THE GNOME AND LINUX COMMUNITIES AND INDUSTRY LEADERS
JOIN TO CREATE THE GNOME FOUNDATION

~ Developers and Corporations Unite to Advance GNOME as the Leading Open
Source Desktop Environment ~

LinuxWorld Expo, San Jose, CA -- August 15, 2000 --The GNOME project
today announced the creation of the GNOME Foundation, which will be
governed by a board of directors elected by the hundreds of volunteer
developers who contribute to GNOME.  In addition, industry leaders and
organizations including Compaq, Eazel, Free Software Foundation,
Gnumatic, Helix Code, Henzai, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Object Management
Group, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, TurboLinux and VA Linux have announced
their support for the foundation, with the goal of advancing the
availability of this easy-to-use, open source, desktop environment.

"The GNOME Foundation marks a major step forward for the GNOME project,"
said Miguel de Icaza, founder of the GNOME project.  "As GNOME continues
to gain momentum, we needed a forum where the GNOME developers and
corporate partners can come together to coordinate the continued
development of GNOME.  The support of these industry leaders will help
us to achieve our dream of building a fully free, easy to use desktop
environment that will be used by many millions of people."

The foundation will help set the technical direction of the GNOME
project, promote the broad adoption of GNOME on Linux and Unix desktops
and offer a forum for industry leaders to contribute to GNOME. The
Bonobo component project, GTK toolkit development, Pango
internationalization, GNOME Office integration and other projects will
be embraced under the GNOME organization.  The foundation will be
modeled on the Apache Foundation, with a board of directors elected by
the hundreds of volunteer GNOME developers.

GNOME Advisory Board
The GNOME project also announced the creation of an Advisory Board which
will allow corporations and other organizations to support GNOME.
Initial members of the Advisory Board include: Compaq, Eazel, Free
Software Foundation, Gnumatic, Hewlett-Packard, Helix Code, Henzai, IBM,
Object Management Group, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, TurboLinux and VA
Linux.

About GNOME and the GNOME Foundation
The GNOME project has built a completely free and easy-to-use desktop
environment, as well as a powerful application framework for software
developers on Linux and other Unix-like operating systems.   The GNOME
Foundation will provide organizational, financial and legal support to
the GNOME project, and help determine its vision and roadmap.
CollabNet, the leading provider of collaborative software development
services based on open source principles, is helping to organize the
GNOME Foundation.  GNOME is part of the GNU project, an effort to build
a completely free Unix-like operating system better known as GNU/Linux
or Linux.  Additional information is available at http://www.gnome.org/.

You are invited to participate in the GNOME Foundation. We welcome
contributions in many forms. Our membership consists of those
individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to the development of
GNOME through participation in the development, documentation and
promotion of GNOME. An Advisory Board provides a vehicle for
organizations and companies to communicate with the GNOME community and
support GNOME. Additional information is available at
http://www.gnome.org/.

LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Eazel is a trademark of Eazel,
Inc.  All other names and trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.


Quote Sheet:

"It's always great to see companies coming together and working to bring
open source technologies to the next level," said Brian Behlendorf, CTO
& co-founder, CollabNet.  "The creation of the Gnome Foundation will
help move Linux beyond the operating system to becoming a viable desktop
application and CollabNet is excited to be participating in this
process."

"Compaq is pleased to join the Advisory Board of the GNOME Foundation,
continuing Compaq's long-time support of the Linux community and open
source," said Glenn Johnson, Director of Compaq's Linux Program Office.
"Compaq expects the foundation will be a valuable forum for us, other
vendors, and customers to contribute to the GNOME Project."

"Eazel is delighted to be a member of the Foundation and to be building
software on the GNOME platform," said Mike Boich, CEO and co-founder of
Eazel. "Much like the Apache Project before it, GNOME is benefiting from
the interest of both developers and commercial entities.  The GNOME
Foundation can only help to accelerate that trend."

Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation said: "16 years ago, we
began developing the GNU operating system, a replacement for the Unix
operating system that would be entirely Free Software (free as in
freedom).  We aimed to give GNU the full scope of Unix, including
compilers, editors, email software, even games.  But beyond that, we
hoped someday to give a GNU graphical interface like the Macintosh.  Our
third attempt at that, the one that succeeded, is GNOME, started in 1997
by Miguel de Icaza.  GNOME, like all of GNU, is a project of the Free
Software Movement, which has been working since 1984 to give software
users the freedom to redistribute and change software.  The rival Open
Source Movement was founded in 1998 to avoid raising issues of freedom
and principle as we try to do.  Supporters of that movement contribute
to work on GNOME, but GNOME is not part of that movement.  See
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html for more
explanation."

