"We are extremely happy that Joseph Cheek decided to join the Mandriva family," said said François Bancilhon, CEO of Mandriva, referring to Lycoris' founder and CEO Joseph Cheek as it was announced that Mandriva, formerly known as Mandrakesoft, the publisher of the popular Mandriva Linux distribution, has agreed to purchase several assets from Lycoris.

As part of this agreement, the companies said, Cheek is joining Mandriva to develop a new and advanced Linux desktop product.

"Our goal is now to provide a path moving forward to the thousands of Desktop/LX users", said Bancilhon.

Joseph Cheek added: "Lycoris is especially excited to be part of the new Mandriva team. Merging the unique qualities of our Desktop/LX product with Mandriva's excellent technology will enable both Desktop/LX and Mandriva users to enjoy a superior computing experience."

Since its inception in the year 2000, Lycoris had established a solid reputation for developing easy to use and friendly operating systems targetted to the consumer market. It also pioneered unique Linux products for the mass market, such as a Tablet Edition and a Pocket PC edition of Lycoris Desktop/LX, which led to several partnerships with hardware vendors in Asia, including Dialogue and MoBits.

The joint plan is now to develop a new product that will be the convergence between our Mandriva Discovery product and Lycoris Desktop/LX. Both teams have already started working on this product.

In parallel, the plan is to add into the Mandriva Club some of the unique features of the Iris Software Gallery and to create a specific space in the Club dedicated to the existing Iris Software Gallery and to welcome the former Lycoris.org user forum.