Press Release

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 20-Jul-2004

    The OpenPKG project releases version 2.1 of the
    unique cross-platform software packaging facility.

  http://www.openpkg.org/ -- Munich, DE -- July 20, 2004 -- The
  OpenPKG project is proud to announce version 2.1 of its OpenPKG
  software, another evolutionary step after a series of five
  predecessors within three years.

  Much valued by IT decision makers and beloved by Unix system
  administrators, OpenPKG is the world leading instrument for deployment
  and maintenance of Open Source Unix software when administration
  crosses platform boundaries. The unique OpenPKG architecture leverages
  proven technologies like Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) and OSSP
  and GNU components to establish a unified software administration
  environment, independent of the underlying Unix operating system.

  NEW IN VERSION 2.1

  OpenPKG platform support has increased again and OpenPKG 2.1 is now
  available for 21 different Unix flavors. Most notably, it is supported
  on FreeBSD 4.10 and 5.2, Debian GNU/Linux 3.0, Red Hat Enterprise
  Linux 3, Red Hat Fedora Core 2, SuSE Linux 9.1, and Sun Solaris 8 and
  9. Additionally, all CORE and the vast majority of BASE class packages
  are already available for the tentative platforms NetBSD 1.6.2, Debian
  GNU/Linux 3.1, Gentoo Linux 1.4.16, Mandrake Linux 10.0, Sun Solaris
  10 and HP HP-UX 11.11 and they are still available for the obsoleted
  platforms Red Hat Linux 9, SuSE Linux 9.0, and Sun Solaris 2.6.

  Since the previous release four months ago, the OpenPKG package
  repository has again grown by 10%. A subset of 495 packages were
  carefully selected for inclusion into the OpenPKG 2.1 release,
  including latest versions of popular Open Source Unix software like
  Apache, Bash, BIND, GCC, INN, Mozilla, MySQL, OpenSSH, Perl, Postfix,
  PostgreSQL, Samba, Squid, teTeX and Vim.

  The major technical efforts for this release were spent on the porting
  of all packages to five additional Unix platforms and the necessary
  adjustments to packages required by GCC 3.4.

  Another key target of OpenPKG 2.1 is the availability of the
  consolidated and packaged tool chain to the community. It consists of
  all packaging tools used by the OpenPKG team, including their official
  OpenPKG development shell ("openpkg dev"). This now enables everyone
  to establish a local OpenPKG development environment, allowing the
  creation of private packages, the modification of existing packages
  and the maintenance of local changes.

  VOICE OF THE SPONSOR

  "The base of Unix server installations, which my datacenter services
  team is responsible for, has been increased by a factor of 250%
  during the last six months. Thanks to our continuous deployment of
  OpenPKG, we were able to cope with this administration challenge
  while retaining the high service quality with the existing number
  of engineers."
                                      Hennie van den Berg,
                                      Director IT Services Europe,
                                      Cable & Wireless
  HIGHLIGHTS OF OPENPKG

  * Portable across major Unix flavors.
  * Available for the supported platforms:
    FreeBSD 4.10/5.2, Debian Linux 3.0, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3,
    Red Hat Fedora Core 2, SuSE Linux 9.1 and Solaris 8 and 9.
  * Already available for the tentative platforms:
    NetBSD 1.6.2, Debian GNU/Linux 3.1, Gentoo Linux 1.4.16,
    Mandrake Linux 10.0, Sun Solaris 10 and HP HP-UX 11.11.
  * Still available for the obsoleted platforms:
    Red Hat Linux 9, SuSE Linux 9.0, and Sun Solaris 2.6.
  * Entirely based on Open Source software technology.
  * Minimum operating system intrusion and dependency.
  * Minimum overhead in software packaging.
  * All packages up-to-date with vendor versions as of 14-Jul-2004.
  * Sources of 495 CORE+BASE+PLUS packages released.
  * Binaries of CORE+BASE class packages provided for supported platforms.
  * Binaries of CORE class packages provided for all platforms.
  * Easy installation, updating and deinstallation of packages.
  * Bundled with useful and secure package pre-configurations.
  * Includes an abstracted and powerful run-command facility.
  * Virtual hosting through multiple instances on a single system.
  * Proxy packages for reusing packages across instances.
  * Build-time package variations for maximum flexibility.
  * Foundation to build encapsulated and self-contained environments.

  HISTORY OF THE OPENPKG PROJECT

  The OpenPKG project was founded in 2000 by Ralf S. Engelschall and
  the sponsor Cable & Wireless. It was first released as Open Source
  software in January 2002. Today OpenPKG is a mature technology in
  production use, and is maintained and improved by its original
  developers and volunteer contributors.

  OpenPKG is the brainchild of Ralf S. Engelschall, principal author of
  numerous other popular Open Source Software technologies like OSSP
  components, Apache SSL/TLS Engine (mod_ssl), Apache URL Rewriting
  Engine (mod_rewrite), GNU Portable Threads (Pth), GNU Portable Shell
  Tool (Shtool), Website META Language (WML) and many more.

  MORE INFORMATION

  The OpenPKG Project
  openpkg@openpkg.org
  +49-89-92699-251 (CET)
  +49-172-8986801  (CET)