Industry Leader Forming Development Lab For Linux

Industry Leaders Including Hp, Intel, IBM And NEC Forming Open Source Development Lab For Linux

AUCKLAND, Aug. 31, 2000 – Hewlett-Packard, Intel Corporation, IBM and NEC Corporation today announced the Open Source Development Lab, the industry’s first independent, non-profit lab for developers who are adding enterprise capabilities to Linux*. The four companies plan to provide significant equipment and funding to the lab over the next several years. Additional contributors and sponsors of the lab include Caldera, Dell, Linuxcare, LynuxWorks, Red Hat, SGI, SuSE, TurboLinux and VA Linux.

The lab, currently under formation, will provide open source developers with a centralized enterprise development environment for sharing development ideas and innovations. The lab will be based near Portland, Ore. It is expected to open at the end of the year.

“The Open Source Development Lab will help fulfill a need that individual Linux and open source developers often have -- access to high-end enterprise hardware,” said Brian Behlendorf, chief technical officer of CollabNet and co-founder of Apache. “It’s great that these companies are coming together to help accelerate development for this environment.”

Supporting the Open Source Development Model

The lab will support existing industry projects that use open source licenses and are established according to today’s open source development model. The lab will not create new projects; instead, it will help accelerate existing or new projects developed by the open source community. The initial lab projects will be announced later in the year after an open, neutral

Open Source Development Lab/Page 2

process for choosing projects is coordinated with the open source community. Initial projects are expected to range from tools development to kernel projects that advance the enterprise capabilities of Linux. More information about the lab and its initial projects can be found at www.osdlab.org.

Independent Board to Govern Lab

The lab will be governed by an independent board and management structure, and will consist of members from the open source community as well as representatives of sponsor companies. An independent executive director employed by the lab will implement policy, make funding decisions and work with the open source community to select projects.
About HP

Hewlett-Packard Company -- a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services -- is focused on making technology and its benefits accessible to individuals and businesses through simple appliances, useful e-services and an Internet infrastructure that’s always on.

HP has 86,000 employees worldwide and had total revenue from continuing operations of $42.4 billion in its 1999 fiscal year. Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

More information on HP and Linux is available at http://www.hp.com/go/linux.
About Intel
Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.
About IBM
IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with 80 years of
leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM creates, develops and manufactures the

Open Source Development Lab

industry’s most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices and microelectronics. The fastest way to get more information about IBM is through the IBM home page at http://www.ibm.com.

About NEC
NEC Corporation (NASDAQ: NIPNY) (FTSE: 6701q.l) is a leading provider of Internet solutions, dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its customers in the key computer, network and electron device fields through its three market-focused in-house companies: NEC Solutions, NEC Networks and NEC Electron Devices. NEC Corporation, with its in-house companies, employs more than 150,000 people worldwide and saw net sales of 4,991 billion Yen (approx. US$48 billion) in fiscal year 1999-2000. For further information, please visit the NEC home page at http://www.nec-global.com.
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*Third party marks and brands are property of their respective holders.
*IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
*Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
*UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

For more information please contact:
Stephanie Silvester, Intel Australia, Tel: (02) 9937 5886, Mob: +614 18 684 381
Email: stephanie.silvester@intel.com
Nimita Morarji , Botica Conroy, Tel: (09) 303 3862, 021 950058, Mob: 021 950058
Email:nimitam@bca.co.nz

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