Mandriva

The latest open source software, provided by Mandriva's development community

Since 1998, Mandriva has sponsored the Cooker development project. This is one of the oldest development communities for a Linux distributor, with thousands of participants, and a solid core of contributors evenly split between community members and company engineers. This community oriented organization enables Mandriva to participate in numerous open source projects and integrate the latest developments in the stable, official release of its product.
With a six month development cycle, Mandriva Linux 2008 integrates the latest versions of:

• KDE 3.5.7, the K Desktop Environment, and also a development preview of the next-generation KDE 4
• GNOME 2.20, the latest stable release of the popular desktop environment
• Kernel 2.6.22 to power a brand new base system, with a lot of new drivers and improvements, like the Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS) module to provide an enhanced desktop experience
• The unified Compiz Fusion 3D desktop system, with tons of new effects so you can see your desktop from a new perspective
• X.org 7.3, the latest version of the Linux graphical sub-system, with new optimized video drivers and advanced runtime re-configuration features for displays and input devices, including support for the new RandR 1.2 protocol

For a detailed guide to the most exciting features of Mandriva Linux 2008, you can visit the Release Tour on the Mandriva Wiki.

Workstation class features for engineering and scientific work

Today Linux is the system of choice for a vast majority of universities, research centers, and space agencies around the world. Mandriva Linux 2008 includes hundreds of scientific applications developed by the scientific community itself.

For example, Mandriva Linux features the Scilab numerical analysis software, developed by INRIA & ENPC. Scilab enables users to compute a wide range of mathematical operations, such as multiplication to high level operations such as correlation and complex arithmetic. The software is often used for signal processing, statistical analysis, image enhancement, and fluid dynamics simulations.

The library of software applications covers major engineering and scientific domains like: mathematics and numerical analysis, parallel computing, scientific data processing and visualization, computer graphics, geographic information systems (GIS), signal processing, electrical, chemistry and biology related software, artificial intelligence, physics and astronomy.

Students, professional engineers or amateur scientists can explore all the major and emerging domains of science by installing the pre-packaged applications and libraries available for Mandriva Linux.

A powerful Unix-based operating system at your fingertips

Mandriva Linux 2008 is built on a solid Unix-based foundation, the same software that has been adopted by the industry for decades.

Linux is the latest generation of the Unix-based operating system family. It concentrates more than 30 years of technical innovations. With some of the most active and large development communities, Linux-based systems keep introducing innovative technologies like: 3D desktop frameworks for the X Window & OpenGL standards, real-time scheduling for professional studio applications, or advanced virtualization engines built directly into the kernel.

Mandriva Linux 2008 runs on various multi-core, 32/64-bit processors, exploits the latest GPU (Graphical Processing Units) capabilities, and provides advanced filesystem features.