"Gnumatic Incorporated sees the Gnome Foundation as a major key to the
creation of desktop and home user applications for Linux," said Dr.
Linas Vepstas, CEO of Gnumatic Incorporated. "By providing a stable
desktop development platform for Linux, applications such as GnuCash,
the personal finance manager being developed by Gnumatic, will benefit
from the broad array of standard Gnome technologies."

"We created Helix Code to deploy a free, modern and friendly desktop
solution to the world," said Nat Friedman, CEO and co-founder of Helix
Code.  "Helix GNOME has brought a new level of accessibility and
functionality to the hundreds of thousands of users who have installed
our product.  For GNOME, the next step is applications.  Helix Code
comes to the table with Evolution, a comprehensive communications and
information management suite.  Now, industry and developer support has
rallied around the GNOME platform and major contributions are coming in
from all sides.  We will soon offer a total desktop solution that will
reshape the industry. GNOME has arrived."

"HP is excited to join the GNOME foundation and will take an active role
in working with the open source community to contribute to the future
desktop standard for Linux and UNIX systems."  said Martin Fink, R&D Lab
Manager for UNIX Systems Enablement.  "HP is migrating the HP-UX desktop
to GNOME towards a goal of common look and feel between HP-UX and
Linux."

"By partnering with industry leaders in the GNOME Foundation, IBM
continues its strong commitment to open standards and a clear vision of
Linux as the driving force for the evolution of e-business," said Daniel
Frye, program director, IBM Linux Technology Center.  "IBM believes this
partnership will help enable innovation and will accelerate development
of the Linux desktop."

"One of the challenges the Linux community is facing is how to integrate
the new applications that are currently being developed with the
established architectures that already exist in most business
enterprises.  GNOME developers have realized that building it around
CORBA allows them to use components that integrate with other
industry-recognized technologies, such as Java and C++.  The OMG is well
aware of the need for vendor-neutral organizations that allow developers
to agree upon standard interfaces.  We look forward to helping the GNOME
Foundation in their mission, " said Dr. Richard Soley, CEO, Object
Management Group.

"About three years ago, Red Hat created the Red Hat Advanced Development
Labs (RHAD Labs) to support open source  software on the desktop and
became the first commercial company to make a contribution to GNOME
development," said Bob Young, Chairman and co-founder of Red Hat. "With
the formation of the GNOME Foundation, GNOME is truly coming of age in
terms of market momentum.  We are excited about the opportunities for
GNOME and open source, and we look forward to working with the new
members to the GNOME community, like Eazel, Helix, Sun Microsystems and
others, as they bring applications and technology to the GNOME desktop
environment."

"Sun is thrilled to be joining the GNOME Foundation and we plan to adopt
GNOME as the future desktop for Solaris," said Marco Boerries, vice
president and general manager of webtop and application software at Sun
Microsystems, Inc.  "We are committed to contributing significant
engineering resources to the GNOME project and will work closely with
the other GNOME members to ensure continued reliability and quality."

"TurboLinux is please to support the GNOME Foundation," said Rok Sosic,
TurboLinux Chief Technology Officer. "We have used GNOME as our default
desktop since 1999, and we've been very pleased with the progress that
it has made toward becoming a full-featured standard.  GNOME is one of
the best examples of how open source software can succeed.  Such wide
ranging support from the industry is guaranteed to help the project
achieve it's goals."

"VA Linux Systems has been proud to make GNOME available on our systems
for years," said Dr. Larry M. Augustin, president and CEO of VA Linux
Systems.  "GNOME is representative of the kind of creativity and
engineering that is available from the Open Source development
community. We have a number of engineers who have worked on GNOME and
GTK technology for some time, and are pleased to extend our GNOME
efforts by joining the GNOME foundation."

Red Hat Joins Industry Vendors as a Founding Member of the GNOME Foundation

Foundation to Reinforce and Advance GNOME as the World's Leading Open-source Desktop Environment

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.—August 15, 2000—Red Hat, Inc. (Nasdaq:RHAT), the leader in open source Internet infrastructure solutions, today announced it has joined the GNOME project and top industry vendors including Compaq, Eazel, Helix Code, IBM, Sun Microsystems and VA Linux Systems to form the GNOME Foundation, a non-profit, unified group of vendors and individuals dedicated to advancing the use and extending the capabilities of the popular GNOME graphical user environment.

The GNOME (GNU Network Object Modeling Environment) project is an open source, GUI-based user interface for Linux designed to run on all modern versions of UNIX-like operating systems. Since its development, GNOME has quickly become one of the world's leading, free and simple desktop environments.

Red Hat will assist the GNOME Foundation in leading the technical direction of the continuing GNOME project, offering forums for industry leaders to contribute to GNOME and in promoting the benefits of GNOME. The GNOME Foundation will provide organizational and financial support for GNOME and related open source projects.

"Red Hat has played an integral part in the development of code and support for GNOME," said Bob Young, chairman and co-founder of Red Hat, Inc. "As one of the key founders of the GNOME Foundation, Red Hat is dedicated to working with others in advancing this powerful application framework and promoting it as the desktop environment of the future."

