It was announced recently that MandrakeSoft, distributor of Mandrake Linux, has merged with Conectiva, the widely used South-American distribution. This seems to bode well for both companies, as both posses experienced engineers and share a similar focus. This may lead to having another large player in the Linux arena besides Red Hat and the formidable Suse, as well as providing more much needed competition to the monolithic Redmond giant. You can read Mandrake's official press release on the subject here.