Month: August 2000

Adopts upcoming GNOME 2.0 as future user desktop for Solaris[tm] Operating Environment

PALO ALTO, CA — August 15, 2000 — Today at the LinuxWorld 2000 conference in San Jose, California, Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced it is joining the GNOME Foundation, a new organization of open community developers and leading high-technology companies that will advance GNOME as an industry-wide open user environment. Sun also announced it will adopt GNOME 2.0 as the future desktop for its Solaris[tm] Operating Environment. In a related announcement, the GNOME Foundation announced it will adopt OpenOffice.org technology as the core for GNOME Office Suite.

Solaris Operating Environment is the world’s leading mission-critical UNIX(R) operating environment, used by global corporations. OpenOffice.org is the industry initiative to deliver open office productivity applications, based on Sun’s StarOffice office productivity suite, that was provided to the open source community by Sun in July.

“We are delighted to be joining the GNOME Foundation and to be adopting GNOME as the modern desktop for Solaris. Linux developers will now be able to tap into the industrial power of Solaris as they develop applications for desktops and Internet-enabled devices for the dot-com era,” said Marco Boerries, vice president and general manager of webtop and application software at Sun Microsystems, Inc. “Sun is committing significant engineering resources to ensure that GNOME integrates seamlessly into Solaris.”

“This is the first time a major systems vendor has embraced free software/open-source software as a key element of its primary operating system,” said Miguel de Icaza, founder of the GNOME project and Helix Code. “Sun’s commitment to GNOME helps usher in a new era in delivering a complete and modern future user environment for not only the Sun community but for the open-source community as well.”

By focusing on Sun’s areas of development expertise–robust UNIX technology, printing, internationalization, accessibility, and network configuration and management–Sun will drive reliability and quality with the GNOME Foundation.

About GNOME 2.0

GNOME 2.0 will be the first major release from the GNOME Foundation, which will integrate the advanced technologies from the GNOME Foundation partners with existing technology from the GNOME Project. Some of the features planned for GNOME 2.0 include an advanced and easy-to-use user environment; an integrated and free office productivity suite; and the latest browser technology from the Mozilla Project.

Availability

GNOME 2.0 for Solaris is scheduled to be available from Sun by the middle of calendar year 2001. Sun plans to start releasing early access versions of GNOME 2.0 for Solaris, as the GNOME 2.0 technology becomes available, around the end of calendar year 2000. CDE-based applications will continue to run in the new Solaris desktop environment without change, and Sun will continue to support CDE users and applications.

About GNOME and the GNOME Foundation

The GNOME project has built a completely free and easy-to-use desktop environment, as well as a powerful application framework for software developers on Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. The GNOME Foundation will provide organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project, and help determine its vision and roadmap. Present members include Compaq, Eazel, Free Software Foundation, Gnumatic, Hewlett Packard, Helix Code, Henzai, IBM, Object Management Group, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, TurboLinux and VALinux. Collab.Net, the leading provider of collaborative software development services based on open source principles, is helping to organize the GNOME Foundation. GNOME is part of the GNU project, an effort to build a completely free Unix-like operating system better known as GNU/Linux or Linux. Additional information is available at www.gnome.org.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision — “The Network Is The Computer” — has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to dot-com their businesses. With $15.7 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com.

LinuxWorld Expo, San Jose, CA — August 15, 2000 — The GNOME project today announced five major initiatives aimed at delivering an industry-wide open user environment. These initiatives are:

• To establish the GNOME user environment as the unifying desktop for the Linux and Unix communities.
• Adoption of OpenOffice.org technologies for integration into GNOME.
• Integration of the Mozilla browser technology into GNOME.
• Industry leaders to work together to improve the quality, reliability and accessibility of the GNOME user environment around the world.
• Establishment of the GNOME framework as the standard for next generation Internet access devices.

  “GNOME is receiving a tremendous boost in terms of support, backing and commitment for contribution and improvements,” said Miguel de Icaza, founder of the GNOME project. “GNOME is now well positioned to be the next generation user environment, uniting the existing Linux and UNIX communities. We are building an alternative environment based on free software and open principles. By leveraging other open technologies we are able to maintain our focus on making the most attractive development environment.”

