Finally! It's the year of Linux on the desktop... nope

Mandriva, a French purveyor of desktop Linux, is being wound up, after becoming totally incapable of supporting usual performance (TITSUP), financially at least.

The liquidation notice suggests the company's revenue in 2013 was around €600,000 and that the biz has between 10 and 19 staff.

The company's wobbled for years and has struggled to keep itself liquid. Now it appears the battle's been lost: the outfit's web site and blog aren't responding at the time of writing.

Perhaps the most telling piece of data in the windup notice is the headcount, because it's small. Canonical employs over 700. Even with volunteer support, Mandriva would have struggled to keep up a decent pace of development and support, even if there was colossal enthusiasm for Linux on the desktop.

Which there isn't (asbestos suit ON!): last time we looked it had 1.46 per cent of the desktop market.

Will Mandriva be mourned? Perhaps, but not widely. The company scored some wins in developing nations but isn't hugely popular. As a barometer, DistroWatch readers rank it the 80th-most-read-about Linux distribution.

Mandriva will, however, live on as some of its developers recently bailed to Mageia, which released its fifth version in late April. ®