About the GNOME Foundation
The GNOME Foundation provides organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project. The foundation will help determine the vision and roadmap for GNOME. It will also assist in creating technical standards, coordinate GNOME releases, and determine which software projects are part of GNOME. The foundation will make public statements and administer funds on behalf of the GNOME project. The Foundation will be incorporated as a membership-based, not-for-profit corporation.

You are invited to participate in the GNOME Foundation. We welcome contributions in many forms. Our membership consists of those individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to the development of GNOME through participation in the development, documentation and promotion of GNOME. The Advisory Board provides a vehicle for organizations and companies to communicate with the GNOME community and support GNOME. Additional information is available at:
http://www.gnome.org/.

Joining Red Hat in the GNOME Foundation is Collab.net, Compaq, Debian, Eazel, Free Software Foundation, Gnumatic, Helix Code, Henzai, Inc., IBM, Sun Microsystems, and VA Linux Systems.

Open source momentum
International Data Corp. (IDC) research states that paid Linux shipments grew faster than any other server operating system over the past two years, and their preliminary figures for 1999 show Linux shipments hold 24.6 percent of the server operating system market, up from 15.8 in 1998. 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. (http://www.netcraft.com/), states that as of May 2000, 36 percent of all public Web sites run on Linux-based operating systems, making Linux the most popular choice for deploying public Web sites. IDC research shows 40 percent of all spending on Linux servers is for Internet related applications, firmly entrenching Linux servers in the Internet infrastructure.

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.

Red Hat's numerous alliances with industry leaders and the demand for Linux-based applications has created open source support from many of the industry's leading software and hardware manufacturers, including Compaq, Computer Associates, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Netscape, Novell, Oracle and SAP.

About Red Hat, Inc.
Founded in 1994, Red Hat (Nasdaq:RHAT) is the leading provider of open source Internet infrastructure solutions, ranging from small embedded devices to high availability clusters and Web serving. Red Hat applies its technological leadership to create open source solutions for Internet infrastructure and post-PC environments, offers services backed by the best understanding of open source and the most comprehensive resources, delivers the brand of a widely trusted open source leader and corporate partner, and persists in an indelible commitment to the virtues of open source to lead a revolution in the computing industry.

Red Hat, Inc. is based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. and has offices worldwide. Visit Red Hat on the Web at http://www.redhat.com/index.html. For investor inquiries, contact Lippert/Heilshorn at (212) 838-3777.

Red Hat Europe was established in July 1999 with its European headquarters based in Surrey, United Kingdom and offices throughout Europe.

Forward-looking statements
Forward-looking statements in this press release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release that are not strictly historical statements, including, without limitation, management's plans and objectives for future operations and management's assessment of market factors, constitute forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties.These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, product plans and performance, the ability to continue to develop the Linux kernel and other software, reliance upon strategic relationships, Red Hat's dependence upon an open source business model, reliance upon independent third-party Linux developers, management of growth, expansion of Red Hat's business focus and operations, the possibility of undetected software errors, the enforceability of the GNU General Public License and other licenses under which Red Hat's products are developed and licensed, the scarcity of Linux-based applications, the risks of economic downturns generally, and in Red Hat's industry specifically, the risks associated with competition and competitive pricing pressures, the viability of the Internet, and other risks detailed in Red Hat's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which may be accessed through the SEC's Web site at http://www.sec.gov/.

LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Sun Joins GNOME Foundation

Adopts upcoming GNOME 2.0 as future user desktop for Solaris Operating Environment

Solaris Operating Environment is the world's leading mission-critical UNIX(R) operating environment, used by global corporations. OpenOffice.org is the industry initiative to deliver open office productivity applications, based on Sun's StarOffice office productivity suite, that was provided to the open source community by Sun in July.

"We are delighted to be joining the GNOME Foundation and to be adopting GNOME as the modern desktop for Solaris. Linux developers will now be able to tap into the industrial power of Solaris as they develop applications for desktops and Internet-enabled devices for the dot-com era," said Marco Boerries, vice president and general manager of webtop and application software at Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Sun is committing significant engineering resources to ensure that GNOME integrates seamlessly into Solaris."

"This is the first time a major systems vendor has embraced free software/open-source software as a key element of its primary operating system," said Miguel de Icaza, founder of the GNOME project and Helix Code. "Sun's commitment to GNOME helps usher in a new era in delivering a complete and modern future user environment for not only the Sun community but for the open-source community as well."

By focusing on Sun's areas of development expertise--robust UNIX technology, printing, internationalization, accessibility, and network configuration and management--Sun will drive reliability and quality with the GNOME Foundation.

About GNOME 2.0

Availability

About GNOME and the GNOME Foundation

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, StarOffice, Solaris, and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company. Ltd.