Author: JT Smith
company, today announced the immediate availability of Red Carpet Express,
a time-saving subscription service that provides customers with priority,
high-bandwidth Internet downloading and updating of Linux software from
Ximian, leading Linux distributions and third-party vendors. Red Carpet
Express provides subscribers with priority access to a dedicated network of
newly added Red Carpet Express server sites, providing significantly faster
updating of the latest software for Linux systems, even during peak demand
periods. Through February 28, 2002, customers may sign up for Red Carpet
Express at a special introductory price at the Ximian web site.
Red Carpet Express is a premium service that tightly integrates with the
Red Carpet client software used by hundreds of thousands of Ximian GNOME
users worldwide. Red Carpet is a software management solution that
efficiently and securely keeps Linux systems up-to-date. Its intuitive
software ?channels? and automatic dependency and conflict resolution let
users easily install, update and maintain software over the Internet from
Ximian, leading Linux distribution providers and a growing library of other
third-party independent software vendors (ISVs). Especially important for
mixed computing environments, Red Carpet uniquely provides multi-platform
support, updating systems running a broad range of Linux distributions,
including Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, Debian, TurboLinux and more.
With the premium Red Carpet Express service, subscribers receive priority
access to a network of high-bandwidth mirror sites that can deliver
dramatically faster performance than the free Red Carpet software
management service. After using a simple web-based sign up process at the
Ximian web site, Red Carpet Express customers may then experience software
downloads at speeds of up to 10 or more times faster for updating Ximian
and Linux software, depending on the type of Internet connection used and
geographic location. Subscribers can also use the “My Account” section of
the Ximian web site to maintain their own accounts, including login
information and billing data.
“Ximian is responding to overwhelming customer demand for a high-speed
subscription service for Linux software management and updating,” said
David Patrick, Ximian president and CEO. “The enormous popularity of Red
Carpet is demonstrated by over 700,000 updates in November alone. With Red
Carpet Express, users can now choose significantly faster access to what is
emerging as the de facto standard method for keeping Linux software
up-to-date.”
“As the local affiliate for NBC, KSL will be hosting NBC’s Winter Olympic
coverage and will serve as the primary Internet provider for the Olympics.
The high profile of this event reinforces our need for the latest security
updates,” said Kerry Cox, network engineer at KSL.com in Salt Lake
City. “Since its introduction in the spring, Red Carpet has become
essential to the daily maintenance of both my personal systems and the
30-plus web servers we use to host KSL.com. With the new Red Carpet Express
from Ximian, I can get the most recent Linux security and software updates
for our critical systems in a time-saving updating process that is both
simple and fast.”
Red Carpet Software Management Services
Red Carpet Express is one of the Ximian Red Carpet services that bring
software vendors, end users and corporate customers together to seamlessly
deliver and manage the Linux software they use. Red Carpet
CorporateConnect, announced this fall, is a unique hosted service that will
provide corporate customers with a web-based management console to
centrally manage, control and customize the Linux software they distribute
and update internally.
The Red Carpet Partner Program offers users access to a growing library of
software from a host of third-party developers, while providing the
software vendors with a unique cross-platform updating and distribution
mechanism to reach hundreds of thousands of users worldwide. CodeWeavers,
Loki Software, Opera Software ASA, VMware and Sun are among the vendors who
have joined the Red Carpet Partner Program and will now offer their
software and updates to Ximian Desktop users who run Red Carpet.
Pricing and Availability
Ximian is offering special introduction pricing for Red Carpet
Express. Customers who subscribe by February 28, 2002, will be billed only
$7.95 a month through June 30, 2002, a 20% savings off the regular monthly
price of $9.95. Customers may also choose an annual subscription with
introductory pricing of $99.95. Customers can sign up for the service
using a convenient web-based registration process at
http://store.ximian.com/redcarpet, and then simply enter an activation code
into the Red Carpet client software.
Red Carpet Express requires the new version 1.2 of the Red Carpet client
application included with Ximian Desktop, which is available for free
download or purchase on CD ($29.95 and $49.95 for the Standard and
Professional Editions, respectively) from the Ximian web site at
www.ximian.com. Red Carpet users will continue to have the option of using
the free public Ximian servers for software updating.
About Ximian, Inc.
Ximian is the established leader in providing open source desktop
technology, applications, support and services for the Linux and UNIX
marketplaces. Ximian products, in use by over 800,000 people worldwide, are
providing the ease of use, productivity and interoperability needed to
propel the adoption of the Linux desktop in corporate computing
environments. Its Ximian Desktop software starts with Ximian GNOME, a
productized end-user desktop based on the GNOME project, to provide a
complete graphical desktop environment and productivity application suite
for Linux and UNIX systems. Ximian Red Carpet and Ximian Evolution ?
deliver software and personal information management solutions for both end
users and corporate customers. Comprised of many of the original architects
of the GNOME system, Ximian is a founding member of the GNOME Foundation
and sits on the advisory board. The company has secured funding from
leading venture firms Charles River Ventures and Battery Ventures and can
be reached at www.ximian.com.
