Mandriva Sees Light at End of Tunnel

In his blog on the enterprise website, the Mandriva CEO gives readers a sneak preview of official announcements to be made by the French Linux distributor in the coming weeks. The "rough weather" that Mandriva had been through had dampened people's spirits, Bacilhon writes, going on to say "So it will soon be time to cheer you up with some good news".

The innuendo by Bacilhon is obviously to the company's figures, after Mandriva just about escaping insolvency. The company received a fresh injection of capital in May 2007, but at a cost of restructuring and redundancies. Bacilhon now promises results including "a nice small hardware deal in an emerging market country with our friends from Santa Clara and against our friends from Redmond"; this obviously refers to Hewlett Packard in Santa Clara and Microsoft in Redmond. The CEO also hints at a strategic agreement with a major player, which Mandriva expects to impact desktop sales.

He also promises major restructuring of the product line and Mandriva Club offerings on the consumer side of the business. Mandriva Club offers private users a kind of support and software subscription for a price. A few days ago, the company released the beta version of its Mandriva 2008 Linux variant.