(Pure Free Software edition, no proprietary software/driver)

Mandriva, S.A. began as MandrakeSoft in 1998. It currently has about 130 employees (80 of whom are engineers) and has offices in France, the USA, and Brazil. The company sells its products in more than 140 countries and estimates the number of Mandriva Linux users to be in the 6-to-8 million range.

MandrakeSoft was forced to change its name as a result of losing litigation to the Hearst Corporation over the name Mandrake. The litigation concluded in February 2004, and appeals expired in early 2005. The litigation arose because of Hearst Corporation's claim to the name "Mandrake", inspired by the comic Mandrake the Magician; forcing MandrakeSoft to change its name. In 2005, MandrakeSoft acquired the assets of Lycoris, and purchased Conectiva. As a result of the forced name change, the name Mandriva was selected to reflect the combination of MandrakeSoft and Conectiva.

• Pros: Beginner-friendly, especially the commercial edition; excellent central configuration utility; very good out-of-the-box support for dozens of languages; installable live CD
• Cons: Lacks a comprehensive marketing strategy to compete with other major distributions, non-existent Mandriva books show lack of "mindshare" among publishing houses
• Software package management: URPMI with Rpmdrake (a graphical front-end for URPMI) using RPM packages; "SMART" available as an alternative method
• Available editions: Freely downloadable Mandriva "Free" installation media for 32-bit (i586) and 64-bit (x86_64) processors; freely downloadable Mandriva "One" installable live media for 32-bit (i586) processors; commercial Mandriva PowerPack edition for 32-bit (i586) and 64-bit (x86_64) processors; also high-end "Corporate" solutions for desktops and servers, all with long-term support options
• Suggested Mandriva-based alternative: PCLinuxOS (desktop)