UnitedLinux Names New General Manager; Will Offer Open Beta Release on Sept. 23
WAKEFIELD, Mass. - Sept. 18, 2002 - UnitedLinux, founded by Linux
industry leaders Conectiva S.A., The SCO Group, SuSE Linux AG, and
Turbolinux, Inc., today announced the appointment of Paula Hunter,
an experienced technology executive and consortium leader, as its
worldwide general manager. Hunter's appointment is effective
immediately. The group also announced the open availability of the
beta version of its UnitedLinux product on Sept. 23. The open beta
source code will be available for download at no charge from
http://www.unitedlinux.com.
UnitedLinux is a standards-based Linux operating system targeted
at the business user, the result of an industry initiative to
streamline Linux development and certification around a global,
uniform distribution of Linux. UnitedLinux leverages the
collective resources of the founding companies, with the end
result designed to provide an unprecedented Linux business
infrastructure.
As UnitedLinux general manager, Hunter's initial priorities will
be to broaden UnitedLinux global membership and to develop a range
of training and certification programs and support offerings.
Coordinating with the UnitedLinux Board of Managers, she will
oversee implementation of the UnitedLinux roadmap. Hunter will
also represent UnitedLinux to the industry and to the public.
"UnitedLinux represents a one-of-a-kind opportunity," said Hunter.
"The UnitedLinux product will deliver a feature rich open source
operating system designed for global business enterprise use. I
look forward to building on the strong foundation set by the four
founding companies, to take the group's efforts to the successful
deployment of Linux in the global enterprise."
Hunter most recently served as Vice President of Marketing for
Xevo Corporation, an infrastructure software vendor, where she
drove the company's marketing efforts and established strategy
regarding market selection. As a founding officer and recently
Chairman of the ASP (Application Service Provider) Industry
Consortium, Hunter provided strategic direction and operational
management to this global advocacy group. Previously, Hunter held
key executive positions at several startup companies, and within
Compaq Computer's Emerging Markets and Programs Business Unit.
Hunter has served on the Key3Media ASP Summit Advisory Board and
the Mass. High Tech Advisory Board. She holds a B.S. in Computer
Information Systems from Bentley College, Waltham, Mass., USA.
The UnitedLinux operating system is geared for the global
enterprise. UnitedLinux will be compliant with existing Linux
standards such as Linux Standard Base (LSB) and Li18nux
(internationalization and localization), and will be available in
English, Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean,
Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German, French, and Hungarian.
Supported by leading global ISVs and IHVs, UnitedLinux will have
local language and local time zone support for customers around
the world, a channel of more than 16,000 resellers, and a global
pre- and post-sales support team.
"Our open beta release demonstrates our collective commitment to
UnitedLinux as the global enterprise operating system of the
future," said Hunter. "Because it's being developed to unify
rather than to fragment Linux offerings, UnitedLinux will help
vendors support a single high-value Linux offering rather than
many different versions. We are thus enabling the industry to
deploy resources toward the advancement of Linux, thus creating a
much higher quality, more functional product than would be
developed otherwise."
About UnitedLinux
UnitedLinux is a partnership of industry-leading Linux companies
combining their intellectual property, geographic mind share,
sales, support and marketing expertise to produce a uniform
distribution of Linux designed for business. UnitedLinux applies
the collaborative development model of open source to the business
model to enable a one-stop shop for developers, partners and
customers to install, support and maintain quality business
solutions based on Linux anywhere in the world. UnitedLinux is
actively recruiting membership for both industry software
developers and those who provide Linux as an integral part of
their business solutions. For more information, visit
http://www.unitedlinux.com or call UnitedLinux at +1-781-876-8989.
For additional information:
UnitedLinux
Margot Benoit
mbenoit@virtualmgmt.com
+1-781-876-6299
