Merlin Software to Provide Support For Sun's Solaris, IBM AIX and RedHat SPARC

Business Wire, August 31, 2000

Business Editors, High-Tech Writers

BURNABY, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 31, 2000

Merlin Software Technologies International Inc. (OTCBB:MLSW), a leading developer of Linux based software applications and utilities, today announced it will provide support for Sun's Solaris operating system, IBM AIX and RedHat SPARC in the upcoming release of PerfectBACKUP v7.0.

"PerfectBACKUP was originally written for the Unix operating system and ported to Linux in 1996. Prior to that it was sold on as many as eleven variants of the Unix operating system, including Solaris SPARC and Intel and Interactive Unix, when it was sold as Fastback Plus for Unix," said Robert Heller, President of Merlin Software Technologies. "Even though PerfectBACKUP for Solaris is still in release 5, we continue to see between 100 and 140 downloads of the product each month. That's roughly 20% of all PerfectBACKUP downloads from our site."

PerfectBACKUP , release 5, is still available directly from the Merlin web site, at www.MerlinSofTech.com , for AT&T SVR4, SCO UnixWare 1.x, 2.x and 7.x, SCO OpenServer 5, Sun Solaris SPARC and Sun Solaris Intel, Sun's Interactive Unix, FreeBSD 2.2, BSDI/OS 2.x and HP-UX 10.x.

Beginning with the release of v7.0, Merlin will again be supporting many of the proprietary versions of Unix. Version 7.0 will initially be available for RedHat Linux 6.2, Intel, Caldera OpenDesktop 2.4 and OpenServer 2.3. These will be closely followed by releases for RedHat Linux for SPARC and Alpha processors, Sun's Solaris for SPARC and Intel processors and IBM's AIX version of Unix, as well as all other major Linux distributions.

Merlin develops high quality applications software for the Linux operating system, such as the award-winning PerfectBACKUP 6.2, the most economical, powerful, network backup and crash recovery tool available. It provides backup scheduling and remote backup, recovery, encryption, robotics module, enhanced security and many other features with both a graphical and character interface. PerfectBACKUP is available for all major Linux distributions including Caldera OpenLinux 2.3, eServer 2.3, TurboLinux 4.0 and 6.0, versions 6.0 and 6.1 from RedHat (NASDAQ:RHAT), SuSE 6.0/1/2/3, Debian 2.0, Mandrake 6.1, and the Linux 1.0 release from Corel (NASDAQ: CORL).

Merlin Software has been awarded IBM (NYSE:IBM) Netfinity Partner certification and has now signed agreements for distribution of PerfectBACKUP in North America, Europe and Asia. Merlin also has partnerships with Caldera Systems Inc (Nasdaq:CALD) and Turbolinux. Merlin recently announced the pre-loading of PerfectBACKUP 6.2 on select models of the recently announced IBM(R) (NYSE:IBM) ThinkPad(R) A series and ThinkPad T series notebooks which are to begin shipping this fall.

Merlin focuses on integrating the Windows and Macintosh desktop systems with Linux servers and desktops. Merlin's software products are in use at more than 230,000 locations world wide and continue to lead the way with innovation, performance and reliability. Its users include small as well as Fortune 500 companies.

IDC, the premier Linux market research firm, recently reported that Linux has now overtaken Novell's NetWare as the network operating system of choice. IDC also expects Linux shipment growth to outpace all other server operating systems with an annual compounded growth rate of 28%. Total new licence shipments are expected to rise to 4.7 million per year by 2004. Linux revenues are projected to grow at an annual compounded rate of 23%.

For more information, contact: Merlin Software Technologies International, Inc. Suite 420-6450 Roberts Street, Burnaby BC, Canada V5G 4E1 Toll Free: 877/988-7227 Phone: 604/320-7227 Fax: 604/320-7277 Web site: http://www.MerlinSofTech.com.

Statements in this news release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including any statements regarding belief, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Forward looking statements in this news release include the expectation that of the announced agreement. Unforeseen factors could cause results to differ materially from expectations, and include risks that marketing efforts may not result in sales, that a competitor's product may prove superior to PerfectBACKUP.