June, 15th 2004 – Nexedi and Mandrakesoft announce a revolution
in Linux Desktop: rentalinux Desktop Linux Server. For the first
time, organisations can benefit from the power of Mandrakelinux
Desktop with no investment, no software installation and no changes
to existing hardware or network.
“rentalinux Desktop Linux Server” is a full featured turnkey
solution which provides the power of 500+ Mandrakelinux Desktop
applications to legacy PCs, Macintosh, Unix Workstations or to thin
clients. Nexedi rentalinux Desktop Linux Server solution combines
server hardware rental, software setup, custom configuration,
support and maintenance service in a single package which makes it
the easiest, least intrusive and most effective way to provide
Linux Desktop applications for small to medium-sized networks.
rentalinux service is available immediately in the European Union
for a flat rate of 95 EUR/month and is expected to become available
in the United States and Japan by the end of 2004.
Jean-Paul Smets, CEO of Nexedi explains: “small and medium
organisations have been asking us for a Mandrakelinux Desktop which
could become instantly available to all existing PCs or Macintosh
and would require no technical skill to setup. After one year of
research and development, we are now proud to introduce a proven
solution which fully meets their requirements.”
François Bancilhon, CEO of Mandrakesoft, adds: “we have
partnered with Nexedi rentalinux to provide small and medium
organisations with a new kind of packaged Mandrakelinux enterprise
services at a reasonable cost. rentalinux provides instant turn-key
solutions with no hidden costs: hardware is provided, customer
specific system configuration service is included, assistance and
support too. It is compatible with legacy systems and there are no
transition costs.”
Yoshinori Okuji, Director of R&D at Nexedi, points out that
“rentalinux Desktop Linux Server is implemented with umibuilder
custom distribution technology and published under Libre Software
licenses. Users with technical skills can also benefit, at no cost,
from rentalinux technology. We expect rentalinux Desktop Linux
Server to also grow as a custom thin client server solution based
on Mandrakelinux.”
“Our Desktop Linux Server is also a great solution to implement
cost efficient Linux Desktop”, says Smets, “together with thin
client hardware, 75% cost savings and 90% energy savings can be
obtained compared to traditional proprietary desktop
solutions.”
For Smets, “rentalinux fills the gap between a conservative
approach to Desktop solutions based on proprietary software and a
complete migration to Mandrakelinux Desktop by early adopters.”
“With rentalinux, every organisation can immediately adopt
Mandrakelinux desktop as a cost saving complement to legacy systems
and later migrate at its own pace to a full Mandrakelinux Desktop
solution.” concludes Bancilhon.
Additional information about rentalinux can be found at:
http://www.mandrakestore.com/mdkinc/index.php?LANG_=en&tab_x=tab_nexedi
Related Story:
Mandrake
Linux Community Newsletter — Issue #55(Aug 16, 2002)