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Highly Anticipated Linux Magazine to Debut at LinuxWorld Expo

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Adam Goodman
Linux Magazine
(510) 665-7847
adamgood@linux-mag.com

HIGHLY ANTICIPATED LINUX MAGAZINE TO DEBUT AT
LINUXWORLD EXPO

Premier Issue Entitled “Microscared” Explains Why
Closed Source Vendors Fear Linux; Inside Readers Will Find First
In-Depth Profile of Linus Torvalds

SAN JOSE, CA, March 1, 1999

The much anticipated premier issue of Linux Magazine
was announced today at LinuxWorld Expo in San Jose, California.
According to Adam Goodman, the magazine’s editor and publisher,
Linux Magazine is a new publication focused on serving the growing
number of Linux users worldwide. A Web site featuring news and
links to other Linux sites will be launched concurrently with the
magazine’s print version. The aim for the Web site,
http://www.linux-mag.com, is to become a Linux portal, a gateway to
all of the news, information and technical data that will interest
the Linux community.

The magazine features a dark and foreboding cover
story entitled, “MICROSCARED — Why Closed Source Vendors Fear
Linux.” Stories in the print publication and online explain the
history of the Open Source Software movement, Linux, and the
challenges they present to traditional software companies. In
addition, the magazine contains the first truly in-depth,
comprehensive interview with Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux.
An extended excerpt from this interview is also available at
http://www.linux-mag.com.

“Linux represents the best kind of challenge to the
established closed source model for computer software,” Goodman
said. “Linux has traditionally been a haven for hackers, but it is
now becoming a commercial phenomenon. Our magazine is written for
hackers and entrepreneurial executives alike, and delivers
sophisticated coverage of both the technical and commercial sides
of the Linux revolution.

Although Linux users at present number approximately
ten million worldwide, recent decisions by Oracle, Corel and other
vendors to release software that supports Linux have begun to stir
the imagination of the entire computer industry. Hardware
manufacturers such as IBM, Hewlett Packard and Dell plan to release
products pre-loaded with Linux. Many Fortune 500 companies have
also begun to adopt Linux-based servers and workstations at many of
their work sites.

What makes Linux a such a powerful competitor for
Microsoft Windows is its dependence on and commitment to the “open
source” philosophy. With its source code available to programmers
worldwide, the kernel or “heart” of the operating system is
constantly being improved and upgraded by an army of enthusiastic
users who function as kind of a group mind. Under Microsoft’s
proprietary model, innovation comes about much more slowly and at
greater cost to the company and its customers.

The Linux kernel is protected by a software license
developed by the “Free Software Foundation” and known as the “GNU
Public License” (or GPL). This license guarantees that no one
person or organization can claim ownership of the Linux source
code. It further guarantees in perpetuity the free distribution of
the open source Linux kernel code. Instead of being copyrighted,
software protected by the GPL is referred to in jest as being
“copylefted”.

Linux Magazine’s initial circulation is 40,000. By
the end of the year, Goodman anticipates it will reach 75,000.
Advertisers are already flocking to the new publication. Companies
appearing in the first issue include: Red Hat Software, VA
Research, Linux Hardware Solutions, SuSE, Enhanced Software
Technologies, LinuxCare, ASL Workstations, Caldera, O’Reilly
Associates, Cobalt Networks, InfoMagic, and Microway. Linux
Magazine will be available at B. Dalton, Barnes & Noble,
Borders Books, CompUSA, and many other bookstores and newsstands
throughout the U.S. and abroad. The cover price of the magazine is
$4.95 per issue. Subscriptions are available at $34.95 per
year.

Linux Magazine will maintain production and
distribution offices in New York City and editorial offices in
Berkeley, California, not far from Silicon Valley, the epicenter of
the Linux Revolution. Matt Welsh, the author of “Running Linux,”
published by O’Reilly and Associates is also an editor. “Running
Linux” is widely acknowledged as the bible of new Linux users.
Goodman and Welsh hope to attract the best writers available from
both the Linux community and the wider world of technology-savvy
writers serving the technology marketplace. The current issue
contains articles from Linux luminaries such as Alan Cox and Erik
Troan.

How will Goodman define success? “If we can grow by
helping the Linux market grow, and we’re providing a magazine
people want to read and find useful, I will call us
successful.”

For a first glimpse of Linux Magazine, the curious
can stop by the Red Hat Software booth at the Linux World Expo in
San Jose March 1-4. Red Hat, a pioneer in developing the commercial
market for Linux, has generously provided space for Linux
Magazine’s launch and is an advertiser in its first issue.
Interested readers may also visit the magazine’s Web site at
http://www.linux-mag.com.

© 1999 Linux
Magazine

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