Ximian Announces Red Carpet Enterprise to Provide Secure, Automated Software Management for Linux Systems

Product Provides Customization, Control and Cost-Savings for Companies Deploying and Updating Linux Servers and Desktops

BOSTON, MA -- October 7, 2002 -- Ximian, Inc., the leading open source desktop company, today announced the availability of Red Carpet™ Enterprise™, a powerful server-based solution that provides customers with centralized software maintenance and version management for servers and workstations running a broad range of leading Linux distributions. Deployed entirely behind the corporate firewall, Red Carpet Enterprise lets organizations automatically update groups of systems on demand or on preset schedules with custom company software standards, as well as software from Ximian™, Linux distribution providers and third-party software vendors. As a result, companies can dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of updating their internal Linux servers and workstations with the security and performance of a behind-the-firewall solution.

Red Carpet Enterprise is designed for companies that are balancing the need for enterprise system security and control with the reality of rapidly changing open source Linux software, which accounts for 25 percent of server operating system paid license shipments and is used by growing populations of corporate workstations. Until now, IT and engineering personnel have had to develop their own software updating solutions or manually update systems with the latest packages, especially in organizations customizing Red Hat or other Linux distributions for their own use. Ximian customers reported, prior to the use of Red Carpet, spending between five and 10 hours per week per user just to update their systems.

"At Amerada Hess, Red Carpet Enterprise ensures that over 300 Linux servers and workstations are constantly up-to-date with the latest security patches, Linux distribution updates and other internal software standards," said Jeff Davis, senior systems programmer at Amerada Hess Corporation. "With Red Carpet Enterprise, I can completely customize and control the software deployment and updating process for systems throughout the company with a solution that is secure and scalable. Red Carpet Enterprise allows me to take advantage of the flexibility of Linux solutions to slash our overall maintenance costs."

(For more information on Amerada Hess’s use of Ximian solutions, see related release: Amerada Hess Selects Ximian Red Carpet Enterprise Solutions for Linux Software Management).

Custom Software Management and Updating

With Red Carpet Enterprise, administrators use a single, powerful solution to automatically deliver and update packages to Linux systems across their organizations. Without the need for expensive and time-consuming third-party customization or services, administrators can build secure, private software "channels" to deliver Linux packages that have been internally developed or customized, as well as packages from the optional broad Red Carpet library of applications from Ximian, Linux OS providers and other leading Linux vendors.

Using either an intuitive web-based administration console or a powerful command line interface, administrators can set up the Red Carpet Server to centrally configure and distribute software selections as well as organize groups of machines for both software installation and updates. The command line interface provides a host of additional time-saving power tools, from querying systems for installed software to adding packages to be distributed.

Updates for workstations and servers can be initiated automatically "on demand" by users of the Red Carpet client, or unattended on specified schedules using the Red Carpet Daemon and its Autopull™ capability. The web-based administration console includes flexible reporting, detailing download and installation activities.

The Red Carpet Enterprise server tightly integrates with the Red Carpet client software used by hundreds of thousands of Ximian Desktop users worldwide. Red Carpet is a software management solution that efficiently and securely keeps Linux 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 providers 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, including Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, Debian and more.

"With a 28 percent increase in Linux operating system shipments in 2001, software management is quickly becoming a critical issue for organizations deploying Linux," said Al Gillen, research director, system software at IDC. "A product like Red Carpet Enterprise can replace cumbersome manual software deployment and updating procedures with a secure and efficient solution that helps reduce overall costs of system maintenance."

"Red Carpet Enterprise provides Linux-based organizations with a cost-effective, 'out-of- the-box' software management solution that is uniquely secure, customizable and supports all the leading Linux distributions," said David Patrick, president and CEO of Ximian. "Deploying the Red Carpet server inside their firewall gives companies a powerful and cost-effective method for updating Linux software on desktops and servers, whether that software comes from Ximian, another vendor or is developed internally."

Pricing and Availability

Red Carpet Enterprises is available immediately. The Red Carpet server starts at $2,500 with a software license starting at $200 for each managed system, with organizational volume pricing available. Customers may optionally subscribe to the Red Carpet library subscription service, starting at $60 per system per year, which provides updates to the latest software from Ximian, leading Linux distributions and third-party vendors. For more information regarding Red Carpet Enterprise, customers can contact Ximian directly by phone (617-375-3800), email (sales@ximian.com) or by visiting the Ximian web site at http://www.ximian.com/.

The Red Carpet Suite of Products and Services

Red Carpet Enterprise is part of a suite of Red Carpet products and services for end users and corporate customers. For organizations that prefer a hosted solution, Ximian offers Red Carpet CorporateConnect™, a web-based service that provides customers with many of the same capabilities of Red Carpet Enterprise. For individuals, Red Carpet Express is a time-saving subscription service that provides customers with priority, high-bandwidth Internet downloading and updating of Linux software from Ximian, leading Linux distributions and third-party vendors. More information is available at http://www.ximian.com/.

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 1,000,000 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 http://www.ximian.com/.