Mandrakesoft Changes Name to Mandriva

joestar writes "Following its recent merger with Conectiva, Mandrakesoft has decided to change its name to 'Mandriva' for two reasons: "1. The recent Mandrakesoft - Conectiva merger calls for a new identity that better represents the combination of two key companies and their global presence. 2. The long-winding trademark lawsuit with Hearst Corporation has reached a point where we decided it is more reasonable for us to move forward.". Mandrake is dead, long life to Mandriva!"

Man-driva!

[nightsweat]

Man...driva, wider than a mile
I'm crossing you in style, someday

This is a belated April Fool's joke, right? That's the dumbest name since International Harvester became Navistar.

Is that the best they could do?

[Moby Cock]

Mandriva!?!

That name sucks. Is this the best they could come up with. Conetidrake would've been better.

When two companies merge and they change the name, that is an opportunity to come up with a really good name. Mandrake was a good name. Connectiva was a bad name. Mandriva is worse.

*sigh*

this is totally stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

"mandriva" just sounds ridiculous. Nobody is going to remember it. They may as well have called it:

236176911b0bc7fca6bae20804ba08d9

which is what I get from

echo mandriva |md5sum

and is about as easy to remember.

Re:Well

[eln]

Company names should be fairly nonsensical like this. Naming the company something Linux-ish ties them to exclusively Linux-based products. This is a bad idea not because it's Linux, but because it ties the company to a particular type of product, which limits their ability to spread the brand to other products. Note that most of the "Linux only" companies of the dot-com era (the ones that actually survived) changed their names to something more generic.

Re:Is that the best they could do?

[Erwos]

While I don't think Connectiva was a _bad_ name, I agree with your sentiment that they really dropped the ball on this one. Mandriva only makes sense in the context of a single, little-known corporate merger. In a couple years, it'll be just a bad name.

Dragonux, for example, would have been a better choice. It conjures thoughts of both UNIX/Linux and the dragon - fearsome in some cultures, a harbringer of good luck in others. It also plays on Mandrake's old name.

Mandriva plays on Mandrake's old name, but makes no sense otherwise.

-Erwos

Re:Represents WHAT???

[0racle]

Yes, its a terrible name that one does not associate with Linux. They should have chosen a name like Maya, Excel, Trivoli, Firefox, Bryce or Java. You know names that don't just set a product apart but immediatly discribe what it does.

Re:Well

[MightyMartian]

That is the dumbest goddamn name I've ever heard. The distro's pretty good, but the name... the name... Why that blood name?

Re:Well

[MissTuxie]

wish I had mod points. Why do most people think naming their company "websomething" or "something something net" is gonna make them sound edgy? Most good sticky names derive from the silliest things. And do not tie you to anything in particular. Look at google and Yahoo, for instance.

Re:interesting -- deb/rpm based

[Anonymous Coward]

Ubuntu is funded by Canonical. You seem to ahve the names mixed up. Before the merger, Conectiva was a prominent South American Linux vendor which came up with Apt for RPM. Mandrake merged with Conectiva to form Mandriva. Novell, SuSE, and Ximian are not involved, although their Voltron-esque merger into a mighty Linux vendor may have prompted this. Red Hat, SuSE, and Mandrake are the three largest commercial Linux vendors. Since Red Hat started it's super duper enterprise offerings and Novell tookover SuSE, Mandrake probably thought consolidating with some of the lesser Linux vendors was the only way for them to remain competitive. I just wish they'd let Turbo Linux in on the fun. To my knowledge, Turbo is the only Linux vendor with a completely legal DVD playback program, provided by Cyberlink.

It occured to me that I probably drifted off topic, but this distro will continue to be rpm based, since both original distributions are rpm based.

Re:Organization of the papal conclave

[ArsenneLupin]

And another gem, from further down in the same article:

The reasons for the change are practical: There was no running water in the makeshift rooms the cardinals used in the Apostolic Palace, and

there was only one bathroom for every five or six electors, he said.

... but there were plenty of servants with brooms and shovels!

Re:Well

[woobieman29]

Movie?

How about the long-running SNL skit that was actually quite funny? Never saw the movie, as SNL spinoff movies have a pretty low rate of success these days. For every decent one (Wayne's World, Night at the Roxbury) You have loads of crap (Ladies Man, SuperStar, etc) that have "diluted the brand" pretty badly.

Re:Well

[Garg]

Not to mention the Google factor... a made-up name ensures anyone looking for you will find you without a bunch of irrelevant hits.

Garg

Quickly browsing the dictionary...

[emil]

A little too close for comfort.

drivel - To slobber; drool. To flow like spittle or saliva. To talk stupidly or childishly.

trivia - Something of small importance.

Re:Well

[LarsWestergren]

Damn, they actually went ahead and did it. If they had to have a compound name, couldn't they at least have picked Mantiva? On the Mandrake mailing lists, most people seemed to be in favour of that one.

The only Google reference to Mantiva is an Italian family name. If I associate it with anything in English, its "mantis".

Con is French slang for cunt.

[crovira]

I suspect that the joke was a little more low-brow than what you thought.

Cthulhu Linux

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

>Bonus would be the slogan, "Cthulhu Linux, it'll suck your face off."

I like it. I can think of several other excellent marketing themes:

• Cthulhu Linux - Use it or else.
• Cthulhu Linux vs. Microsoft - Why settle for the lesser evil?
• Cthulhu Linux - Bringing the fear of computers back into your life.
• Cthulhu Linux - Wait 'til you experience our Blue Screen of Death.

Re:Well

[slimak]

Right, like Motorola:

Galvin Manufacturing Corporation founder Paul V. Galvin creates the brand name "Motorola" for the company's new car radio, linking "motor" (motorcar, motion) with the suffix "ola" (sound). (source [motorola.com])

After changing the company name to Motorola in the 1940's, Motorola has only been able to make car radios.

What about Microsoft? They make hardware and large software products.

American Airlines flies internationally (but I guess I wouldn't rent a car from them)

Dunkin Donuts sells coffee