Industry pioneer brings Linux expertise

San Francisco, CA - June 5, 2000 - Penguin Computing Inc., leading provider of reliable Linux systems for Internet serving, today announced that Brett Person, co-founder of Slackware, has joined the company as a senior member of the technical support team. Person brings to Penguin Computing more than 15 years of software development expertise, including five years as a core team member developing Slackware Linux, one of the earliest distributions of the operating system. He also held development-consulting positions with IBM, North Dakota State University and the North Dakota Department of Rehabilitation.

A Linux expert, Person will be a valuable addition as Penguin Computing continues to grow technical support services for its product offerings - systems that integrate the market leading Red Hat (NASDAQ: RHAT) Linux distribution. In addition, Person will be a key member of Penguin Computing 's Open Source community relations team.

"Penguin Computing's customers have access to the expertise of high-caliber Linux talent," said Sam Ockman, Penguin Computing's chairman and CEO. "Brett was one of the pioneers who brought Slackware to the marketplace. His Linux expertise, coupled with Penguin Computing's commitment to address its customers technical support needs, will serve to further enhance the breadth and scope of our technical service and support offerings."

Prior to joining Penguin Computing, Person co-founded Slackware. There, alongside co-founder Patrick Volkerding, he worked on all aspects of the operating system, which is distributed by Walnut Creek CD-ROM. Person also attended industry events in efforts to evangelize Linux as a viable commercial-class operating system. Partially blind from birth, Person has spent many years working in positions with companies that have allowed him to contribute programming access tools for the visually impaired. At IBM, under a research grant, he developed tools to give blind computer users access to graphical user interfaces under OS/2 and Unix. As a computer consultant for the North Dakota State University, Person taught Unix to visually impaired computer users and wrote programming scripts to allow them to access the Unix shell with a speech synthesizer. While at the North Dakota Department of Rehabilitation, he served as a member of the Governor's Board of Advisors to the department.

Person studied computer science at North Dakota State University at Fargo.

About Penguin Computing

Penguin Computing Inc. (http://www.penguincomputing.com) is the leading provider of reliable Linux systems for Internet serving. Founded in 1998 by Open Source advocate and active Linux community member Sam Ockman, Penguin Computing is based in San Francisco, Calif. and is privately held.