[fdn-ann] second press release, draft 2

[Bart Decrem <bart eazel com>]

Hi everyone,

Here's a second draft of the press release describing the new technology

contributions that are going to be announced on Tuesday.  This document
is in flux and we welcome your feedback.    Also, if your company is
included in the release, please review the section(s) attributed to it
and let me know what needs to be changed.

Bart

-----

THE GNOME COMMUNITY AND INDUSTRY LEADERS JOIN FORCES TO DELIVER ENHANCED

USER ENVIRONMENT FOR PCs, WORKSTATIONS AND NEW INTERNET ACCESS DEVICES

LinuxWorld Expo, San Jose, CA -- August 15, 2000 -- The GNOME project,
the precursor to the GNOME Foundation Board, today announced five major
initiatives aimed at delivering an industry-wide open user environment.
These initiatives are:
- To establish the GNOME user environment as the unifying desktop for
the Unix community.
- Integration of the OpenOffice.org productivity applications with the
GNOME Office project.
- Integration of the Mozilla browser technology into GNOME.
[--> need commitment from AOL in order to keep this]
- Industry leaders to work together to improve the quality, reliability
and accessibility of the GNOME user environment around the world.
- Establishment of the GNOME framework as the standard for next
generation Internet access devices.

"GNOME is receiving a tremendous boost in terms of support, backing and
commitment for contribution and improvements.  GNOME is now well
positioned to be the next generation user environment, uniting the
existing Linux and Unix communities," 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 are able to maintain our focus on making the most
attractive development environment."

GNOME has achieved significant acceptance from the Linux and Unix
communities.  Sun is announcing its adoption of GNOME as the the future
default user environment for Solaris.  The GNOME user environment is the

default for Red Hat, TurboLinux and several other leading Linux
distributions and is available for all major Linux distributions.  As a
result, this initiative will unify many variations of Unix under a
single user environment.  It creates a cost-effective framework based on

open standard and open source that will enable developers to write
solutions for many different platforms, while competing on
implementations.

"The advent of a single user environment will provide enormous benefits
to developers, end users and the industry as a whole," said XXX
(analyst).  "By reducing development, deployment and training costs this

project will create a competitive, open standards based alternative."

Based on StarOffice, an alternative competitive office productivity
suite available on multiple platforms and the leading productivity suite

for Linux, OpenOffice.org is the industry initiative to deliver open
office productivity applications, including the definition of XML-based
file formats and specifications of open office APIs.  Sun will
contribute OpenOffice.org technologies to GNOME.   OpenOffice.org will
leverage the GNOME component model to create a number of object
components, allowing these components to be used by a wide range of
applications. Together with the Evolution and Nautilus, these
technologies will help to provide a more user friendly environment for
GNOME.

The Mozilla project is an industry initiative to deliver an open
Internet browser.  Mozilla browser technology will be integrated into
GNOME to deliver an integrated browsing experience into its next
generation user environment.  GNOME will also be leveraging its
component model for Mozilla techonology.
[--> Need commitment from AOL in order to keep this]

Compaq will provide GNOME-based applications on its handheld devices as
well as assisting developers through the handhelds.org community and the

GNOME Foundation.

Eazel will provide Nautilus, an innovative file manager which serves as
the starting point for Eazel's web-based system management services.
Nautilus will provide a state-of-the art file manager for GNOME, with a
fully-integrated Mozilla web-browser and a number of innovative new
features.  The Nautilus software will be integrated with web-based
services that provide assistance with file management and system
administration.

GnuCash will be providing graphing and financial data handling
infrastructure.

Helix Code will provide Evolution, the integrated calendar, mail and
contacts system, as well as its Bonobo component architecture which
enables applications to be built out of reusable software components.
In addition, Helix Code will deliver as a new set of configuration and
administration tools targeted to end users.

IBM is contributing application development tools which enable
development of web-based applications (Sash for Linux) using open web
standard languages (HTML, Javascript, DHTML, and XML), but have
look-and-feel consistency with other "native" applications.

Red Hat will provide an object-oriented widget framework, CORBA, an OMG
industry standard, support for distributed software, lay-out and
rendering of internationalized text and configuration management
technology.

Sun Microsystems will provide printing, internationalization and
accessibility technology as well as its substantial expertise in
improving reliability and quality based on its experience in delivering
mission-critical solutions for global corporations.

This initiative will develop the framework and platform services
required for applications to be developed and deployed on Internet
appliances, consistent and compatible with the GNOME user environment on

desktop systems.  For the emerging Internet appliance market, Linux has
been established as the front runner kernel technolgy.  This initiative
will provide a well-defined framework for developers and manufacturers
of new devices and developers of Internet-based software services.  It
will also provide users and developers with a cost-effective framework
that will deliver a common experience and share data across a range of
hardware platforms, from handhelds to supercomputers.

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.

Contact Information:

Barb Heffner
CHEN PR
781-466-8282
bheffner@chenpr.com