  GNOME ADOPTION ON LINUX AND UNIX

  GNOME has achieved significant acceptance from the Linux and Unix communities. Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard are announcing their adoption of GNOME as the future default user environment for Solaris and HP-UX, respectively. The GNOME user environment is the default for Red Hat, TurboLinux and several other leading Linux distributions and is available for all major Linux distributions. As a result, this initiative will unify many variations of Unix under a single user environment. It creates a cost-effective framework based on open standards and open source that will enable developers to write solutions for many different platforms, while competing on implementations.

  “The advent of a single user environment will provide enormous benefits to developers, end users and the industry as a whole,” said Bill Claybrook of Aberdeen Group. “By reducing development, deployment and training costs this project will create a competitive, open standards based alternative.”

  A COMPLETE END-USER ENVIRONMENT

  Based on StarOffice, an alternative competitive office productivity suite available on multiple platforms and the leading productivity suite for Linux, OpenOffice.org is the industry initiative to deliver open office productivity applications and its technologies are being adopted by the GNOME project for integration into the system. OpenOffice.org will leverage the Bonobo component model to create a number of object components, allowing these components to be used by a wide range of applications.

  The Mozilla project is an industry initiative to deliver an open Internet browser. Mozilla browser technology, together with IBM’s SashXB technology, will be integrated into GNOME to deliver an integrated browsing experience into its next generation user environment. GNOME has also integrated Mozilla with the Bonobo component system.

  Eazel will provide Nautilus, an innovative file manager which serves as the starting point for Eazel’s web-based system management services. Nautilus will provide a state-of-the art file manager for GNOME, with a fully-integrated Mozilla web-browser and a number of innovative new features. The Nautilus software will be integrated with web-based services that provide assistance with file management and system administration.

  GnuCash will provide graphing and financial data handling infrastructure.

  Helix Code will provide Evolution, the integrated calendar, mail and contacts system, as well as its Bonobo component architecture which enables applications to be built out of reusable software components. In addition, Helix Code will deliver a new set of configuration and administration tools targeted to end users, including configuration snapshotting, rollback and cluster management.

  BEYOND THE DESKTOP

  This initiative will develop the framework and platform services required for applications to be developed and deployed on Internet appliances, consistent and compatible with the GNOME user environment on desktop systems. For the emerging Internet appliance market, Linux has been established as the front runner kernel technolgy. This initiative will provide a well-defined framework for developers and manufacturers of new devices and developers of Internet-based software services. It will also provide users and developers with a cost-effective framework that will deliver a common experience and share data across a range of hardware platforms, from handhelds to supercomputers.

  As part of this initiative, Compaq is working to make Gnome-based applications available on its handheld devices as well as assisting developers through the handhelds.org community and the GNOME Foundation.

  OTHER KEY CONTRIBUTIONS TO ENHANCE GNOME

  IBM is contributing application development tools which enable development of web-based applications (SashXB for Linux) using open web standard languages (HTML, Javascript, DHTML, and XML), but have look-and-feel consistency with other “native” applications.

  Red Hat will provide an object-oriented widget framework, CORBA, an OMG industry standard, support for distributed software, lay-out and rendering of internationalized text and configuration management technology.

  Sun Microsystems will provide printing, internationalization and accessibility technology as well as its substantial expertise in improving reliability and quality based on its experience in delivering mission-critical solutions for global corporations.

  ABOUT GNOME

  The GNOME project has built a complete free and easy-to-use desktop environment for the user, as well as a powerful application framework for the software developer.

  GNOME is part of the GNU project, and is free software (often referred to as open source software). GNOME is included in almost every BSD and Linux distribution and works on many other Unix systems.

  Although a number of private and public companies are contributing to the development of GNOME, GNOME is not controlled by any company. It is a volunteer-driven effort with hundreds of volunteer developers from all over the world. Their efforts are coordinated by the Gnome Foundation. Information about GNOME is available at http://www.gnome.org.

  Contact Information:

  Barb Heffner
  CHEN PR
  781-466-8282
  bheffner@chenpr.com

Foundation to Reinforce and Advance GNOME as the World’s Leading Open-source Desktop Environment.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.-August 15, 2000-Red Hat, Inc. (Nasdaq:RHAT), the leader in open source Internet infrastructure solutions, today announced it has joined the GNOME project and top industry vendors including Compaq, Eazel, Helix Code, IBM, Sun Microsystems and VA Linux Systems to form the GNOME Foundation, a non-profit, unified group of vendors and individuals dedicated to advancing the use and extending the capabilities of the popular GNOME graphical user environment.

