A fruitful collaboration
Mandriva's support for IBM's initiative to distribute a free version of DB2 builds upon a strong relationship between the two companies, highlighted by the seamless integration of Mandriva's products with IBM's dataserver technology. Corporate Server 3.0, Mandriva's enterprise infrastructure solution, has already achieved "ready for DB2" status for Intel-based 32-bit platforms.
The ready for DB2 designation of Mandriva Linux 2006 and Corporate Server for Intel 64-bit is being completed.
Going forward, Mandriva plans to bundle DB2 Express-C with the next versions of its enterprise products.
"IBM's DB2 is one of most popular business applications, with proven performance and reliability. Its availability under a free license will expand the number of software vendors and developers ready to design offerings based on it," said David Barth, Mandriva's Worldwide VP Engineering.
"Our clients are increasingly turning to Linux as a cost-effective, fast and easy development platform," said Bob Picciano, VP of Databases at IBM. "With today's announcement, IBM and Mandriva can offer customers a robust dataserver platform for building their Linux-based applications."
Starting on January 30th, 2006, IBM will offer DB2 Express-C as a free download for customers and developers to use and/or bundle with their applications. This version is fully functional and not limited. No-fee support for DB2 Express-C will be offered via a community forum. IBM will also offer a for-fee support option.
Mandriva sees IBM's initiative as a new opportunity to ease the work of enterprise customers or developers who want to design and deploy new mission critical applications based on IBM's industry-leading DB2 technology. It is important for the continued adoption of open source software within organizations that vendors easily access key business applications. The availability of DB2 Express-C at no charge answers that requirement. It will provide open source publishers further opportunity to demonstrate Linux's ability to powerfully interoperate with and take advantage of established business applications.
About Mandriva
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, and educational customers a complete range of GNU/Linux and Open Source software and related services. Mandriva products are available in more than 120 countries. Born in 1998, the company 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).
Press Contact: Kadjo N'Doua press at mandriva.com / + 33 1 40 41 67 67 https://mandriva.com