SGI and SUSE Linux Announce Strategic Alliance

December 4, 2000


SGI (NYSE: SGI) today announced a new strategic alliance with SUSE Linux, the international technology leader and solution provider in open source operating system software.

Mountain View, California

SGI (NYSE: SGI) today announced a new strategic alliance with SUSE Linux, the international technology leader and solution provider in open source operating system software. Under the alliance agreement, SGI will make an undisclosed equity investment in SUSE Linux and will work cooperatively on the development, deployment and support of the Linux(R) operating system and infrastructure code. The companies expect their customers to benefit from the high-end technical enterprise applications that will be derived from this alliance.

"SGI is pleased to partner with SUSE and thereby extend its already deep commitment to the open source community," said Bob Bishop, chairman and CEO, SGI. "Through our combined efforts, we can significantly advance the application availability on Linux for our customers."

Earlier this year, the companies successfully introduced Linux FailSafe(TM), a scalable and modular high-availability solution based on IRIS FailSafe(TM) system software developed for the SGI(TM) IRIX(R) operating system. Linux FailSafe offers advanced clustering capabilities to Linux and signifies an important step in the maturation of Linux into a platform of choice for technical enterprise-class, high-availability applications. SGI, SUSE and others also cooperated in the highly regarded IA-64 Trillian Linux effort.

"The technical precision of SUSE Linux provides the stability and reliability that is crucial to the continuing deployment of Linux on high-end systems," said Dirk Hohndel, CTO, SUSE Linux AG. "Our alliance with SGI broadens the availability of open source solutions to more and more technical enterprise computing environments."


About SGI
Known as a strong advocate for open source technology, SGI is committed to contributing technology from its core competencies in visualization and high-performance computing to the open source community. SGI provides a broad range of high-performance computing and advanced graphics solutions that enable customers to understand and conquer their toughest computing problems. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., with offices worldwide, the company is located on the Web at www.sgi.com.

NOTE: IRIX and IRIS are registered trademarks and SGI, the SGI logo, Linux FailSafe, IRIS FailSafe, SGI FailSafe and SGI Linux are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds, used with permission by Silicon Graphics, Inc. SUSE is a registered trademark of SUSE Linux AG. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

About Novell
Novell, Inc. is a leading provider of information solutions that deliver secure identity management (Novell® Nsure™), Web application development (Novell exteNd™) and cross-platform networking services (Novell Nterprise™), all supported by strategic consulting and professional services (Novell NgageSM). Active in the open source community with its Ximian and SUSE Linux brands, Novell is firmly committed to open source and offers comprehensive Linux products and services for the enterprise, from the desktop to the server. Novell's vision of one Net - a world without information boundaries - helps customers realize the value of their information securely and economically. For more information, call Novell's Customer Response Center at (888) 321-4CRC (4272) or visit http://www.novell.com. Press should visit http://www.novell.com/pressroom.

Novell is a registered trademarks; Nsure, exteNd and Nteprise are trademarks; and Ngage is a service mark of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. SUSE is a registered trademark of SUSE Linux AG. * All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.