Mandriva, publisher of the popular Mandriva Linux operating system, announced a new partnership with HP to distribute HP computers pre-loaded with Mandriva Linux 2006 to 37 countries in Latin America, starting with Brazil.
As part of the agreement, Mandriva has been named the "Preferred Linux Partner for Latin America" and Mandriva Linux 2006 has been optimized and certified for HP machines.
The companies will work together on sales, support and marketing in all Latin American territories, including Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.
The partnership has already started to take effect. The first pre-loaded machines – one targeted to the consumer market and one for the enterprise – are shipping in Brazil.
HP and Mandriva have been collaborating for several months to certify various system configurations and optimize performance, as well as expand language support. Technical support will be offered in both Spanish and Portuguese for all of Latin America.
"HP has worked successfully with Mandriva on several products in the past. This new agreement marks our continued confidence in Mandriva", said Sherry Elrod Manzano, Head of the Personal Solution Center Latin America for HP.
"Mandriva’s partnership with a leading OEM like HP is a testament to the quality of the Mandriva Linux operating system," said François Bancilhon, Mandriva’s CEO.
"The new agreement for Latin America validates Mandriva’s strategic investment in Brazil, through the acquisition of Conectiva. Latin America will be an area of growth for Mandriva moving forward."
Mandriva, formerly known as Mandrakesoft, is the publisher of the popular Mandriva Linux operating system, one of the most full-featured and easy to use Linux systems.
The company offers its enterprise, government educational customers a complete range of GNU/Linux and Open Source software and related services.
Mandriva products are available in more than 120 countries through dedicated channels and also from Mandrivastore.com, the company’s online store.
"Born on the Internet" in late 1998, has offices in the United States, France and Brazil. Mandriva is traded on Paris Euronext Marché Libre ( ISIN Code: FR0004159382/MLMAN; Reuters code: MAKE.PA ) and the US OTC market ( stock symbol MDKFF ).
Mandriva – www.mandriva.com