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."
About UnitedLinux
UnitedLinux is a partnership of industry-leading Linux companies combining their intellectual property, geographic mind share, sales, support and marketing expertise to produce a uniform distribution of Linux designed for business. UnitedLinux applies the collaborative development model of open source to the business model to enable a one-stop shop for developers, partners and customers to install, support and maintain quality business solutions based on Linux anywhere in the world. UnitedLinux is actively recruiting membership for both industry software developers and those who provide Linux as an integral part of their business solutions. For more information, visit http://www.unitedlinux.com or call UnitedLinux at +1-781-876-8989.
For additional information:
UnitedLinux
Margot Benoit
mbenoit@virtualmgmt.com
+1-781-876-6299
About Novell
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