Mandriva and Mageia: two open roads

Today, I had my first contact with the Mageia project. It came unexpectedly, like the gently march of the clouds up in the sky. I was reading entries in different threads in the Mandriva Community Chat Forum and, stung by curiosity, I re-opned a thread dealing with Mageia and another one following the official post by Mandriva S.A.

What I read in both threads steered from optimism to skepticism and back. Nevertheless, regarding Mageia and Mandriva, there was a very pragmatical post by DarkFoss that stated: "I wish both well.. Hard drives are large and cheap..plenty of room for both on my comp." To this, the moderator replied "That's the spirit!"

Then, suddenly, the fog of gloom that had been encircling the whole Mandriva/Mageia business vanished. To be honest, I was getting worried about what distro to use if Mandriva plummeted when I first heard the news about the company's financial woes. This apparently unsubstantiated worry cannot be understood unless one has suffered enough with Windows and happens to find a Linux distro that resembles his or her "ideal OS". That was my case with Mandriva.

However, with the Mageia fork, more uncertainty piled up, I must admit. I therefore visited the Mageia's page and joined an IRC... and, as in the Mepis/Mandriva forums, after a nice exchange with someone who kindly gave answers to my questions, I felt really welcomed. I have decided that I will follow both distros closely and support them both the best I can.

How about fanboyish spirit? I don't know. For a fork situation, I noticed a peculiar collaborative behavior that is not common when a house is divided. In the Mandriva Forum, a user is explaining what to do to join the Mageia mail lists. In the Mageia mail lists, if you reject the certificate of the page, it takes you to a Mandriva page. That does not look like the belligerent spirit that I have seen in other distros...

So, just like DarkFoss, I wish them both success, too. I hope I can enjoy the fruit of the Mageia project as much as I love my Mandriva 2010.1