Red Hat Unveils Complete Open Source Operating System Family

Red Hat Unveils Complete Open Source Operating System Family for E-Commerce Internet Servers and Embedded Systems

Delivers Widest Range of Open Source Solutions Available for Powerful E-commerce Servers and Internet-enabled, Handheld and Embedded Devices

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.—March 27, 2000—Red Hat®, Inc. (NASDAQ:RHAT), the leading provider of open source solutions for internet infrastructure, today introduced its complete family of operating systems (OS) for today's e-commerce servers and the growing number of embedded, Internet-enabled devices.

The combination of Red Hat Linux 6.2 and Red Hat eCos (embedded configurable operating system) 1.3, both available today, makes Red Hat the only company to provide a powerful continuum of reliable open source OSes and supporting development tools and services that span the broad spectrum of Internet computing from servers to portable devices.

``Today's announcement expands the Red Hat family of products and services to continue to deliver the highest value for building the infrastructure for internet computing,'' said Matthew Szulik, president and CEO of Red Hat, Inc. `` Red Hat's comprehensive product and service offerings, backed by our partnerships with many of the world's computing leaders, like Compaq, Computer Associates, Dell, HP, IBM and Intel, lets enterprises easily capitalize on the promise of open source for more powerful and reliable e-business."

"Internet developers are rapidly moving their UNIX application deployments to Linux," Said Mike Pope, Director of Enterprise Software Programs at Intel. "This comprehensive offering from Red Hat gives developers a solid foundation and reason to accelerate their move to the Linux OS, where we are seeing a great amount of development and innovation around Intel-based solutions."

Red Hat Linux 6.2 for E-commerce and Internet Servers
Version 6.2 is the latest edition of the award-winning Red Hat Linux open source operating system. It includes an easier graphical installation and increased scalability and reliability for the most intense e-business environments.

Red Hat Linux 6.2, Professional Edition, provides the complete software infrastructure needed for enterprise organizations to quickly, easily and reliably deploy powerful e-commerce Web servers. This package includes:

The complete CCVS credit card processing package, which provides a critical piece of software infrastructure for any company trying to conduct business on the Web
30-day configuration support for the Apache Web server, the number one public Web server solution
180 days Priority Online Access for software updates
30 days of telephone support and 90 days of email support
five application CDs with a wide variety of popular enterprise and Internet software for Linux.

All editions in the Red Hat Linux 6.2 suite of products include:

improved high availability clustering capabilities to increase performance and reliability of network-based services
a Web-based interface for configuration of clusters
more comprehensive load-balancing technology to provide higher performance and more scalable service accessibility
a partitionless install on DOS-based systems that eases the migration to Linux.

eCos 1.3 OS for Embedded Devices
eCos 1.3 is the latest version of Red Hat's open source, configurable, application-specific operating system for embedded systems. It provides manufacturers of post-PC era devices with the flexibility and expertise to bring intelligent networking applications to next-generation Internet and embedded devices such as Internet appliances, PDAs and handhelds. eCos 1.3 features a built-in TCP/IP stack that enables embedded devices to communicate with the Internet.

The configurability of eCos 1.3 enables developers to create an embedded device and offers the best combination of size and performance. With nearly universal development and target platform compatibility, eCos 1.3 sets the new standard in efficiency and utility in post-PC development.

Red Hat has partnered with industry leaders to provide its customers with the best solutions for internet computing.

"Every Compaq ProLiant server is certified to run Red Hat Linux, giving customers the broadest range of robust, industry leading servers to implement their Linux solutions," said Rick Becker, director of Software Marketing, Compaq Computer Corporation. "Red Hat's new 6.2 Linux distribution with exciting features like software RAID, coupled with Compaq ProLiant servers and storage offer new levels of performance and reliability to meet the computing needs of customers worldwide."

"Our customers are looking to us to offer complete e-business solutions for the Enterprise," said Ken Farber senior vice president, world wide alliances for Computer Associates. "The solutions we offer to Red Hat Linux clients, coupled with Red Hat's ongoing commitment to e-commerce products and services, is an important benefit to our clients."

