Lycoris, was started in the year 2000 with the intent to make free software

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

 easy enough for anyone to use. Redmond Linux was founded by Joseph Cheek, an entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

 who had previously worked for Linuxcare

Linuxcare

Linuxcare was founded in San Francisco in 1998 by Dave Sifry, Arthur Tyde and Dave LaDuke. The company's initial goal was to be "the 800 number for Linux" and operate 24 hours a day...

. In late 2001 it merged with embedded systems company DeepLinux; the merged entity was named Redmond Linux Corporation. The company's first product was Redmond Linux Personal, an easy-to-use Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

 desktop operating system. The company was renamed Lycoris in January 2002 and its assets were acquired by Mandriva

Mandriva

Mandriva S.A. is a publicly traded Linux and open source software company with its headquarters in Paris, France and development center in Curitiba, Brazil. Mandriva, S.A...

 on June 15, 2005.

The flagship product of Lycoris was Lycoris Desktop/LX, a Linux distribution

Linux distribution

A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...

.
The company was based in Maple Valley, Washington

Maple Valley, Washington

Maple Valley is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 22,684 at the 2010 census.-History:The area was first settled in 1879 by three men who were improving a trail and brought their families in. When a name for a future community was proposed, the names Vine Maple...

, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.
Lycoris is currently part of Mandriva.

Lycoris Desktop/LX

Lycoris Desktop/LX installer was originally based on Caldera

Caldera OpenLinux

Caldera OpenLinux is a defunct Linux distribution that was created by the former Caldera Systems corporation. It was the early "business-oriented distribution" and foreshadowed the direction of developments that came to most other distributions and the Linux community generally.-Novell and...

's Workstation 3.1 Linux distribution with the rest of the distribution built from the kernel up. The desktop and applications looked a lot like Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 Windows XP

Windows XP

Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...

, right down to the background image that shipped with the software.