[fdn-ann] second press release, final draft

[Bart Decrem <bart eazel com>]

Hi everyone,

Here's a final draft a the second press release, announcing specific
technology deployments.  This press release is slated to go out tomorrow
morning.  Please let me know if you have comments, additions or
concerns.

I also need to get confirmations from all the companies listed in this
release, including:
- Compaq
- Hewlett Packard
- IBM
- Eazel
- Helix Code
- Gnumatic
- Red Hat
- Sun Microsystems
- TurboLinux

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
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  Linux and Unix communities.
- Adoption of OpenOffice.org technologies for integration into GNOME.
- Integration of the Mozilla browser technology into GNOME.
- 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
free software and open principles.  By leveraging other open
technologies we are able to maintain our focus on making the most
attractive development environment."

GNOME ADOPTION ON LINUX AND UNIX
GNOME has achieved significant acceptance from the Linux and Unix
communities.  Sun and Hewlett Packard are announcing their adoption of
GNOME as the future default user environment for Solaris and HP-UX,
respectively.  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 Bill
Claybrook of Aberdeen Group.  "By reducing development, deployment and
training costs this project will create a competitive, open standards
based alternative."

A COMPLETE END-USER ENVIRONMENT
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 and its technologies are being adopted
by the GNOME project for integration into the system. OpenOffice.org
will leverage the Bonobo component model to create a number of object
components, allowing these components to be used by a wide range of
applications.

The Mozilla project is an industry initiative to deliver an open
Internet browser.  Mozilla browser technology, together with IBM's
SashXB technology will be integrated into GNOME to deliver an integrated
browsing experience into its next generation user environment.  GNOME
has also integrated Mozilla with the Bonobo component system.

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 provide 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 a new set of configuration and
administration tools targeted to end users, including configuration
snapshotting, rollback and cluster management.

BEYOND THE DESKTOP
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.

As part of this initiative, Compaq will provide GNOME-based applications
on its handheld devices as well as assisting developers through the
handhelds.org community and the GNOME Foundation.

OTHER KEY CONTRIBUTIONS TO ENHANCE GNOME
IBM is contributing application development tools which enable
development of web-based applications (SashXB 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.


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
to 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