PRESS RELEASE

17th February 1998 — IMMEDIATE

Range of Linux Training Courses Announced

GBdirect, specialists in Linux, Unix, Internet and
Extranet development, announced today the launch of a specialist
Linux training curriculum.

Dates have already been set for the one-day Strategic
Overview course for purchasers and decision makers who need to
know how Linux can reduce their overall IT spend and management
costs, as well as for the three-day ‘Care and Feeding
of a Linux System’ for those who want to get up and running
quickly. The one-day Strategic
Overview will be held at venues in London, Leeds and Edinburgh
in April this year. Details of the other available courses may be
found by following the links at the bottom of this
page.

The three day course is currently scheduled for
7th-9th April in London, jointly organised with LinuxIT (www.linuxit.com, tel: 0117 9058718),
distributors of software for Linux systems.

Linux is a low-cost (in essence, free), highly
reliable operating system which runs on PC and other computer
hardware, providing a powerful and flexible platform which is now
widely seen as a potential threat to Microsoft’s dominance in many
areas. GBdirect have been working with Linux since its arrival in
1993, and prior to that, other Unix-like systems since 1978.

Mike Banahan, Managing Director of GBdirect and a
well-known figure in the Unix/Linux community said,

The curriculum currently consists of a range of
courses designed to meet the needs of strategic decision-makers
through to implementors and administrators.

For more information, contact GBdirect on 01274
772277, or see their website at http://www.gbdirect.co.uk.

Notes to the Editor
Linux is a software system which is a free-of-charge version of
Unix, the workhorse of many commercial and industrial companies,
both large and small. Figures from IDC show that Linux alone has
17% of the commercial ‘server’ market and is growing at a rate of
200% per year. It is now widely viewed as offering a threat to
Microsoft NT in the server market and is expected by some to become
a threat to the Windows desktop within the next two years. It is
legendary for its stability and robustness as well as its low
management overhead and total-cost-of-ownership. Included with
Linux in the free package are a windowing system, web server, file
and print sharing, email and a host of other services.

For more information and background on Linux, call
GBdirect on 01274 772277.