Dear community,

The title of this post may sound funny. First, I’m addressing the community in a corporate blog. I’ve no other mean to communicate officially than that for the moment, this may change in the future, so sorry about that. Second, I’m asking to make yourself heard. Sounds great from a company which didn’t communicate during the last few months… This has some very specific reasons and I unfortunately cannot disclose more than that at the moment, but will as soon as possible. For the time being and in short: trust us.

The purpose of this post is to get the opinion and ideas of the community, as well as to feel how strong you are. The desktop distribution is our historical product, it has evolved from the early times and have experienced all the ups and downs of Mandriva. I would not like to judge whether the orientations taken in the past were right or not, as I am myself relatively new in the company. However, I’m sure that a community is necessary and that our company can’t be without one. I’m also convinced that, considering this fact, we need to take care of you.

On April, 30th, Mandriva will hold his long-awaited general assembly of the shareholders. Shortly after that, we’ll define the strategy and set our priorities for the next twelve months.

So, time has arrived to talk to our supporters, users, contributors and fans. I’m very interested  to hear about your background, motivations, expectations and needs. I can’t promise to fulfill every of them, but I’m ready to read and listen and will certainly take them into account for the future.

We’ve setup the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it address which you may use to contact us. Your constructive inputs, ideas and visions are very welcome. We’re especially interested in:

- who is in the community and want to (re)invest his time in the future and especially the distribution?
- what interests you in the Mandriva Linux distribution, from a technical and human point of view?
- how would you like to get involved in the development of the distribution, in which form?

This should not be about making comments or speculations on the current situation or history of Mandriva, or about committing yourself to anything right now. This is about preparing the future, seeing whether there is a community now, active or potential, around Mandriva Linux, to help us have an inventory of the community, in order not to spoil any more opportunities, but also not to commit on a dead end. Your inputs will influence the decisions taken in the future.

I invite all of you interested from near of far away in our distribution to write to the above mentioned address.

Thank you for your past, present and future support. Your help is appreciated!

Jean-Manuel Croset
COO