You will find more information about Alpha 1 on Mandriva wiki. This first release comes also with  specifications document available on wiki (pdf) . This document is composed by specifications that was not finalized in 2009 Spring, internal Mandriva proposals but also Community proposals through Mandriva Ideas web site. This web site is available now since beginning of 2010 development cycle in order to collect any kind of proposals to be included in coming releases. Feel free to comment or add any new ideas! Among many items you will find:

• improve boot time
• clean and complete grub and install menu (failsafe, init3 entry, recovery entry, check tool for istallation media)
• use of Plymouth and fallback on Splashy for non supported chipsets
• switch to Tomoyo as security framework, provide GUI for common setup, integrated also in msec tool
• guest account created on the fly when needed
• packaging of Moblin, use it as default environment if stable enough  when light hardware configuration is detected
• manage end of life distribution through mdkonline applet
• autodetection of local urpmi repositories
• improve hybrid isos use

and many other things…

Final release of 2010 version is due to 21st of october. You will find here complete planning.

Again quality of final release wil depend on how large tests will be. Do not hesitate to download and tests this first alpha and report any bugs.

Finally please not that this is a development release, you should not use this version to upgrade an existing Mandriva Linux installation.

2010 specifications are on the way and will be stored in svn. pdf file will be provided in wiki as during next week. This new coming release was also a good opportunity to launch Mandriva IdeasAs. This new web tool is dedicated to Mandriva community. Any user can easily submit proposal. It’s all free, you just need to register and get a Mandriva account.

Added in this planning, 3 weeks dedicated and focusing on patches review and debug. Regarding debug weeks, more information will come later. Patches week  will take place from 8th to 14th of june. Main goal is to clean existing patches in our SRPMs and submit some to upstream project. It’s all in open source mind and help to improve global quality of distribution.

More information: https://wiki.mandriva.com/en/2010_patchreview

Everybody is welcome and should take part of it, we also think that it’s a great opportunity for new coming packagers to clean and adopt orphan packages .

      

Click’n Backup

We face two apparently contradictory needs these days. One is that our files are valuable – we work with them, put a lot of our lives in them (photos, emails, movies, songs, memories) – we want, we need them to be safe.

The other need is that, more and more, we want to access, modify our files, wherever we are – not only when we are on our computer or at home – we move and we want our data to move with us. And we want this to be simple.

Click’n Backup is an answer to this. We have:

• an online secure storage space, accessible via a network mounted disk or via a web interface,
• a backup and restore tool, simple to configure and to use,
• a scalable solution,
• an adaptable solution: it works with Mandriva Linux, other Linux distributions, Windows and Mac OS X.

And you decide how to use it:

• backup and restore your files,
• share your files between your computers,
• move online your files to access them from anywhere,
• who knows? just tell us!

We also have an exciting list of enhancements (translate and improve the service effectiveness) and extensions to pursue. We expect as well a lot from your feedback and ideas, to move on and talk back here or in the forum.

To secure and share your data online is only a first step. It has been years we thought about it and finally we are taking our share of it. Online storage and backup is a hop topic these days, so many ideas and solutions out there, and that’s a good thing.

Quicker, easier and even more secure this new version brings you a host of innovative functionalities.

The Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring range is now available in the office format which corresponds to your choice, KDE, GNOME or LXDE and all this in more than 70 languages.

Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring not only offers you the most advanced and easy to use Linux operating system on the market but also integrates a list of some of the most complete software.

To sum up, Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring is:

• A complete, easy to install system including all the necessary drivers;
• Compatibility with the most recent, and oldest, hardware platforms, including netbooks;
• A panel of applications ranging from office to educative software to multimedia… ;
• Latest versions of leading Open Source applications: KDE 4.2.2, GNOME 2.26, Firefox 3, Xorg Server 1.6 ;
• Tools for easily making the system secure;
• A DVD reader coming very shortly for Powerpack users;
• An ensemble of complementary applications updated in the Powerpack version: audio and video codecs, virtualisation with VMware, Google applications …

Mandriva Linux is a convivial operating system wich adapts to your computer and peripherals. Mandriva Linux allows you make the adaptions or improvements you are seeking and to spread the advantages to friends and colleagues as you wish.

Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring is available in three editions: Powerpack (the commercial edition, including exclusive commercial software, support, and services), One (a live CD which can also be installed to the system permanently) and Free (an edition which contains only free / open source software).

• Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring Powerpack boxed versions are available for 69 euros or US$89,
• Mandriva Linux Powerpack 2009 Spring, slim pack version is available for 59 euros or US$69
• And if you want to get the two major versions of Mandriva Linux, included the Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring version for only 69 euros / USD 89! Just subscribe to the Powerpack membership!

