I have looked through the current threads that relate to this title and didn't find an answer.

I am a LabVIEW programer and I need a distro that is supported by NI. The NI site says Mandriva 10.1 is fully supported but this distribution has been dificult to find for free.

I am wondering if mandrake 10.1 official (which is readly available for download) is the same thing. I have also seen mandriva 10.1 and 10.2 refered to as mandriva 2005 LE. I'm kinda confused.

Mandrake changed its name to Mandriva when they bought Conectiva.

Also, you are stating different versions of the os. 10.1 preceded 10.2, then they changed their naming convention to 2005LE, then 2006, etc.

Mandriva 10.1 is the same as Mandriva 10.1 (official). The (official) tag indicates a final release. Mandriva 10.2 is the same as Mandriva 2005LE. During the development cycle for Mandrake 10.2, (IIRC) they were sued for copyright infringement over the name Mandrake and were forced to change their name. Since they had just purchased Conectiva, they chose to combine the two names into Mandriva. At that time they also changed their version numbering conventions, so Mandrake 10.2 became Mandriva 10.2 then Mandriva 2005LE. The LE stood for Limited Edition because it was a transitional release and would not receive the same support period as Mandriva 2006 or 2007 etc. I find it interesting that Mandrakesoft existed for at least seven years before the law suit, and that their use of the Mandrake name only became an issue when they started to show a profit and began to expand in the Open Source world.

I appreciate the info.

And to all who contributed...

10.1 is no longer supported, so avoid using it if you can, try 2006 or 2007 or 2007.1 when available

2007.1 is under cooker now, so it is not yet ready for prime time. Metisse is not yet integrated into KDE. Some things work and some do not as with any alpha. Based on what i saw on the Mandriva One Metisse Live CD it will be worth the wait - even a long wait.

Edit: I just received information that 2007 Spring is scheduled for release about April, and the 2007.1 beta 1 is available for testing. Remember, this is a first beta! I do not suggest using it on a production machine. It is certainly not ready for prime time yet so do not expect much and you will not be disappointed.