Remember Mandriva Linux? Once among the most popular Linux-based open source operating systems, it disappeared last year, along with Mandriva, Inc., the company that owned it. Belatedly, here's a retrospective look at late, great Mandriva Linux.

I was reminded of Mandriva recently while updating The VAR Guy's Open Source 50 list. As the list shows, in 2012 The VAR Guy (who is not me, by the way) expressed doubts about Mandriva's future. He turned out to be right. (When is he not?) In May 2015 Mandriva Inc. ceased operating and its GNU/Linux distribution disappeared.

But the open source OS's inglorious and little-reported demise belied the importance it once held within the open source ecosystem. Born in 1998 as a Red Hat-based GNU/Linux distribution originally known as Mandrake, Mandriva stood out from the pack by offering one of the first truly user-friendly open source operating systems.