Turbolinux Signs Linux ISP Deal with Chinese Ministry of Information Industries; Huasong Linux Project Launched to Build ISP and ASP Solutions For Chinese Internet Infrastructure

Business Wire, Dec 18, 2000

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 18, 2000

Turbolinux, Inc., the leader in high-performance Linux for Internet infrastructure solutions, today announced it had signed a contract with the Huasong Company, an affiliate of the Chinese Ministry of Information Industries (MII), to provide Turbolinux solutions for the ministry's Internet infrastructure and telecommuncation centers in as many as 500 cities across China.

"The agreement between Huasong and Turbolinux will promote the development of Linux in China, offering the latest technologies to our customers to meet the unique requirements of the Chinese market," said Chen Chong, Vice General Director of Products Information Bureau of MII.

Under the agreement, Turbolinux will provide operating system and software clustering solutions in partnership with Huasong to jointly develop, market and sell Linux-based internet infrastructure applications targeted for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Internet Data Center (IDC), Telecom, and Chinese e-Governance projects.

Huasong is building Internet infrastructure solutions around Turbolinux, Oracle database software and servers from Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

With about 20 million users, China is already the world's third-largest Internet market and is expected to surpass Japan as the No. 2, behind the U.S. next year. Analysts estimate that telecom companies in China will spend more than $468 million on Internet infrastructure in 2000, with similar growth estimated for the market as a whole.

According to China Netcom Corp. (CNC), founded in 1999 as one of China's new national telecom companies, the country will have 300 million Internet devices by 2006. CNC alone plans to extend it national fiber network to more than 20,000 miles by the end of 2002.

"We are pleased to work with the Ministry of Information Industries' ground-breaking Huasong project to incorporate Linux as the foundation for China's new IT infrastructure," said Ashok Pandey, President and General Manager of Turbolinux Asia-Pacific. "In China, as with the rest of the world, Linux is becoming pervasive in the technologies, systems and solutions that are the foundation to the Internet."

About Turbolinux, Inc.

Founded in 1992, Turbolinux develops Linux-based software solutions for Internet and enterprise computing infrastructure, including reliable, available and scalable operating systems for workstations and servers and software clustering solutions for computing traffic management and peer-to-peer distributed computing. Backed by more than $95 million in investments from some of the world's leading technology companies, including Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, NEC, Novell, Oracle, SGI and Toshiba, Turbolinux is headquartered near San Francisco with offices around the world. For more information, visit the Turbolinux Web site at http://www.turbolinux.com.

Turbolinux is a registered trademark of Turbolinux, Inc. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other registered trademarks belong to their respective holders.