Ximian Ships Ximian Desktop Productivity Software Packages for Linux and UNIX Systems

Off-the-Shelf Packages Enhance Usability, Productivity and Interoperability for Linux Desktop Users in Corporate Environments

SAN FRANCISCO — Linux World Expo (Booth 1247) — August 27, 2001 Ximian, Inc., the leading open source desktop company, today announced the availability of Ximian™ Desktop, a complete desktop productivity solution for Linux and UNIX systems. Ximian Desktop includes Ximian GNOME, the intuitive graphical user interface for a broad range of popular Linux distributions, and a full suite of Ximian and third-party applications to enhance productivity, speed communication and simplify software management. Available for purchase from Ximian at www.ximian.com, the software is offered in two versions, Ximian Desktop Standard Edition and Ximian Desktop Professional Edition.

Ximian Desktop delivers a robust suite of applications including word processing, web browsing, email and personal information management, complete with documentation, web-based technical support and source code in the handy CD disc set. Ximian Desktop Standard Edition combines Ximian GNOME; Ximian Red Carpet™, a software management and updating application; and a preview version of Ximian Evolution™, the groupware suite for personal information management. The software also incorporates a host of leading third-party open source productivity applications, including the Mozilla web browser, the AbiWord word processor, the Gnumeric spreadsheet and GIMP image editor. Ximian Desktop Standard Edition also provides 30 days of web-based technical support.

The Ximian Desktop Professional Edition adds the Sun® StarOffice™ application suite in addition to providing 90 days of web-based end-user technical support. StarOffice provides users with powerful, Microsoft Office file-compatible word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, business diagram and other applications. With StarOffice, users can create, open, modify, save and resend native Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. StarOffice integration with Ximian Desktop also includes one-click attachment handling in the Ximian Evolution email client, which speeds the opening of Microsoft Office files sent as email enclosures to Linux users.

"Ximian Desktop will drive adoption of the Linux desktop, especially in corporate environments," said Nat Friedman, co-founder and vice president of product development at Ximian. "We have worked to carefully select, integrate and polish best-of-breed applications from hundreds of open source developers worldwide. The result is Ximian Desktop, which provides the usability, productivity applications, file compatibility, email management and painless software updating that customers need, whether in technology, telecommunications, government, higher education or other settings."

"Ximian has become a leader in providing a complete, elegant user experience for UNIX and Linux desktops," said Nancy Lee, StarOffice marketing manager at Sun Microsystems. "The addition of Sun StarOffice to the Professional Edition of Ximian Desktop creates a powerful application suite that users demand while providing the compatibility many companies require."

Ximian Desktop supports a broad range of popular Linux distributions and UNIX variants to provide a common desktop environment across the platforms found in mixed corporate computing environments. With its expanded operating system support, Ximian Desktop is now available for Red Hat Linux 6.2, 7.0 and 7.1; Linux Mandrake 7.0, 7.1, 7.2 and 8.0; SuSE 6.4, 7.0, 7.1 and 7.2; Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 (Potato); TurboLinux 6.0; Solaris 7 and 8; Yellow Dog Linux 1.2 and 2.0; and Linux PPC 2000.

Complete Desktop Productivity and Management

The Ximian Desktop combines the core Ximian GNOME desktop environment with Ximian Evolution and Ximian Red Carpet to provide powerful collaboration and software management for Linux and UNIX users.

Ximian GNOME delivers an elegant, complete desktop experience for Linux and UNIX users. Building on the work of the open source GNOME project, Ximian GNOME provides an intuitive graphical interface for first-time set-up, system and network configuration, drag and drop file management, Internet browsing and more.

Ximian Evolution is the premier personal and workgroup information management tool for Linux and UNIX-based systems. Currently available in a pre-release version, Evolution seamlessly combines powerful email, calendar, address book, and task list management in one powerful, fast and easy-to-use application. With its extensive support for communications and data interchange standards, including IMAP, POP3, vCard, iCalendar and LDAP, Ximian Evolution can be tightly integrated into corporate networks and messaging systems such as Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes/Domino.

Ximian Red Carpet is a complete software management solution that keeps Linux and UNIX systems up to date automatically, efficiently and securely. Its convenient software channels and powerful dependency and conflict resolution technology let end-users easily install, maintain, update and remove software from developers worldwide, regardless of the leading Linux or UNIX system they use. Additional Internet subscription-based services announced today by Ximian will provide guaranteed high-bandwidth updating over the Internet for end-users (Red Carpet Express) and software version management and control for corporate workgroups (Red Carpet CorporateConnect) (see related press release: "Ximian Announces Red Carpet Services to Streamline Software Management and Version Control for Linux End-Users and Corporate Workgroups").

Pricing and Availability

The Ximian Desktop Standard Edition, priced at $29.95, and the Ximian Desktop Professional Edition, priced at $49.95, are available for purchase direct from Ximian at www.ximian.com or by phone at 866-4XIMIAN (outside the United States, 423-244-0162). A free download version of the software is also available from the Ximian web site.

About Ximian, Inc.

Ximian is the established leader in providing open source desktop technology, applications, support and services for the Linux and UNIX marketplaces. Ximian products, in use by over 800,000 people worldwide, are providing the ease of use, productivity and interoperability needed to propel the adoption of the Linux desktop in corporate computing environments. Its Ximian Desktop software starts with Ximian GNOME, a productized end- user desktop based on the GNOME project, to provide a complete graphical desktop environment and productivity application suite for Linux and UNIX systems. Ximian Red Carpet and Ximian Evolution™ deliver software and personal information management solutions for both end-users and corporate customers. Comprised of many of the original architects of the GNOME system, Ximian is a founding member of the GNOME Foundation and sits on the advisory board. The company has secured funding from leading venture firms Charles River Ventures and Battery Ventures and can be reached at www.ximian.com.

Ximian, Ximian Evolution and Red Carpet are trademarks of Ximian, Inc. Sun is a registered trademark and StarOffice is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. used under license. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.