Welcome, and feel free to introduce yourself

[Landborn]

Hello
My name is Jean-Claude and I 'm a French MandrivaGnome user for 5 or 6 years now and moderator on the forum MLO. I tested several distributions (PCLinuxOS, OpenSuse, Frugalware) but always returned to Mandriva and soon Mageia.
Finally, I would say: I am happy to meet you

[mechatotoro]

Hi, everyone!
I'm Juan Saravia, from Costa Rica, Central America. I became a Mandriva Linux user in 2009 and have no technical knowledge whatsoever. Even so, my experience with Linux was so good that I dumped Windows. I feel very excited about Mageia and it's a pleasure seeing here many people that I met in the Mandriva forums.

I teach languages and English literature.

[House]

Just like my TV character namesake: querulous curmudgeon... sarcastic, iconoclastic, often cranky.

Not afraid to say STFW when it's appropriate, but also willing to devote lots of time and attention to people with genuine problems.

Love/hate relationship with Linux, which I've used for maybe 5 years or so. I casually distro-hop as a hobby, but always seem to come back to Mandriva.

Will Mageia capture my heart? Who knows. I'm not as sanguine as some about the future of Mageia, but I'd be delighted to be proven wrong. (But Debian Squeeze has been tempting me lately.)

[ennael]

Hi there

Nice to see all of you there. I'm ennael, part of Mageia founders team. I hope you will enjoy using and contributing in Mageia as we did setting up this great project!

[Max]

Hello.
My name is Max, and I'm a Linux user.
*sits down*
I got interested in Linux in 2006 when we were wondering what to do with an old computer that we had lying around. The obvious answer came to us, and it's been sort of a project ever since (Ubuntu does that ).
I really started using Linux when I started earning my undergraduate in CS. The computer labs were all using a custom Debian build, and I started poking around a little bit. Pretty soon I ditched my Windows in favor of Mandriva 2008, and I've never looked back. Although, every six months, right before a new version, I run a different distro on my laptop for a couple of weeks, just to get a feel for them, and who knows? Maybe I'll find one I like better than Mandriva.
So far I haven't.
I'm really excited about Mageia. It's a lot of fun and very educational to watch a brand new distro get off the ground. Even though I don't quite have the skillset necessary to really contribute, I try to help out where I can.
Oh, and as is often the case in new converts, I am personally responsible for many of my friends using Linux, and I've sort of become the go-to guy for Linux help. (Even though I'm not a guru, I consider myself a "user", not a n00b, but not a guru.)

[barjac]

Hello everyone,
I'm Barry Jackson from Rossendale in N.W. England.
Good to see so many from the Mandriva forums in here - let's hope this turns out to be just as good a place to hang out.

[firefly]

Hello All,
i am from Cape Town, South Africa, i am a mandriva user, but i am also a qualified distrohopper,
i hope Mageia will make me settle down. i wish all contributors of Mageia success.
regards.

[wobo]

i wish all contributors of Mageia success.

This way you wish yourself success!

For those who come from Mandriva Linux and haven't read much about us:

There's something different in Mageia - there's no "contributors here - users there" in Mageia's understanding. Mageia is a community based and driven distribution where everybody is a contributor in his way. People who have skills in developping will develop, people with knowledge in packaging will pack, otheres will document, translate, create wonderful graphics.
And there's a very important task for those who "just use" the distribution: give feedback, share ideas, report bugs, spread Mageia, and much more! Even by joining this forum and give some help to others and/or participating in interesting discussions about Mageia you are already "contributing".

So, I wish you success!

[firefly]

Thank you Wobo, i feel welcome already.
regards

[leviramsey]

I'm Levi. I discovered Mandrake when I was a student over ten years ago, eventually joined the cooker list (for a number of years I ran Cooker on essentially a production system... well, it produced my assignments, so I guess that counts) and even got a few packages into contribs. Haven't really been involved with that end of things (indeed I still run 2009.0, to give you an idea of how far behind the times I am!).

[viking60]

Ah what to say in these data retention times.
I am Viking60 and discovered Linux Ages ago (at least 20 Kg ago) via I live CD I got from a German Electro shop (Suse ).
Then I left it and reentered with Mandriva some years ago. These days I run Mandriva and Arch and I tend to be somewhat "Archefied".
My modest contribution has been the translation of the front Mageia webpage into my language. I generally dislike e-mails (divide overflow) and you will not find me on any of those lists. I am sure this forum will constitute the heart and soul of Mageia, and be the main instrument for public relations.
I am not a fan (by nature - with the exception of Barry everytime I have a grub problem ) but I am a sucker for good Linux distros. And the Alpha looks promising.
I am curious about Mageia and wish you all the best.

