• Ximian Products Offered For Use With First SuSE Product Based on UnitedLinux

BOSTON, MA — November 19, 2002: Ximian, Inc., the leading open source desktop company, today announced that its Red Carpet™ software management solutions will add support for the new SuSE® Linux Enterprise Server 8 Powered by UnitedLinux. SuSE customers can use Red Carpet to closely manage the software installed and updated on their machines, and they can use Red Carpet Enterprise™, a powerful server-based solution deployed entirely behind the corporate firewall, to centralize software management and version control for SuSE-based systems, including the new SuSE enterprise server. As a result, companies can dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of updating their internal Linux servers and workstations.

Red Carpet is a software management solution that efficiently and securely keeps Linux systems up-to-date. Its intuitive software channels and automatic dependency and conflict resolution let users easily install, update and maintain software over the Internet from Ximian™, leading Linux distribution providers and a growing library of other third-party independent software vendors (ISVs). Especially important for mixed computing environments, Red Carpet uniquely provides multi-platform support, updating systems running a broad range of Linux distributions, including SuSE, Red Hat, Mandrake, Debian and more.

"Red Carpet software management solutions from Ximian are one of the essential ingredients for further adoption of Linux within the business setting," said Boris Nalbach, CTO at SuSE. "Combining Red Carpet Enterprise with SuSE’s groundbreaking products powered by UnitedLinux will enable our customers to cost-effectively deploy and manage powerful Linux solutions that capitalize on the many advantages of the Linux operating system, including stability and flexibility."

As part of today’s announcement, Ximian will certify its Red Carpet solutions for UnitedLinux distributions, according to the certification standards set forth by the UnitedLinux group. UnitedLinux is a standards-based Linux operating system targeted at the business user, the result of an industry initiative to streamline Linux development and certification around a global, uniform distribution of Linux. UnitedLinux announced version 1.0, the basis for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8, on November 19 at COMDEX in Las Vegas.

"As a software vendor, we strongly support the leadership role that UnitedLinux and SuSE have taken in driving a consistent, compatible and open standard across Linux distributions," said David Patrick, president and CEO of Ximian. "This provides customers with greater choice and vendors with a simplified development process. We look forward to working with SuSE in bringing our Red Carpet software management solutions to a growing corporate audience worldwide."

The SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 Powered by UnitedLinux, announced today (see separate release from SuSE, "SuSE Linux Unveils the Next Generation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server"), comes with an unprecedented full-service offer of unmatched quality. Release cycles of one-year guarantee long-term planning security. Combined with the ongoing system development and integrated maintenance of the respective release for a period adapted to customer needs, SuSE ensures investment security, thus meeting the IT requirements of medium-scale businesses as well as large-scale enterprise computing.

The integrated maintenance makes sure that SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is always in an up-to-date, stable and tested state. Within the scope of the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server maintenance, SuSE delivers all required patches, fixes and updates in a tested, quality-assured and well-documented state. This makes sure that the operating system is always as secure and powerful as on the day it was first installed.

The Red Carpet Suite of Products and Services
Red Carpet Enterprise is part of a suite of Red Carpet products and services for end users and corporate customers. For organizations that prefer a hosted solution, Ximian offers Red Carpet CorporateConnect™, a web-based service that provides customers with many of the same capabilities of Red Carpet Enterprise. For individuals, Red Carpet Express is a time-saving subscription service that provides customers with priority, high-bandwidth Internet downloading and updating of Linux software from Ximian, leading Linux distributions and third-party vendors.

Red Carpet currently supports SUSE Linux 8.0 and 8.1. Red Carpet will add UnitedLinux-certified support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 Powered by UnitedLinux by early next year. The Red Carpet client application can be freely downloaded from www.ximian.com or purchased on CD as part of the Ximian Desktop Standard Edition ($29.95) and Professional Edition ($59.95) products. More information is available at www.ximian.com.

About SUSE Linux
SUSE Linux is the international technology leader and solutions provider in Open Source operating system software. SuSE’s unique expertise in Linux and its largest development team worldwide dedicated to Open Source software has contributed to the recognition of SuSE as the most complete Linux solution available today. SuSE Linux is a privately held company focused entirely on supporting the Linux community and Open Source development.

About Ximian, Inc.
Ximian is the established leader in providing open source desktop technology, applications, support and services for the Linux and UNIX marketplaces. Ximian products, in use by over 1,000,000 people worldwide, are providing the ease of use, productivity and interoperability needed to propel the adoption of the Linux desktop in corporate computing environments. Its Ximian Desktop software, based on the open source GNOME project, provides a complete graphical desktop environment and productivity application suite for Linux and UNIX systems. Ximian Red Carpet™ and Ximian Evolution™ deliver software and personal information management solutions for both end users and corporate customers. Comprised of many of the original architects of the GNOME system, Ximian is a founding member of the GNOME Foundation and sits on the advisory board. The company has secured funding from leading venture firms Charles River Ventures and Battery Ventures and can be reached at www.ximian.com.

Press Contact:
Kevan Barney
Novell, Inc.
Phone: (801) 861-2931
E-mail: kbarney@novell.com

Ximian, Mono, Ximian Evolution and Red Carpet are trademarks of Ximian, Inc. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.