UnitedLinux, founded by Linux industry leaders Conectiva S.A.,
The SCO Group, SuSE Linux AG, and Turbolinux, Inc., today announced
the appointment of Paula Hunter, an experienced technology
executive and consortium leader, as its worldwide general manager.
Hunter’s appointment is effective immediately. The group also
announced the open availability of the beta version of its
UnitedLinux product on Sept. 23. The open beta source code will be
available for download at no charge from
http://www.unitedlinux.com.
UnitedLinux is a standards-based Linux operating system targeted
at the business user, the result of an industry initiative to
streamline Linux development and certification around a global,
uniform distribution of Linux. UnitedLinux leverages the collective
resources of the founding companies, with the end result designed
to provide an unprecedented Linux business infrastructure.
As UnitedLinux general manager, Hunter’s initial priorities will
be to broaden UnitedLinux global membership and to develop a range
of training and certification programs and support offerings.
Coordinating with the UnitedLinux Board of Managers, she will
oversee implementation of the UnitedLinux roadmap. Hunter will also
represent UnitedLinux to the industry and to the public.
“UnitedLinux represents a one-of-a-kind opportunity,” said
Hunter. “The UnitedLinux product will deliver a feature rich open
source operating system designed for global business enterprise
use. I look forward to building on the strong foundation set by the
four founding companies, to take the group’s efforts to the
successful deployment of Linux in the global enterprise.”
Hunter most recently served as Vice President of Marketing for
Xevo Corporation, an infrastructure software vendor, where she
drove the company’s marketing efforts and established strategy
regarding market selection. As a founding officer and recently
Chairman of the ASP (Application Service Provider) Industry
Consortium, Hunter provided strategic direction and operational
management to this global advocacy group. Previously, Hunter held
key executive positions at several startup companies, and within
Compaq Computer’s Emerging Markets and Programs Business Unit.
Hunter has served on the Key3Media ASP Summit Advisory Board and
the Mass. High Tech Advisory Board. She holds a B.S. in Computer
Information Systems from Bentley College, Waltham, Mass., USA.
The UnitedLinux operating system is geared for the global
enterprise. UnitedLinux will be compliant with existing Linux
standards such as Linux Standard Base (LSB) and Li18nux
(internationalization and localization), and will be available in
English, Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean,
Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German, French, and Hungarian.
Supported by leading global ISVs and IHVs, UnitedLinux will have
local language and local time zone support for customers around the
world, a channel of more than 16,000 resellers, and a global pre-
and post-sales support team.
“Our open beta release demonstrates our collective commitment to
UnitedLinux as the global enterprise operating system of the
future,” said Hunter. “Because it’s being developed to unify rather
than to fragment Linux offerings, UnitedLinux will help vendors
support a single high-value Linux offering rather than many
different versions. We are thus enabling the industry to deploy
resources toward the advancement of Linux, thus creating a much
higher quality, more functional product than would be developed
otherwise.”