Gaël Duval (born 1973) is a French entrepreneur. In July 1998, he created Mandrake Linux (which became

Mandriva Linux Mandriva Linux, a fusion of the French distribution Mandrake Linux and the Brazilian distribution Conectiva Linux, is a discontinued Linux distribution developed by Mandriva S.A. Each release lifetime was 18 months for base updates (Linux, syste ...

, now discontinued), a

Linux distribution A Linux distribution, often abbreviated as distro, is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply product distribution per se, a distro—if distributed on its own—is oft ...

originally based on

Red Hat Linux Red Hat Linux was a widely used commercial open-source Linux distribution created by Red Hat until its discontinuation in 2004. Early releases of Red Hat Linux were called Red Hat Commercial Linux. Red Hat published the first non-beta release ...

and

KDE KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that enable collaborative work on its projects. Its products include the KDE Plasma gra ...

. He was also a co-founder of MandrakeSoft (which merged in

Mandriva Mandriva S.A. was a Public company, public software company specializing in Linux and open-source software. Its corporate headquarters was in Paris, and it had development centers in Metz, France and Curitiba, Brazil. Mandriva, S.A. was the deve ...

, now discontinued) with Jacques Le Marois and Frédéric Bastok. Gaël Duval was responsible for communication in the Mandriva management team until he was laid off by the company in March 2006, in a round of cost-cutting. Duval suspected part of the reason for his dismissal was disagreement with management over the company's future strategy, resulting in a lawsuit against the company. , Duval is chairman and Chief Technology Officer at Ulteo. The company was bought by AZNetwork group in 2015. In 2016, he co-founded NFactory.io, an incubator-accelerator of "startups". In November 2017, Gael Duval created the /e/ mobile operating system, which is a privacy-oriented

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods either to h ...

of the Android-based

LineageOS LineageOS is an Open-source software, open source Android (operating system), Android operating system for smartphones, tablet computer, tablets, and set-top boxes. It is community-developed and serves as the successor to CyanogenMod, from which ...

accompanied with a set of online services. In 2018, Duval founded the E Foundation, which maintains /e/, and ECORP SAS, a privately held corporation, which operates their online sales and services sites.

Education

Duval is a graduate of the

University of Caen Normandy The University of Caen Normandy (French: ''Université de Caen Normandie''), also known as Unicaen, is a public university in Caen, France. History The institution was founded in 1432 by John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, the first rector ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, where he studied networks and documentary applications.

References

External links

Official website

Interview with Gael Duval, Sep 24, 2006
1973 births Chief technology officers Businesspeople from Caen Linux people Living people University of Caen Normandy alumni {{France-business-bio-stub