Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2000 10:07:10 -0400
To: lwn@lwn.net
From: Leah Barrett <lbarrett@schwartz-pr.com>
Subject: Andover.Net and ibooks.com Launch First Linux/Open Source


ANDOVER.NET AND IBOOKS.COM LAUNCH THE FIRST LINUX/OPEN SOURCE DIGITAL BOOKSTORE

Digital Book Store Contains Thousands of Books For Sale and Provides Free 
Online
Access to Linux Documentation Project Guides

AUSTIN, TX AND ACTON, MASS.--April 04, 2000--ibooks.com (www.ibooks.com), 
the leading e-publishing company for online reference books, and 
Andover.Net (NASDAQ: ANDN), the leading Linux destination on the Internet, 
today announced a partnership and the launch of the first Linux/Open Source 
online digital bookstore (http://linux.ibooks.com). This co-branded site 
joins the ranks of Andover.Net's leading Linux/Open Source news, community 
and developer sites Slashdot.org and Freshmeat.net, providing Andover.Net's 
3 million monthly visitors with direct access to the most comprehensive set 
of Linux/Open Source related books and documentation available anywhere.

In addition to being available on linux.ibooks.com, this online digital 
bookstore is also available by clicking on the Linux Documentation links on 
the Andover.Net network of Web sites. Updated weekly with fresh Open Source 
content, this digital book store contains thousands of digital books for 
sale from premier publishers such as Coriolis, John Wiley, O'Reilly, Sam's, 
Sybex and Que. In keeping with Andover.Net's commitment to the free 
exchange of information and resources throughout the Linux/Open Source 
community, Linuxbooks.com also offers a number of free resources. A total 
of 12 online digital books including the Linux Documentation Project (LDP), 
GNU/Linux operating system user guides and HOWTO's, as well as Internet 
Request for Comment (RFC) documents are now available free-of-charge in the 
ibooks.com powerful digital format.

"Andover.Net's network of Web sites is an extremely important part of the 
Open Source community," said Sean Devine, vice president of business 
development and marketing for ibooks.com. "We believe that offering the 
Linux Documentation Project in the ibooks.com digital book format along 
with books from premier publishers provides the Linux/Open Source community 
and IT professionals with an incredibly powerful service."

Visitors to this co-branded Linux book store can conduct full-text searches 
across the entire bookstore, preview for-sale books prior to purchase using 
ibooks.com's patent-pending "previewing" technology, add books to an online 
shopping cart and store an unlimited number of free and purchased books on 
a personal digital bookshelf hosted by ibooks.com. Users can access their 
personal digital bookshelf via any standard browser-based device, any time 
of the day.

"Our goal is to provide Andover.Net users with the most complete and 
up-to-date repository of Linux and Open Source related information," said 
Bruce Twickler, president and CEO of Andover.Net. "ibooks.com's unique 
digital format for online reference books and full-text searching 
capabilities are a fantastic addition to the Andover.Net network that help 
us continue to provide increased value to the Linux and Open Source 
communities."

Under the terms of the partnership, Andover.Net is incorporating all 
traffic from the co-branded site into its overall traffic numbers and is 
selling and managing the site's advertising space. ibooks.com and 
Andover.Net are sharing revenues generated by selling online digital books 
to site visitors. In addition, ibooks.com is advertising its main digital 
book service (www.ibooks.com) on the Andover.Net network.

About Andover.Net
Andover.Net (NASDAQ: ANDN) is the leading Linux destination on the 
Internet. Serving 60 million page impressions to over 3 million users each 
month, Andover.Net (andover.net) includes the largest news/community site, 
Slashdot (slashdot.org); the largest site for programmer resources, 
Freshmeat.net (www.freshmeat.net); QuestionExchange 
(www.questionexchange.com), providing online Linux support; and the popular 
developer e-commerce site, ThinkGeek (www.thinkgeek.com). With these sites 
and our other Linux sites such as FreeCode (www.freecode.com) and 
LinuxDaveCentral (www.linux.davecentral.com), Andover.Net accounts for over 
50% of the visits to Linux destinations on the Internet. Andover.Net also 
includes cross-platform sites such as MediaBuilder (www.mediabuilder.com) 
that provide programmer and developer resources for users of many popular 
operating systems in addition to Linux such as Windows, UNIX and Macintosh.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters 
discussed in this news release are forward-looking statements involving 
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ 
materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Potential risks 
and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, Andover.Net's limited 
operating history, expectation that Andover will incur substantial losses 
in the future; Andover's reliance on Linux/open source community; Andover's 
heavy reliance on advertising revenues; intense competition and other risks 
listed in Andover.Net's S-1 registration statement.

About ibooks.com
Founded in April 1999, ibooks.com is the leading e-publishing company for 
online reference books and offers the first integrated service for 
effectively evaluating, purchasing and immediately using digital reference 
books from industry leading publishers and technology companies. The 
service, available at www.ibooks.com, is the first service to allow users 
to preview digital books prior to purchase, buy online digital reference 
books one-at-a-time, and store digital books on a personal digital 
bookshelf. The company is privately held with funding from TL Ventures 
among other venture capital firms and angel investors. ibooks.com is 
headquartered in Austin, Texas and can be reached at 512-478-2700 or by 
visiting the company's Web site at www.ibooks.com.

###

Andover.Net, Slashdot, Freshmeat, MediaBuilder, Internet Traffic Report, 
DaveCentral, FreeCode, are trademarks of Andover.Net.


******************************************************************************
Leah Barrett
Assistant Account Executive
Schwartz Communications, Inc.
Prospect Place, 230 Third Avenue
Waltham, MA  02451
p. (781) 684-0770
f. (781) 684-6500
lbarrett@schwartz-pr.com