"Dell plans to offer pre-installation of Red Hat Linux 6.2 on all Dell PowerEdge servers and selected configurations of its Precision WorkStations, OptiPlex and Dimension PCs, and Latitude and Inspiron notebook PCs later this month," said Russ Holt, vice president and general manager, departmental and workgroup servers, Dell Computer Corporation's Enterprise Systems Group. "As the number No.2 PC server provider worldwide, Dell was the first major systems vendor to pre-install Red Hat Linux on its servers and workstations. Red Hat Linux 6.2 pre-installed on appliance servers and today's rack dense PC servers, such as the Dell PowerEdge 2450 and PowerEdge 6350, will enable service providers, dot coms and click-to-brick customers to address the needs of their internet infrastructure and expand their e-commerce businesses more easily and effectively."

"HP applauds the release of the Red Hat Linux 6.2 operating system. We anticipate that this release will add momentum to the significant acceptance and customer satisfaction that Red Hat Linux has already achieved with HP's customers," said James R. Bell, general manager for HP's Open Source Solutions Operation. "HP's alliance with Red Hat Linux includes certification and support for all E series and L series HP NetServer systems. Additionally, HP will continue participating in a broad range of initiatives with Red Hat -- spanning embedded software, open source tools, and enterprise applications-- and we expect that our relationship with Red Hat will yield a steadily increasing range of benefits to our customers."

"Red Hat's new offerings should accelerate the adoption and success of Linux by extending its reach in a variety of computing environments" said Dick Sullivan, vice president, Solutions & Integration Marketing, IBM Software Group. "By including IBM's Java technology in Red Hat Linux and offering trial versions of IBM's DB2 Universal Database and WebSphere Application Server in Red Hat 6.2, IBM & Red Hat are working together to bring e-business technologies to Linux solution developers and customers."

Pricing and Availability
Red Hat Linux 6.2 will be available in select retail outlets and through resellers in April. The Official Red Hat Linux 6.2 is available as a family of products to meet a variety of needs. Available worldwide and in several languages, Red Hat Linux 6.2 can be purchased immediately through redhat.com.

In addition to the Professional Edition, which costs $179.95 U.S., Red Hat Linux 6.2 is also available as:

Standard Edition, a package including two operating system CDs, one Documentation CD, 90 days of email support and 30 days of priority online access-for $29.95.
Deluxe Edition, with two operating system CDs, one Documentation CD, two workstation application CDs that include applications such as Emusic's Emusic Player 2.03 and HP's Open Mail, 30 days of phone support, 90 days of email support and 90 days of priority online access-for $79.95.

All packages include Red Hat's subscription service, which provides continual updates to users through an innovative, automated Internet delivery service. Corporations and ISPs worldwide can purchase additional support packages from Red Hat's Service Center. Several packages are tailored for specificcustomer needs, ranging from per-incident packages and training to full-blown, 24x7 unlimited support.

eCos Availability

eCos is immediately and freely available as open source code from http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ecos. From this Web site, developers can download eCos implementations for the ARM, Hitachi SuperH, Intel x86, Matsushita AM3x, MIPS, PowerPC, and SPARC microprocessor families and specific support for the following derivatives: ARM7, ARM9, ARM Thumb, Cirrus Logic EP-72xx, Fujitsu MB868xx SPARClite, Intel StrongARM, Matsushita MN10300/AM33, Motorola MPC8xx, NEC VR4300, Toshiba TX39 MIPS, Linux x86 Synthetic Target.

For more information on eCos or becoming an eCos OEM Partner, contact a Red Hat sales representative or Red Hat's office in Sunnyvale, Calif., at (800) 294-6871, (408) 542-9600, ecos-info@redhat.com, http://www.redhat.com/services/ecos/

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. IDC preliminary figures for 1999 show Linux shipments hold 24.6 percent of the server operating system market, up from 15.8 in 1998.

According to research firm NetCraft, Inc. (http://www.netcraft.com/), 29 percent of all public Web servers run on Linux, making Linux the most popular operating system for 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.

Red Hat's numerous partnerships 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, Corel, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Netscape, Novell, Oracle and SAP.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Founded in 1994, Red Hat (NASDAQ: RHAT) is the market leader in open source operating system (OS) software, services and information, 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 and the Official Red Hat Linux OS have received substantial industry praise. Recent accolades include: Red Herring's Top 100 Companies of the Electronic Economy, Network World's 10 Companies to Watch, Federal Computer Week's Government Best Buy, Software Development's Jolt Award, Information Week's Product of the Year, an Upside Hot 100 Company and E-biz Winner, and InfoWorld's Product of the Year four years in a row.

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

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, Red Hat's dependence upon an open source business model, reliance upon independent third-party Linux developers, management of growth, reliance upon strategic relationships, 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/.

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