[wobo]

My modest contribution has been the translation of the front Mageia webpage into my language.

What is your language if I may ask? And how did you get the translation online when you are not on any mailing list and - as I guess - you are not in one of our translator teams?

[viking60]

I sent a mail to Romain. He put it out there. And I am Norwegian. I did it without being on the translator team - you guessed right.
Oh I forgot: I am also site admin for the Norwegian Mandriva Forum.

[saptech]

Hello all...I'm a regular user of linux, for about 5 years and enjoy it. I'm from the USA and work as a computer technician, msWindows. I started out distro hopping while using Debian testing as a main OS, after I purchased a Brother AIO printer and couldn't get debian to print, decided to try one of the rpm distros. I've been using Mandriva since around '09 and all have been well. Now I'm waiting to give Mageia a try next.

Thnx.

Steve

[Yemets]

Greetings 2 all from Ukraine, Eastern Europe
My name is Alex, i`m 20. Working bu journalist in a regional media.
My first distro - mandriva 2007.0
since the release of 2010.0 using that thing
Wating for a Mageia from first news in the web about it.

Besides i am writing prose

[tolstoyswe]

Hi there!
Im Thomas from Sweden. Mandriva has been on one of my laptops since 2005, right now i have Fedora 14 a bit modded on my main pc but it is gonna change to Mageia soon my girlfriend uses Kororaa so we are no m-soft family here
And I play keyboard on my sparetime, love music.

[Ken-Bergen]

Hi, my name is Ken.
I've been using Mandrake/Mandriva since 6.0 and am disillusioned with the communication not the end product.
I'm hoping that being community driven Mageia will be more open with communication and I will be watching and if I can contributing.
All the best on your/our new project.

[orionthehunter]

My name is Mark. I'm an English teacher in Japan. At the moment I'm using Mint, but I'm planning to give Mageia a spin. I must admit, I've been a bit biased against KDE based distros, but then Gnome isn't particularly exciting me lately either. So as long as I can customize I'm happy.

I try to help wherever I can, be it bug reporting, minor translations, helping other users, telling my friends about Linux and espousing the benefits of free software. I hope to be of some help to the Linux community at large and thus plan to show my face here sometimes as well.

[obgr_seneca]

Hi,
Some of you might know me from the Mandriva forums, although I've never been that active in the international one.
I've been a moderator and packager at mandrivauser.de for years now and I decided to support Mageia the day it was anounced.
Now I am a packager and translator for Mageia and I will do my best to help make Mageia the best distro there is.

Oliver aka obgr_seneca

[juergen_harms]

I am Austrian - live in Geneva. I started using Unix on a PDP65 (if my memory is right), got started on Mandriva with its 7.0 release. I am fighting a permanent battle between spending my time on having the perfect Linux system, and using it to do the work for which I set the system up (network access, office tasks, developing microprocessor nodes for a CAN bus). I am running a small home LAN (a Linux laptop, my wifes XP machine, a Linux desktop server for common functions like backup and bookmark syncing, using rsync to keep some filesystems of the Linux machines in sync).

[ah7013]

Hi everyone
My name is Andrew. I live in Auckland, New Zealand. I have been using Linux for 6 years beginning with Ubuntu in 2005. I am currently downloading Mageia DVD Beta x86_64 and can't wait to try it out

[Germ]

Hello all...I'm a regular user of linux, for about 5 years and enjoy it. I'm from the USA

Hi Steve,

I'm from Chelsea, Oklahoma. What part of the USA do you live in?

Stephen

[saptech]

Southern IL, in the St. Louis, MO metro area.

Thnx and glad to meet you.

[gjringo]

Hi from downunder,
have been using Linux for a few years once I figured out how to escape from monopolist MS, (now ...Neo-Eugenics Gates)
Mageia is running smooth and stable so far seems quite mature am happy Jan

[masinick]

Hello all...I'm a regular user of linux, for about 5 years and enjoy it. I'm from the USA

Hi Steve,

I'm from Chelsea, Oklahoma. What part of the USA do you live in?

Stephen

I'm from Concord, New Hampshire, and "Germ" and I have known one another since the Spring of 2004, when my next door neighbor in Concord told me about the USALUG and I joined it.

I've been a Linux user since 1995. I've been using Mandriva and Mandrake before it since 1998, regularly with Broadband Internet since 2001, but I may be moving on; it has not been looking well at all since the latest developer layoff; seems the best developers came here, because this has been an excellent test cycle so far! Glad to be here.