Appears this time, Mandriva is actually done. Most of its full time devs have either left or were pushed. Indeed those guys have forked the Mandriva proj and are working on a new derived distro called Mageia.
Mandriva itself is looking to become a BRIC desktop distro with most of its desktop people to be hired in Brazil. I have no probs with a BRIC focused desktop as long as it still serves my needs. But I fear this time it’s real, and Mandriva/Mandrake that we have come to like will be replaced that’s Mandriva in name only.
For the time being I intend to keep my desktop running Mandriva and see what’s happening with Mageia and also the state of Mandriva. It’s already slow in getting the point release of KDE. I hope all goes well with both distros and communities.