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Mandriva Buys Assets from Lycoris

Posted by timothy on from the churn-churn-churn dept.

ulteus writes "For months after the acquisition of Conectiva, Mandriva moves further with the following announcement: "Mandriva today announced an agreement to purchase several assets from Lycoris, a major North American Linux distribution for home users. As part of this agreement, Lycoris' founder and CEO Joseph Cheek is joining Mandriva to develop a new and advanced Linux desktop product.". This is exciting for all Mandriva and Lycoris users, but I'm wondering: who's next?"

10 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe consolidation is good by FlyByPC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Perhaps what Linux needs to become competitive with Windows in the desktop-OS market is for several Red-Hat-like companies to come out with competing Linux desktop products. Once the way is paved (keeping it Open Source, of course), I think a critical mass will eventually make Linux or a similar Open Source project a no-brainer choice for the desktop.

    --
    Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
    1. Re:Maybe consolidation is good by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Linux doesn't need consolidation as much as it just needs to address the existing usablility issues. I touched upon this in the Symphony OS story, and I hope to get a new blog entry up on it in the next day or two.

      The long and short of it is:

      1. The packaging system is user-unfriendly.
      2. The locations of programs are user-unfriendly.
      3. The folder layout of Linux systems is user-unfriendly.
      4. The lack of a standard base of installed libraries is application (and thus user) unfriendly.

      If this can at least be solved at the distribution level, then we'll be good to go. But right now a given distribution means different things to different people depending on what packages are installed.

      (P.S. Speaking of my blog, I get a kick out of the fact that the story I submitted on my last entry is still pending. Since Saturday. Guess the editors just think it's cool to look at or something. :-P)

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    2. Re:Maybe consolidation is good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      3. The folder layout of Linux systems is user-unfriendly. I'm using Gnome under Debian and the only folder I, as a user, have to care about is $HOME. Everything I do or have is under $HOME, even the desktop. That sounds friendly to me.

  2. Lycoris Major Linux Distribution? by StarWreck · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Since when is Lycoris a MAJOR Linux Distribution? I'm fammilar with and have personally installed and used Debian, Red-Hat, Gentoo, Slackware, Amiga-Linux, Fedora, SuSE, College-Linux, Mandrake, and Lindows/Linspire but I've never even heard of Lycoris before...

    --
    ... and in the DRM, bind them.
    1. Re:Lycoris Major Linux Distribution? by man_of_mr_e · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, Lycoris was much more "major" a few years ago. Originally it was called Redmond Linux, and was using very Microsoft-esque imagery and logos. They were billing themselves as a clone of Windows on Linux.

      Then, they abruptly changed their tune. Most likely they got some C&D's from Microsoft and they decided to change their name to Lycoris. While they were still going for a Windows-esque look and feel, they seemed to have lost some momentum, primarily after Lindows started to take off.

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      If you need web hosting, you could do worse than here
    2. Re:Lycoris Major Linux Distribution? by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 2, Insightful

      MODS ON CRACK!

      This is not a flamebait: honestly, who the hell knows Lycoris?

      The parent is right: Lycoris isn't a major Linux distro. Period. I don't see why that's a flamebait, just the parent merely pointing out that the usual PR statement bullshit just doesn't match reality at all in this case.

      --
      "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  3. Who? by sben · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You're wondering "Who's next?". I'm wondering "Who?".

  4. Re:What's so exciting about it? by toddbu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Diversity is a great thing, but don't discount the value of standards. People want stuff that they can count on, and if Linux is really going to compete against Windows and the Mac then there needs to be a big push down that path. My ideal world is that there are a couple really big Linux vendors who cooperate on standards, and then a bunch of small guys doing customization for those who want/need it. The recent XFree86 fiasco shows that even an entrenched "vendor" can be booted pretty quickly if the community feels that their actions are counterproductive to the benefit of all.

    --
    If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
  5. Re:New name speculation... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Manticore?

  6. Lycoris: something of value by Yankel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Okay, so Lycoris isn't ranked high on DistroWatch, and it may not have a huge following (but enough of one to mod people down ;)

    However, something's brewing. Mandriva wouldn't have made the acquisition if nothing interesting was going on.

    Whaever Lycoris has, it's obvious that Mandriva wants to throw more resources into it and integrate it into its own offerings. It'll be interesting to see what happens six months from now.

    --
    --- Dan