Mandriva

I just downloaded the latest release of Mandriva Linux. I'm pleased to report that after our recent trouble with the Internet, I was getting download speeds of over a megabyte per second. I report this because I know you care.

I used to use Mandrake Linux all the time, before it was known as Mandriva. They had to change their name because apparently the name "Mandrake" was already trademarked for a comic strip character. Now as I understand trademarks, they are used largely to prevent con artists from riding on the good name of a well-established product or service.

I think the laws that Mandriva ran afoul of were French laws, Mandriva being a French company, as evidenced by their fruity name and logo. But it seems like a Linux distro and a comic strip would have different (though possibly overlapping) customer sets. I assume Mandriva was not using the Mandrake character in any of their advertisements.

In the United States, the Lanham Trademark Act modified trademark law such that traits like color could be trademarked. I don't know if UPS would sue you for using a brown™ color in your logo, but they might, and they'd win, and people would mutter, and no one would care.

Anyway, I downloaded Mandriva because I'm tired of Vista. Vista does not allow you do easily do high-level, complex things like text editing or web browsing. It doesn't seem to understand the "Shut Down" or the "Sleep" commands. It does, however, look all kinds of pretty, and it does run Microsoft Office, which I don't think Mandriva does. But I use OpenOffice.org. Dang.