Mandriva, the leading European Linux distributor, today announces the launch of Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring, the major new release of Mandriva Linux, featuring hundreds of improvements which make for a quicker and more powerful distribution that is easier to use than ever.

Endowed with a new, simplified user interface designed to be more intuitive and accessible, Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring introduces new and updated applications, including a major new OpenOffice.org release, and many improvements to the Mandriva configuration utilities.

Changes to Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring include:

• A new parental control utility, giving parents greater supervision of their children’s activities on the Internet by automatically identifying any improper content before authorizing access to a website, allowing manual blocking of sites, and time limits on computer use,
• The Elisa multimedia center, a cutting-edge application which gives you a beautiful graphical interface to manage your photos, music and videos
• Easy support for synchronizing many mobile devices with the GNOME and KDE environments. Windows Mobile(R) 5, 6 and 6.1-based devices, Blackberry devices and many Nokia phones are supported,
• The Codeina framework has been introduced, providing automatic installation of codecs to play media files for which support is not already available,
• The PulseAudio audio framework has been adopted by default, making sound management at the same time easier and more powerful than ever before in Mandriva,
• Significant improvements to the Mandriva software installation tools, in the design of the interface, the available sorting and layout options, and the way extended package information is handled,
• A completely new graphical design, including a dynamic KDE background which changes according to the hour of the day,
• Coherence, a media server which allows you to share video and audio files between either two PCs or with a gaming console or a media center,
• Customized support for the popular Asus EeePC: Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring works perfectly on the EeePC with no modifications, including wireless networking, native resolution, Mandriva tools tweaked to fit the small screen, suspend and resume support, and full support for the special and multimedia keys
• KDE 4.0.2 available in repositories.

«Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring is the result of six months of hard work by both our developers and our community. All these efforts allow Mandriva to produce a distribution true to Mandriva's values of openness, simplicity and innovation,»said Anne Nicolas-Velu, Mandriva Director of Engineering and Community.

«Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring is the most advanced distribution we have ever produced»conluded Mandriva CEO François Bancilhon, «and everybody can benefit from the Powerpack version with all the latest applications and services, including exclusive commercial applications, for only 59 euros.»

Pricing and availability

All the Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring editions are immediately available.
Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring Powerpack is available in boxed, slim pack, download and one year download subscription versions at the Mandriva Store: http://store.mandriva.com, and Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring One and Free are immediately available for public download here:
http://www.mandriva.com/download

The Powerpack boxed version is available for 69 euros, or US$89. The slim pack version (containing just the DVD, no documentation) is available for 59 euros, or US$69. The direct download version is available for 49 euros, or US$59. The Powerpack subscription, allowing Powerpack download access for twelve months (and so covering two Mandriva Linux releases), is available for 59 euros, or US$69. All these versions can be ordered from today at the Mandriva Store: http://store.mandriva.com
Boxed and slim pack editions will be pre-ordered and delivered when available, in around 2 weeks.