Overview
OpenMandriva is a non-profit association, a fully independent organization that manages, governs and develops its own Linux Distribution, it’s roots are in the Mandrake-Mandriva community. We have been developing this operating system for two years. Our contributors are all volunteers, who believe and invest in the world of free software which aims to produce software which is free of any backdoors (spyware). Our legal headquarters are in France, but our contributors and members come from 30 countries from all around the world.
We believe that our operating system should be free to the
user, adaptable and technically advanced but at the same time easy to use.
This comprehensive and modern
operating system is available for you to install and use right now, feel what
free feels and feel free to download OpenMandriva Lx 2014.1 from
http://openmandriva.org/
If it is here, why are we running a campaign? Our next release is scheduled for May 2015 and we need your help to support and further improve this high quality product.
The last two releases were downloaded dozens thousands times and the reviews we have been getting have encouraged us to continue. See for yourself!
Jesse Smith, Distrowatch says: “The operating system (OpenMandriva Lx 2014.1) is stable and the interface looks friendly. For the most part, the distribution worked very well for me. OpenMandriva has a sense of polish and friendliness about it which is hard to qualify, but is certainly there. The system installer, the Control Centre and the pretty (yet traditional) desktop environment all appear to be designed to be as newcomer friendly as possible. I was especially impressed by the systemd front end. <...> OpenMandriva did a beautiful job of smoothing over the details of systemd while presenting a functional front end.
<..> OpenMandriva 2014.1 is one of the best efforts I have seen to date to take back the “beginner friendly” crown. This distribution was easy to set up, easy to use, has a great control centre and should appeal to both novice users and power users alike. I was happy and a bit impressed with OpenMandriva 2014.1 and I recommend giving it a try.”
http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20141110#feature
Gaël Duval, Mandrake founder :"OpenMandriva Lx 2014.0 seems to be quite solid and finished. It’s a level of quality that can only be achieved when experienced developers and contributors are really engaged in a project. Most hardware devices are supported and configured by default. Certainly a very good root for the next releases.
Congrats to the OpenMandriva team for this release!”
http://www.indidea.org/gael/blog/?p=444
Silviu Stahie, Softpedia: “(OpenMandriva Lx 2014.0 Beta) is a breath of Fresh Air with a KDE Soul”.
What We Need & What You Get
The effort needed to create these release is all done by volunteers drawn from all over the world. We need funds to support our infrastructure (primarily for hosting the servers), for occasionally buying development hardware when necessary (such as contemporary ARM boards) and to represent our work at some of the major Open Source events (for example FOSDEM, LinuxTag) , to exchange knowledge, promote our work and learn of new and upcoming innovations that we can incorporate in our system. The total amount needed to keep these activities going is $27, 500 USD for the year 2015.
For now we are running this campaign with a lower target of $15, 000 USD and hope that that we can call on your help to help reach the needed amount!
We do believe that thousands of our users and those who will become users, or those who simply support good Open Source products will make it happen. In case we do not reach full target, whatever the amount achieved it will be spent for the same purposes, we will just have money for smaller time period.
What do you get?
A friendly and easy to use, yet advanced operating system, that is user-oriented. We listen to the community, conduct regular user polls and align the development of the product most possible close to the users desires. We keep it free, open and welcome new contributors, who are eager to learn in a friendly and professional atmosphere. With your help we are building the bricks that will make the pavement of a free road.
We do our utmost to be in the vanguard of OpenSource innovation examples of which will be seen in our latest release where we have switched to LLVM/clang as our default compiler we will be one of the first notable distros to be offering this. Enjoy this and other fresh innovations with us!
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTgzMzI
Risks & Challenges
What are the risks? That the development of the system is not completed is the only possible risk, which is at almost 0, since the community is continuing to grow with new contributors joining, this has been progressing for over 2 years now. There is no great risk for the project as long as we can raise the necessary fund to maintain our webservers and keep our infrastructure.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you cannot donate now, but would like to contribute, you can still help by:
getting the word out and making some noise about our campaign in your blog, telling your friends, sharing in social networks - everything will help!
using Indiegogo share tools to spread the word about us!
coming over and joining us! Programmers, translators, designers, infra or PR pros and learners - we grow and will be glad to welcome you! Just email few words about yourself to join@openmandriva.org!
