Subject: IBM Delivers the First Integrated Linux Solution for Small Business Tod
To: kgill@brodeur.com
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2000 09:49:53 -0500

     IBM DELIVERS INDUSTRY'S FIRST INTEGRATED LINUX SOLUTION FOR SMALL
                                BUSINESSES
  World's Leading Distributors Support Aggressively Priced Small Business
                                   Suite


Somers, NY, November 6, 2000 . . . IBM today announced the industry's first
Linux*-based integrated software solution for small businesses.

The IBM Small Business Suite for Linux delivers the tools necessary to help
customers with messaging and collaboration, productivity, Web site creation
and design, and data management. IBM also includes a fully integrated
install program that allows customers and business partners to deploy,
quickly and easily, the key software featured in the suite on both servers
and desktops.

According to IDC, small businesses represent 48 percent of all Linux server
installations.

With a suggested retail price of only $499 (US), the IBM Small Business
Suite for Linux includes IBM's DB2 Universal Database**, WebSphere
Application Server**, and Lotus Domino**.  This suite gives growing
companies the opportunity to utilize IBM's industry-leading software at a
significant cost savings.

"This offering provides small businesses, and the Value-Added Resellers
(VARs) and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) that serve them, everything
they need to do serious e-business on Linux.," said Scott Handy, director,
Linux solutions marketing, IBM Software.  "The IBM Small Business Suite is
first-of-a-kind for Linux and delivers the three most requested servers:
database, e-mail and Web application server software, delivering a great
solution at a great price."

"We are pleased to support IBM's Small Business Suite for Linux to
successfully handle critical business computing needs," said Paul McNamara,
vice president, Products and Platforms, Red Hat.  "This is the first
integrated suite that Red Hat will jointly market, distribute and support
together with IBM."

The Small Business Suite for Linux

The Small Business Suite for Linux includes the following software:

Lotus Domino Release 5.04:
Is a leading messaging and collaboration solution that allows customers to
get e-mail and Web sites up-and-running rapidly with a unified,
easy-to-manage administrator interface.  This solution provides desktop and
mobile e-mail, Web access, calendaring, group scheduling, bulletin
boards/newsgroups, workflow and database access. Domino sends and receives
e-mail using standard Internet e-mail protocols including native Internet
addressing, SMTP routing, and supports a wide variety of clients and
devices including a Web browsers, Lotus Notes clients, POP3 and IMAP4 mail
clients.

IBM WebSphere Application Server, Standard Edition Version 3:
This delivers an open and flexible Web application runtime environment for
internal and external Web pages by allowing JavaTM servlets to run on top
of an HTTP server including the Apache Web server or the included IBM HTTP
server powered by Apache.  The WebSphere Application Server makes it easy
to build security-enhanced, individual Web sites providing Web access to
credit, delivery, order processing or other business-critical information.
This offering also provides interaction with IBM DB2 Universal Database for
access to managed relational data directly from Web applications.

IBM DB2 Universal Database Version 7:
This award-winning database is a powerful, easy-to-use multi-media ready
relational database management
system with the ability to handle the ad-hoc structured queries for a wide
variety of data types including text, data, voice, image or any binary
object.  Reports can be customized and generated from the information to
help run a small business more efficiently. Data from third party
applications that support DB2, such as accounting information, can be
stored, retrieved and reported on from DB2, routed or shared in a teamroom
with Lotus Domino or made accessible to
customers or suppliers over the internet with WebSphere Application Server.

Web Design and Productivity Tools Featured in the Small Business Suite for
Linux:
IBM WebSphere Homepage Builder*:  Includes the necessary templates, tools
and multimedia tutorials for creating and publishing Internet and intranet
Web sites and pages in minutes. This easy-to-use software is designed to
appeal to the ever-growing community using Linux as both a development
platform and a Web server environment.

IBM Suites Installer: This tool assists in the distributed installation and
configuration of the suite components and other applications, providing a
quick and easy way for customers to install the software.

WebSphere Studio:  Is a complete set of tools integrated and designed to
support all Web development levels, permitting content authors, graphic
artists, page scripters, Web programmers and webmasters to work on the same
projects simultaneously. WebSphere Studio features automated Web site
building, Java  applications and a host of other design and publishing
capabilities.

Domino Designer:  This rapid Web site design and development tool is used
to bring back office data to the Web and implement e-business processes
using HTML authoring, site/page design, frameset design and application
preview.

Pricing and Availability

The new Small Business Suite for Linux is available immediately worldwide
with a suggested retail price of $499 (US) on www.ShopIBM.com.  This
offering is supported on the leading Linux distributions from Caldera, Red
Hat, SuSE and TurboLinux.

Companies may license the Small Business Suite for Linux for a maximum of
100 registered users per organization. User licenses are sold separately
for $90 per user and include a license for browser based access to any
server component for Linux desktops and a license for native Lotus Notes
and DB2 clients for Windows desktops.  The IBM Suites Installer and desktop
software is available translated in the following languages:  English,
French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese,
Traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

About IBM

IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of
leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM Software offers the widest
range of applications, middleware and operating systems for all types of
computing platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the new
era of e-business. The fastest way to get more information about IBM
software or solutions for Linux is through the IBM Software home page at
http://www.ibm.com/linux.

###

Quote Sheet:

"This offering from IBM delivers powerful  solutions for small businesses,"
said Dirk Hohndel, CTO SuSE Linux AG.  "IBM's Linux portfolio continues to
increase and we're happy to support this new offering."

"IBM's new Small Business Suite for Linux offers unmatched performance and
value as an application framework for customers serious about moving their
small or medium-sized business to the Internet," said Jerry Greenberg,
Senior Vice President of Marketing for Turbolinux.


*Indicates trademark or registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
**Indicates trademark or registered trademark of IBM Corporation.


Katherine Gill
Brodeur Worldwide for IBM
617-587-2080
kgill@brodeur.com