Ximian Adds Leading Software Vendors to Red Carpet Partner Program for Linux Software Management

Business Wire, Oct 23, 2001

Business/Technology Editors

BOSTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 23, 2001

Linux Applications From Sun, CodeWeavers, Loki Software,

Opera Software ASA, and VMware to Reach End Users

and Corporate Customers Through Red Carpet

Ximian, Inc., the leading open source desktop company, today announced a suite of partners that will deploy software applications and updates through the Ximian(TM) Red Carpet(TM) software management solution. CodeWeavers, Loki Software, Opera Software ASA, VMware and Sun have joined the Red Carpet Partner Program and now have a direct connection to hundreds of thousands of Ximian Desktop users who run Red Carpet to install, maintain and update the software on their Linux computers. Current Red Carpet users can now install, evaluate and update the software provided by the partners to customize their systems.

Red Carpet is a software management solution that efficiently and securely keeps Linux and UNIX 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 vendors 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 and UNIX variants, including Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, Debian, TurboLinux and more. Red Carpet is included with the Ximian Desktop software, which can be purchased or freely downloaded from the Ximian web site at www.ximian.com.

The Red Carpet Partner Program uniquely connects software vendors with end users to realize the promise of the continually updated and enhanced software available for open source Linux systems. Red Carpet partners benefit from a robust and cost-effective method to reach, update and support customers across a broad range of Linux distributions. Red Carpet users in turn can quickly and easily choose, install and maintain software from an expanding software library to customize their machines and corporate enterprise deployments.

"Ximian is uniquely positioned to be a leader in the Linux software management space," said Bill Claybrook, research director, Linux and Open Source Software, Aberdeen Group. "The Red Carpet Partner Program and upcoming corporate services leverage the large and growing Ximian GNOME Desktop installed base to make Linux systems much more manageable for everyone. ISVs get an easy way to reach a large end-user audience with their new software, end users need easy, pain-free updating, and corporate customers need to control and customize their internal Linux software standards."

The latest group of additions to the Red Carpet Partner Program includes a wide variety of applications, from development and productivity tools to web browsers to entertainment:

-- CodeWeavers (www.codeweavers.com) is the leading corporate backer of the Wine Project. Wine is a popular open source project that implements the Windows API, thereby enabling many Windows applications to run on Linux as well as making it simple to port Windows applications to Linux. The CodeWeavers Wine RPM for Linux systems is available through Red Carpet.

-- Loki Software (www.lokigames.com) is offering the Loki Games Channel, which includes feature-limited demos for games such as Descent 3, Civilization: Call to Power and others for the Linux operating system. Full versions can then be purchased at Loki Software's online store.

-- Opera Software ASA (www.opera.com) will offer the latest version of its Opera for Linux web browser through Red Carpet.

-- VMware, Inc. (www.vmware.com) is making VMware Workstation available through Red Carpet. VMware Workstation enables multiple operating systems to run on physical computers in secure, transportable, high-performance virtual computers. As a result, technical professionals spend more time being productive and less time configuring hardware, installing software, rebooting, or reconfiguring systems.

-- The StarOffice(TM) 5.2 productivity applications suite for Linux from Sun(R) (www.sun.com/staroffice) can be downloaded and installed through Red Carpet or purchased as part of the Ximian Desktop Professional Edition product at www.ximian.com.

"Ximian Red Carpet's growing library of software and broad support for leading Linux distributions allow users to get and manage the updates they need from one easy-to-use application," said David Patrick, president and CEO of Ximian. "And as more and more companies choose Red Carpet to distribute their software, the value to end users and corporate customers alike increases exponentially. We are excited to work with companies like VMware, Loki Software, CodeWeavers, Opera Software and Sun to further this goal."

The Red Carpet Partner Program is part of a package of Ximian Red Carpet services announced at LinuxWorld Expo in August that allow software vendors, end users and corporations to seamlessly deliver and manage the Linux and open source software they use. Red Carpet Express, a subscription-based service available later this year, provides Red Carpet users with priority, high-bandwidth access to Ximian servers for faster downloads of software updates. Red Carpet CorporateConnect is a unique ASP service that provides corporate customers with a web-based management console to centrally manage, control and customize the Linux software they distribute and update internally. Later this year, Ximian will also provide its Red Carpet Partners with a similar web-based administration console to manage their own Red Carpet "channels."