards, you've picked a lousy name.

    --
    Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit
  19. Good they renamed it, but will QA follow? by ArsenneLupin · · Score: 3, Funny
    The name change was needed. Indeed, in Luxembourgish, Mandrake litterally means "my trash". And given Mandrake's low reliability the name stuck...

    Just let's hope, that with the new name, they'll also improve their QA...

  20. They're just trying to filter out the females... by 0siris · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can imagine it now.

    Mandriva? Man driva? Woman can drive just as well as men! Sexist company, I'll not be using their distro!

  21. Re:Is that the best they could do? by Dun+Malg · · Score: 2, Funny
    I think you found the one worse name they could have gone with.

    Conetidrake?

    Nah there are plenty worse:
    Comandrake (they manage gardeners, right?)
    Manconnect (gay dating service?)
    Condrake (AKA conservative linux)
    Mandiva (Drag queen lounge singer?)
    Mancondrakectiva (some sort of respiratory infection?)

    Not to say they couldn'y have done better than they did...

    --
    If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  22. It's better than a few other alternatives, though. by jd · · Score: 4, Funny
    Here are other names they might have used...


    • ConMan (well, depending on the quality of the merge)
    • Drake Connect (useful if anyone wants to set up a Romanized dragon dating servce)
    • IvaSoft (Adult themes get searched more than anything else)
    • Floccinaucinihilipilihication would seem to be appropriate, as would Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. These would seem to be much more memorable.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  23. At the risk of redundancy... by CDarklock · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...what a stupid name.

    "Condrake" would have been easy to pronounce. Unfortunately, it has the word "Con" in it, which doesn't sound like a good thing to buy.

    Why didn't they use something completely new like "Foxglove"? It's herbal and has earthy, pagan overtones like Mandrake. It's also got some interesting connotations about being a comfortable covering for Firefox.

    I *like* Foxglove. Somebody should start a Foxglove Linux project. I can immediately picture the logo, the website, and a half dozen decent marketing campaigns. You could talk about it being "foxy", make a pun on the Dr. Seuss classic "Fox in Socks", make "fox guarding the henhouse" references, say it "fits like a glove", run a "Poison your PC" campaign, or (my personal favorite) call it "digital digitalis". It's a *damn* fine name for a Linux distro.

    Too bad nobody ever listens to me. ;)

    --
    Microsoft cheerleader, blue flag waving, you got a problem with that?
  24. Man-drivel? by kpharmer · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just don't get this - what kind of a brainstorming session did these guys have?

    mansnivel?
    mansnot?
    manmucus?
    manbile?
    manslurry?
    mandribble?

    mandriven?
    mandriver?
    mandriveme?
    man-drivin' female?

    Just like my old scout, I'll probably just go on calling it what I've always called it- Mandingo.

  25. Hearst lawsuit by bcrowell · · Score: 2, Funny
    More info about the Hearst lawsuit here. Wow, looks to me like a pretty clear case where a big, powerful corporation is using a lawsuit that's utterly without merit in order to screw a small, weak corporation.

    BTW, mandrake is also a natural laxative.

    1. Re:Hearst lawsuit by schon · · Score: 5, Funny

      mandrake is also a natural laxative.

      Maybe, but it's a bitch swallowing all eight CDs.

  26. A Weird Name (was Re:Avirdnam) by manastungare · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now, ain't that "a weird name" really ...

  27. Re:In other news... by Yankel · · Score: 5, Funny
    RedHat and Astaro Security Linux have merged to become Red Ass Linux

    I thought they were going with AssHat Linux.
    --
    --- Dan
  28. Mandriva by PeDRoRist · · Score: 4, Funny

    Womanshouta

    --

    Anything you do can get you slashdotted, including nothing.
  29. what a lousy name by felipe.ledesma · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is the bad thing about inventing company names when you are drunk. I bet they were celebrating the merger, they all got drunk and then "mindstormed" this jewel.

  30. No no no! by erroneus · · Score: 3, Funny

    That doesn't roll off the tongue.

    MANDIVA! Now that's a better name... or is it?

  31. And furthermore... by PCM2 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ol' Man-driva
    Dat Ol' Man-driva
    He mus' know sumpin'
    But don' say nuthin'
    He jes' keeps rollin'
    He keeps on rollin' along

    --
    Breakfast served all day!
  32. In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Apple and Micosoft have merged, and to better represent both companies, they are now called
    ApplePileOfShit

  33. Re:Really? by h4rm0ny · · Score: 4, Funny


    MOD PARENT: +5 Metaphysical.

    --

    Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
  34. No, it's a recursive acronym by marciot · · Score: 4, Funny

    > Distro Renamed to Irritate Various Americans

    Good idea, but you got it slightly wrong. It's a recursive acronym:

    Driva Really Irrates Various Americans.

    -- Marcio

  35. Now we know why Mandrake has seemed so lost... by adrenaline_junky · · Score: 4, Funny

    like any Mandriva, they won't stop to ask for directions.

    (sorry)

  36. Some names I suggested to Mandrakesoft by Anand_S · · Score: 2, Funny

    Mandrakesoft was obviously intent on combining "Mandrake" with "Connectiva" for the new name, so I came up with the following:

    1. Condrakula
    2. ConMan
    3. MaC OS 10.2