The GNOME (GNU Network Object Modeling Environment) project is an open source, GUI-based user interface for Linux designed to run on all modern versions of UNIX-like operating systems. Since its development, GNOME has quickly become one of the world’s leading, free and simple desktop environments.

Red Hat will assist the GNOME Foundation in leading the technical direction of the continuing GNOME project, offering forums for industry leaders to contribute to GNOME and in promoting the benefits of GNOME. The GNOME Foundation will provide organizational and financial support for GNOME and related open source projects.

“Red Hat has played an integral part in the development of code and support for GNOME,” said Bob Young, chairman and co-founder of Red Hat, Inc. “As one of the key founders of the GNOME Foundation, Red Hat is dedicated to working with others in advancing this powerful application framework and promoting it as the desktop environment of the future.”

About the GNOME Foundation

The GNOME Foundation provides organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project. The foundation will help determine the vision and roadmap for GNOME. It will also assist in creating technical standards, coordinate GNOME releases, and determine which software projects are part of GNOME. The foundation will make public statements and administer funds on behalf of the GNOME project. The Foundation will be incorporated as a membership-based, not-for-profit corporation.

You are invited to participate in the GNOME Foundation. We welcome contributions in many forms. Our membership consists of those individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to the development of GNOME through participation in the development, documentation and promotion of GNOME. The Advisory Board provides a vehicle for organizations and companies to communicate with the GNOME community and support GNOME. Additional information is available at: http://www.gnome.org.

Joining Red Hat in the GNOME Foundation is Collab.net, Compaq, Debian, Eazel, Free Software Foundation, Gnumatic, Helix Code, Henzai, Inc., IBM, Sun Microsystems, and VA Linux Systems.

Open source momentum

International Data Corp. (IDC) research states that paid Linux shipments grew faster than any other server operating system over the past two years, and their preliminary figures for 1999 show Linux shipments hold 24.6 percent of the server operating system market, up from 15.8 in 1998. IDC also states that Red Hat Linux is by far the most popular distribution, preferred by 68.7 percent of U.S. Linux users.

Research firm Netcraft, Inc. (www.netcraft.com), states that as of May 2000, 36 percent of all public Web sites run on Linux-based operating systems, making Linux the most popular choice for deploying public Web sites. IDC research shows 40 percent of all spending on Linux servers is for Internet related applications, firmly entrenching Linux servers in the Internet infrastructure.

Finally, IDC predicts that by 2002, there will be more than 55 million handheld and notebook-style information appliance devices and that by 2005, shipments of these appliances will exceed shipments of PCs.

Red Hat’s numerous alliances with industry leaders and the demand for Linux-based applications has created open source support from many of the industry’s leading software and hardware manufacturers, including Compaq, Computer Associates, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Netscape, Novell, Oracle and SAP.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Founded in 1994, Red Hat (Nasdaq:RHAT) is the leading provider of open source Internet infrastructure solutions, ranging from small embedded devices to high availability clusters and Web serving. Red Hat applies its technological leadership to create open source solutions for Internet infrastructure and post-PC environments, offers services backed by the best understanding of open source and the most comprehensive resources, delivers the brand of a widely trusted open source leader and corporate partner, and persists in an indelible commitment to the virtues of open source to lead a revolution in the computing industry.

Red Hat, Inc. is based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. and has offices worldwide. Visit Red Hat on the Web at www.redhat.com. For investor inquiries, contact Lippert/Heilshorn at (212) 838-3777.

Red Hat Europe was established in July 1999 with its European headquarters based in Surrey, United Kingdom and offices throughout Europe.

Forward-looking statements

Forward-looking statements in this press release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release that are not strictly historical statements, including, without limitation, management’s plans and objectives for future operations and management’s assessment of market factors, constitute forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties.These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, product plans and performance, the ability to continue to develop the Linux kernel and other software, reliance upon strategic relationships, Red Hat’s dependence upon an open source business model, reliance upon independent third-party Linux developers, management of growth, expansion of Red Hat’s business focus and operations, the possibility of undetected software errors, the enforceability of the GNU General Public License and other licenses under which Red Hat’s products are developed and licensed, the scarcity of Linux-based applications, the risks of economic downturns generally, and in Red Hat’s industry specifically, the risks associated with competition and competitive pricing pressures, the viability of the Internet, and other risks detailed in Red Hat’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which may be accessed through the SEC’s Web site at http://www.sec.gov.