This is a slightly unusual post for me as I am writing a follow-up to a review. I mentioned in my comparison of newbie-friendly KDE distributions and my review of Mandriva 2010.1 Spring KDE that I did not include Mandriva in the original comparison of distributions due to the financial tumult Mandriva has been experiencing over the past several months; Mandriva may not be around much longer, so I reviewed it separately because comparing it to the other distributions could make that post obsolete.
Well, as it turns out, Mandriva is experiencing even harder times financially, and a group of Mandriva developers seems to agree with my assessment of Mandriva's situation and is therefore forking Mandriva into the Mageia project. This group believes that the Mandriva organization can no longer sustain itself, the Mandriva operating system, and the Mandriva community, so a new community-driven effort must be created to fill that void. It's something that I suspected would happen for Mandriva to stay alive, and this development is something that should be watched over the next few months. I may even review the first release of Mageia when it comes out. Stay tuned!