RALEIGH, N.C - —
Red Hat, Inc. (NASDAQ: RHAT), the market leader in open source solutions, announced InfoWorld Test Center named Red Hat Linux 6.1 operating system Product of the Year in 1999. The latest version of Red Hat Linux was deemed a 'must-have' for enterprise and Internet environments due to management and usability improvements.
Judges in the 19th annual InfoWorld Product of the Year Awards credited the software's ease of installation, network and systems management, and office and Internet applications that showcased the speed and efficiency of open source development. These innovations and the utility of Red Hat support offerings, including the Red Hat Update Agent, caused InfoWorld to note that Red Hat Linux 6.1 had the greatest impact on corporate customers in 1999.
"Once again a leading, independent publication has validated Red Hat's powerful open source solutions and support programs for enterprise organizations," said Michael Tiemann, CTO of Red Hat. "InfoWorld^s award for four consecutive years is another in a long-line of illustrations on the superiority of the open source development model and Red Hat's leadership as the definitive resource for knowledgeable, innovative, mission-critical open source solutions."
Red Hat Linux 6.1 continues to win top industry awards and widespread praise, including a 1999 Product of the Year Award from InformationWeek. InternetWeek also named Red Hat Linux 'King of the Linux Server Hill'in a recent review.
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Open source and Internet 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.
According to research firm NetCraft, Inc. (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.
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About Red Hat, Inc.
Red Hat, the world's leading open source and Linux provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high quality, low cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides operating system software along with middleware, applications and management solutions. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's open source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com
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, reliance upon strategic relationships, management of growth, the possibility of undetected software errors, 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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