Mandriva is a new brand in the Linux world. It's a result of a merge between Mandrake and Connectiva. Currently Mandriva is acquiring another Linux distribution vendor - desktop oriented Lycoris.
DesktopLinux has an interview with Lycoris creator Joseph Cheek. He says not many new things. For me the most important question was about big players on the Linux desktop market. RedHat has lefr (for now?) leaving only Fedora. Mandriva, after financial problems, is most important here. Novell (SuSE) doesn't seem to push for desktop as hard. Mandriva new versions may be very interesting with features from both Lycoris and Connectiva.