VMware for Linux Released for Commercial Shipment

Initial release features sub-$100 offering for students, hobbyists and home users

Palo Alto, California – May 12, 1999 – VMware, Inc., a leading-edge software company promoting greater PC innovation, today announced that its initial VMware™ for Linux product will be available for purchase beginning this Saturday, May 15th on the company's Web site. Two versions of the product are available – a fully supported commercial release for established organizations and a non-commercial offering designed for students, hobbyists, and home users. Priced at $99.00, the non-commercial offering includes all the powerful capabilities of the VMware commercial product but with minimal support.

VMware also unveiled its corporate volume discount schedule, which provides discounts in the range of 10-50% for corporate buyers, depending on the number of licenses purchased. Full details are available on the company's Web site at www.vmware.com.

"The response to our VMware for Linux Beta release has been overwhelmingly positive, including more than 50,000 Beta users to date," said Diane Greene, president and CEO of VMware. "During the Beta program, we have heard many requests for a non-commercial VMware offering, that is affordable for students, Linux hobbyists, and home users. Our non-commercial product is designed to meet this need."

"We would also like to reward the thousands of Beta users who helped us to test and improve the product during the past two months," continued Ms. Greene. "For that reason, we will provide a one-time, additional discount to early purchasers."

"VMware's commercial offering will revolutionize the type and quality of commercial applications available for corporate Linux desktops," said Brian Biles, vice president of marketing for VA Linux Systems. "And the non-commercial version is well suited to the broader Linux community, including hobbyists, who have helped to make Linux a leading platform for invention and innovation."

Based on its unique Virtual Platform™ technology, VMware is a thin software layer that effectively frees users from the "one machine, one operating system" model of computing and enables multiple operating systems and associated applications to run concurrently on a single machine, without disk partitioning or re-booting. Each virtual machine environment provides full fault and security isolation, and yet can communicate and share files or devices with other virtual machines. This innovative approach allows individuals and organizations to achieve new levels of flexibility, productivity and security on their desktop or laptop PCs.

VMware early adopters have been using the product for a range of benefits, including running Microsoft applications on their Linux machines, training, security, and system administration applications. "VMware is an excellent platform for our security consultants to use, as it allows us to simultaneously run commercially available and proprietary security tools within the Microsoft Windows NT and Linux environments," said George Kurtz, a senior manager in the Ernst & Young eSecurity Solutions practice. "We are already using VMware's ability to construct networks of virtual systems within a single computer as a way to provide advanced security training classes to our clients."

VMware, Inc. is an enabling technology company working to define and deliver its vision of the Virtual Platform, a new approach to personal computing. The company is based in Palo Alto, California and is privately held. VMware can be reached in the U.S. at 650.856.3300 or at www.vmware.com.

VMware™ and Virtual Platform™ are trademarks of VMware, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.