Free linux distribution

Red Hat Releases IA-64 Linux Distribution for Developers - Company Business and Marketing

Red Hat, Inc. (NASDAQ:RHAT), the leader in open source Internet infrastructure solutions, announced Wednesday the availability of an early release of the Red Hat source code for the forthcoming Intel Itanium processor platform targeting high-end servers and workstations. This distribution enables the development of IA-64 software for the most intensive computing environments, from high performance design automation to enterprise level databases. A free download version of the code can be obtained at ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/ia64.

"Red Hat's release of pre-production tools and software represents an important milestone in the development of the IA-64 Linux platform," said Michael Pope, Intel's director of e-Business Solutions Marketing. "This release will enable the open source Linux community to accelerate their development of advanced server and workstation applications for Itanium processor based systems."

Intel recently announced the availability online of the Itanium Processer Microarchitecture Reference, a guide for software developers that details the functional behavior of Intel's Itanium microprocessor. This guide, together with the Red Hat code will enable developers to create programs that will be Red Hat/IA-64 ready before the production release of the Itanium microprocessor.

"Commercial developers know that as the principle source of the GNU development tools for both IA-32 and IA-64 Linux (as well as for many proprietary operating systems), Red Hat is positioned to help developers port and optimize their applications for IA-64 Linux," said Michael Tiemann, CTO, Red Hat, Inc. "We believe this will be especially valuable to developers who want to extend their Linux-based offerings into high-end, 64-bit enterprise and technical computing markets."

This pre-production version will include the Red Hat/Cygnus compiler and tool kit. It is based on the tools and kernel developed by the IA-64 Linux Project, formerly known as the Trillian project, a group of companies that include Red Hat, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Caldera, CERN, SuSE, SGI, TurboLinux and VA Linux. The full release of Red Hat's offering will coincide with the IA-64 hardware availability from Intel.

Open Source Momentum International Data Corp. (IDC) research states that Linux was the fastest-growing server operating environment in 1998, growing more than 190 percent in that year alone and capturing more than 15.8 percent of the 4.4 million revenue shipment server operating systems market segment. 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 April 2000, 33 percent of all public Web sites run on Linux-based operating systems, making Linux the most popular choice for deploying public Web sites. 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.

Founded in 1994, Red Hat (NASDAQ:RHAT) is the market leader in open source Internet infrastructure solutions, spanning powerful enterprise and Internet servers to next-generation devices and pervasive computing platforms. Along with its award-winning open source Red Hat Linux OS, Red Hat offers a full line of services, including telephone support, on-site consulting, developer training, certification programs and priority access updates, making Red Hat a leading resource for knowledgeable, innovative, mission-critical open source solutions.

Red Hat develops and shares all of its software innovations freely with the open source community under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and other public licenses. The Official Red Hat Linux OS and related services are available directly from the company and through its partner, distributor and reseller programs, which include top PC and server manufacturers such as Compaq, Dell, Gateway, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Silicon Graphics.

Red Hat 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.

The IA-64 Linux Project, formerly known at the Trillian Project, was formed in early 1999 to port the Linux operating system to the IA-64 architecture. The project currently includes Caldera Systems, CERN, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, Red Hat, SGI, SuSE, Turbolinux and VA Linux Systems and represents the first major effort by the server and workstation industry to support an open-source project of this depth and scale. For more information on the IA-64 Linux Project, visit http://www.ia64linux.org.