SUSE LINUX Joins ObjectWeb

SUSE LINUX Joins ObjectWeb

SUSE LINUX joins the ObjectWeb consortium to embrace industrial-grade
open-source middleware in its enterprise strategy

Frankfurt, Germany, October 28th, 2003 -- ObjectWeb, the international
consortium focused on open-source middleware, and SUSE LINUX today announced
that SUSE LINUX has joined ObjectWeb - bringing SUSE customers an
enterprise-ready open-source middleware alternative.

Earlier this year, SUSE LINUX became a Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) source
licensee, acquiring the right to distribute Sun's Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
As an ObjectWeb corporate member, SUSE LINUX will gain privileged access to
the community of developers of many middleware components and platforms,
including JOnAS - a Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) server, and Enhydra -
another Java application server distributed by ObjectWeb.

"The first milestone of our initiative is to provide a version of a true
open-source web application server on SUSE LINUX, supporting users who wish
to deploy a full open-source stack as well as those who prefer a mix of
proprietary and open-source software," said Juergen Geck, SUSE's Chief
Technology Officer. "Open-source is about choice, about flexibility, and we
believe that this choice will benefit to the industry".

Distributed under the Lesser GNU Public License (LGPL) by ObjectWeb, JOnAS
implements the functionality set forth in J2EE and has proven itself in
production environment. JOnAS comes with free documentation and examples.
This makes it the only true non-profit open-source application server to
provide the J2EE 1.3 functionality - with already some features anticipating
J2EE 1.4.

"SUSE's choice of joining ObjectWeb is an illustration of the company's
genuine commitment to playing an active role in the development of
open-source middleware on the long term. We really appreciate it and we are
honored to welcome SUSE LINUX as a new member," explained Christophe Ney,
President of ObjectWeb's Executive Committee.

SUSE LINUX will bring to its customers an enterprise-ready middleware
alternative. The involvement of this new member is expected to foster the
adoption of ObjectWeb components in the industrial world.

About ObjectWeb
Founded by Bull, France Telecom and INRIA, ObjectWeb is a worldwide
consortium of leading enterprises and research organizations that have joined
efforts to produce next generation open-source Middleware. ObjectWeb's goal
is to bring to Real-Time Enterprise independence, quality, and robustness
with the best performance/cost ratio that it requires. ObjectWeb targets
alternative solutions to proprietary products addressing e-business, EAI,
data connectivity, grid computing, and enterprise messaging. Based on Open
Standards, ObjectWeb's middleware includes application servers, components,
frameworks and tools. Examples of ObjectWeb's "cost killer" middleware are
JOnAS - an open-source implementation of J2EE specification, JORAM JMS - a
Message Oriented Middleware and Enhydra - Java/XML Application Server.
ObjectWeb is hosted by INRIA. To learn more about ObjectWeb, visit
http://www.objectweb.org.

About SUSE LINUX
Established in 1992, SUSE LINUX is one of the world's leading providers of
Linux software and services. With the largest dedicated Linux research and
development team, SUSE delivers enterprise-ready software and services that
harness the innovation, speed-to-market and independence of the open source
community. A privately-held company based in Nuremberg, Germany, SUSE LINUX
-- together with global business partners -- supports customers throughout
the world. Further information on SUSE LINUX can be found at www.suse.de/en/.

Press Contact:

SUSE LINUX
Martina Krahmer
Phone: +49-911-74053-507
E-Mail:  martina.krahmer-AT-suse.de

ObjectWeb: 
Christophe Ney
Phone: +33 (0)4 76 61 54 87
E-Mail:  contact-AT-objectweb.org