Mandriva Decision Delayed Again

The fate of Mandriva is still in flux today as Jean-Manuel Croset posted of yet another delay in determining the future of the once popular Linux distribution. He said, "The deadline for the decision on the proposal has been extended by the proposing entity upon request of some shareholders."

Mandriva has had a long history of financial trouble. This latest bout was revealed on the Mandriva Forum that Mandriva S.A. needed further investment capital to continue, but one investor refused the injection. It was thought at that time that Mandriva would most likely have to cease operations on January 16, although primary parties were and are working to avoid that doomsday fate. Folks were advised that a decision would be made public by that date.

Unfortunately, nervous users weren't comforted on January 17 by the post from Croset stating no resolution had been reached. He then said to expect a decision by January 23. Today, January 23 brought only news of further postponement. Croset said today that a decision should be forthcoming on January 27 now.

While the company's future is in limbo, it seems like plans for Mandriva 2012 are on hold. The development wiki hasn't been updated since December 19. Those early 2012 plans included reviving the Aurora bootloader, the integration of Bumblebee, and adopting prelink by default (for improved startup times). Right now, according to said wiki, the release engineer for 2012 is still undecided as well.