MandrivaLinux (formerly MandrakeLinux) will shortly introduce a new round of releases for its Corporate Server, Corporate Desktop, and PowerPack Edition GNU/Linux distributions. While preparing to review these operating systems I sent some interview questions to Mandriva's CEO, Francois Bancilhon. Responses are below.

How are things going with the integration of Conectiva and Lycoris?

Francois Bancilhon: Integration of Lycoris was mainly done with the release of Mandriva 2006, where Lycoris technology was incorporated into the distro, we were satisfied with the result. Integration of Conectiva is now completely done and we are one single company with one leg in Europe and one leg in South America, with about the same amount of people in each location.

It's been about six months since Mandrake founder Gael Duval was fired from Mandriva. Any regrets at this point?

FB: The same regrets I had at the time: that our financial situation did not allow us to keep all the valuable employees we had to let go to reduce expenses, and this applies to Gael as well as to the others.

Do you have a chief competitor? Of Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and commercial GNU/Linux vendors like Red Hat and Novell, whom are you most focused on displacing?

FB: We have two different businesses: consumer and corporate. On the consumer side, we mainly deal with customer or users switching from Windows or who already had a Linux distro. On the corporate side we mainly sell to customers coming from the Windows world or the Unix world.

Many feel that Vista's delays, high price tag, expensive hardware requirements, and Microsoft's bad reputation for release quality and overall security offer commercial GNU/Linux vendors the opportunity to capitalize on Vista's release. Unless there are more delays from Microsoft, this will be your last Mandriva release before Windows Vista hits the market. Have you done anything special to Mandriva Linux (in its various forms) to better compete with Vista, or has Vista in any way changed your strategy?

FB: It's true that the Vista situation creates a real opportunity on the desktop for Linux. I am also very happy to see the Linux technology taking the lead in terms of desktop with the release of 3D technology. I'm impressed by the wow's that the demos of Mandriva 2007 generates among the people watching them. Something is definitely happening there.

What's the question I forgot to ask? What do journalists overlook when writing about Mandriva?

FB: Two things I'd like to insist on. First is the importance of emerging markets for Linux: we see large opportunities in country as diverse as Venezuela, Algeria, Tunisia, Ghana, Morocco, Azerbaijan and Georgia. In Brasil, right now we are selling in the order of 30,000 Mandriva machine per month, which is a sizable portion of the PC market there. This takes me to my second point, which is the emergence of the OEM channel to bring Linux to the PC market.

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Copyright 2006 Jem Matzan.