HP's OpenMail for Linux Sees Tremendous User-baseIncrease.

High Tech Writers

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 7, 2000

HP's Business-messaging and Collaboration System for

Linux Amasses Over One Million Users in 12 Months

Hewlett-Packard Company today announced that OpenMail for Linux has passed the 1 million

user mark after only 10 months of availability. OpenMail's momentum continues to grow as a result of dramatic increases in downloads, as well as HP's continued establishment of partner relationships with top Application Service Providers (ASPs), including AT&T and PSINet. OpenMail is one of the leading business-messaging and collaboration systems for the Linux operating system.

In addition, OpenMail is now available on Red Hat's e-commerce Web site (http://www.redhat.com/store/). "Since making OpenMail available for direct purchase through Red Hat's portal, the number of users has risen dramatically -- current downloads account for 3,500 users on an average day," said Nigel Upton, general manager of HP's OpenMail business. "The feedback we have received from users has been extremely positive and is a testament to the opportunity that OpenMail, combined with Linux's open source momentum, presents to enterprises in the fast-growing area of messaging and collaboration."

The Red Hat site currently offers fully functional copies of OpenMail with Red Hat 6.1 Professional for download. This version of OpenMail is unrestricted for a limited number of users, allowing customers to take advantage of OpenMail's proven, robust, e-services technology.

OpenMail is being downloaded by a wide spectrum of organizations, including those focused on the telecommunications, automotive and heavy engineering industries, as well as government agencies and academic groups. The software is being downloaded from almost every developed country in the world.

In addition, OpenMail also is proving very attractive to ASPs, thanks to its class-leading scalability and functionality. "Scalability is extremely important to ASPs, because it greatly reduces their cost of delivering service," said David Ferris, the research director at Ferris Research. "OpenMail offers scalability, and unlike its competition it can use Outlook as a collaboration client to the hosted service."

About OpenMail

OpenMail is HP's strategic business messaging and collaboration e-services(1) solution for Linux and UNIX(R) systems, based on Internet standards. Perhaps its most notable feature is that it offers a choice of desktops, including Microsoft Outlook. No other non-Microsoft server supports the richness of Outlook as deeply as OpenMail, including support for "collaboration" features, such as calendaring, wide-area scheduling, public folders and delegation. OpenMail has an installed base of 15 million seats, with representation in 60 percent of the Fortune 1000. OpenMail is the No. 3 business-messaging product, in terms of Fortune 500 installed base, according to respected industry consultants Creative Networks, Inc. More information is available at http://www.openmail.com/openmail/. Information for the press is available at http://www.openmail.com/ompr/.