[fdn-ann] draft 1 of the second press release

[Bart Decrem <bart eazel com>]

Hi everyone,

As promised, here's a first draft of the other press release we'd like
to issue on Tuesday.  There's lots of problems with it, but I thought
it'd be useful to get this out as quickly as possible.

Again, this is NOT the press release that everyone needs to sign off
on.  The other press release, announcing the creation of the foundation,
is slated to go out pretty much as it was posted by Greg last night.

We are inviting other companies who have specific technologies they want
to contribute to GNOME and who want to be part of this announcement, to
let us know, and get involved with this announcement.

Bart

----------

GNOME community, industry leaders join to deliver next
 generation user environment


LinuxWorld Expo, San Jose, CA -- August 15, 2000 -- The GNOME Steering
Committee today announced plans to integrate several key applications
into the GNOME desktop. Together with the support of industry leaders
announced today, these developments represent the momentum behind and
progress towards a leading-edge, free user environment for traditional
desktops and workstations, as well as an emerging class of Internet
access devices.

Technologies to be incorporated into GNOME include the OpenOffice
productivity suite, AOL/Netscape's Mozilla browser, Helix Code's
Evolution software, Eazel's Nautilus software and Gnumatic's personal
finance application. In addition, these companies have committed
technology and resources to improve the GNOME environment.

"GNOME is receiving a tremendous boost in terms of support, backing and
commitment for contribution and improvements.  GNOME is now well poised
to be the next generation user environment, uniting the existing Linux
and Unix communities as well as the emerging class of internet devices,"
said Miguel De Icaza, founder of the GNOME project.  "We are building an
alternative environment based on open source technology and open
principles.  By leveraging other open technologies we're able to
maintain our focus of making the most attractive development environment
with the largest potential volume."

Making GNOME Better

As part of the industry support, the following companies have made
commitments to improve the GNOME environment.  These commitments
include:

RedHat will provide an object-oriented application framework, CORBA
support for  distributed software, lay-out and rendering of
internationalized text and configuration management technology.
Helix Code will provide integrated mail, calendar, and address
management and its component based architecture.
Eazel will provide a network-based file management system.
Sun Microsystems provide printing, internationalization, accessibility
technology in addition to expertise in improving reliability and
quality.

GNOME For New Markets

"Its clear the emerging market for online devices will be based on
Linux," De Icaza added  "GNOME is building a technology suite that meets
the flexibility and open demands of device manufacturers that is based
on a technology that will scale from toasters to teraflops."

More data/information needed.

In a related announcement, the GNOME project today announced the
creation of the GNOME Foundation and an associated Advisory Body.
Founding members of the Advisory Board include Compaq, Debian, Eazel,
the Free Software Foundation, Gnumatic, Helix Code, Henzai, IBM, Red
Hat, Sun Microsystems and VA Linux.

About GNOME
The GNOME project has built a complete free and easy-to-use desktop
environment for the user, as well as a powerful application framework
for the software developer.

GNOME is part of the GNU project, and is free software (often referred
as open source software).  GNOME is included in almost every BSD and
Linux distribution and works on many other Unix systems.

Although a number of private and public companies are contributing to
the development of GNOME, GNOME is not controlled by any company.  It is
a volunteer-driven effort with hundreds of volunteer developers from all
over the world.  Their efforts are coordinated by the Gnome Foundation.
Information about GNOME is available at http://www.gnome.org.