Mandriva Linux offers all the power and stability of Linux to both individuals and professional users in an easy-to-use and pleasant environment. It contains the Mandriva Control Center, which eases configuration of some settings. It has many programs known as Drakes or Draks, collectively named drakx tools, to configure many different settings. Examples include MouseDrake to set up a mouse, Disk Drake to set up disk partitions and drak connect to set up a network connection. They are written using GTK+ and Perl, and most of them can run in both graphical and text mode using the ncurses interface.

Mandriva Linux or Mandrake Linux is a French Linux distribution distributed by Mandriva (formerly Mandrakesoft). It uses the RPM Package Manager. The product life time of Mandriva Linux releases is 18 months for base updates (Linux, system software, etc.) and 12 months for desktop updates (window managers, desktop environments, web browsers, etc.). Server products receive full updates for at least 24 months after their release.