Want more cool Mandriva stuff? Check out our Goodies.

We would like to thank here all Mandriva community (packagers, testers, translators, users) who did a big work and made this version a complete success. More information here:

• release notes
• release tour
• errata

The Mandriva team

This RC2 version offers also nearly all 2009 Spring design. This version will allow you also to dump in a very easy way All available One hybrid isos on a USB key and then install Mandriva Linux on netbooks. 6 One isos are now available to provide KDE and GNOME desktops in a very large set of languages.

Major update on X server has been done and lots of testing are in progress to help improving support for fglrx and intel drivers but also openchrome one.

This release is available through

• DVD edition (32 or 64 bits) with a traditional installer
• dual CD (providing both 32 and 64 bits architectures) with a traditional installer

These editions are free versions, without proprietary applications. You will find also live CD One editions with proprietary drivers for KDE or GNOME environment.

Please help test this second release candidate and report bugs to Mandriva.

MES 5 is going to succeed to Corporate Server 4 (which support cycle will end on September 2011).

Among this new beast new features:

• a new installation wizard to ease server deployment and stacks configuration,
• Mandriva Directory Server full integration,
• virtualization, with Xen and KVM.

All your tests and feedback are interest to us! Especially about hardware support, install process, virtualization and various software stacks.

For your feedback:

• you may use our Bugzilla, “Mandriva Corporate Server” product, “MES 5 beta” version (if you are confortable with this reporting tool),
• or you may send us an email to mes5-beta (at) mandriva.com.

Mandriva has decided to help porting K3b, the leading and award-winning KDE burning software, to Qt4.

2 engineers of our KDE team are working together with Sebastian Trueg, the lead developer of this project, so that new version can be released sooner and hopefully for 2009 Spring release. Linux users will finally be able to make K3b use the full power of the KDE4 platform through Solid, Phonon and all the Plasma environment. Boiko is one of our 2 engineers working at the moment on this port.

What does your work consist in?
Boiko: KDE4 and Qt4 brought many new possibilities for developers. But in order to benefit from those possiblities, it is necessary to port all the KDE3/Qt3 code to these new infrastructure. K3b port has been started some time ago, but there are still a lot of work to be done. Our work is to finish this port work and at the same time to simplify the code by making use of the new KDE4 and Qt4 frameworks available for many of the tasks that used to be done “by hand” inside the application.

What are the targets in general and in KDE4?
Boiko: The main target is to get K3b working for at least the most common tasks (like burning data CDs and DVDs, Audio CDs, VCD, etc). Apart from that, the target is also to keep K3b integrated into KDE4 by adapting it to the new frameworks and guidelines.

Sebastian added: “Gustavo and Arthur are working on porting all project views to the Qt4 view/model architecture. They are processing very well and almost all projects have been ported. I ported the d’n'd support, fixed plugin management, and a few other things that broke with the change from KDE3 to KDE4. K3b trunk contains a lot of improvements which partially are not finished yet. I am trying to get most of it done for April.”

We wish them good work and see you at the end of 2009 Spring release!

This RC1 version proposes a first glance at 2009 Spring design, providing Free wallpapers. This version will allow you also to dump in a very easy way One GNOME hybrid iso on a USB key and then install Mandriva Linux on netbooks.

You will be able also to use from installation media some very useful tools:

• HDT (Hardware Detection Tool): get a complete description of your hardware without booting a complete os
• draksnapshot restore tools: restore your full system in an easy way from a date you will choose

and many other updates and fixes.

This release is available through

• DVD edition (32 or 64 bits) with a traditional installer
• dual CD (providing both 32 and 64 bits architectures) with a traditional installer

These editions are free versions, without proprietary applications. You will find also live CD One editions with proprietary drivers for KDE or GNOME environment.

Please help test this first release candidate and report bugs to Mandriva.

This Beta version proposes step 1 of Speedboot. This should improve your boot time. It’s not enabled by default. To test it, enter speedboot keyword at boot time. You can use Bootchart to test precisely effects on your boot time.

This release is available through

• DVD  edition (32 or 64 bits) with a traditional installer
• 2 CDs  GNOME  with a traditional installer
• 2 CDs KDE with a traditional installer

These editions are free versions, without proprietary applications. You will find also  live CD One edition with proprietary drivers for KDE or GNOME environment.

Please help test this second pre-release and report bugs to Mandriva.

• the Mandriva blog here for English readers,
• le blog de Mandriva for French readers.

Donc si vous préférez nous suivre en français, mettez à jour vos signets et vos abonnements RSS.

Here will be only English conversations from now on.

Side notes:
– you will notice a layout difference between the two at this time, while we synchronize the theme;
– we will keep on tweeting in English and French though.