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REALNETWORKS SIGNS DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT WITH NOVELL - MAKING REALPLAYER THE STANDARD FOR AUDIO AND VIDEO ON LINUX DESKTOPS
Leading Linux Desktop Providers: Novell, Red Hat, Sun and TurboLinux, Standardize on RealPlayer and Helix Player
Novell Expands Helix Community Support Contributing Development Resources to RealPlayer 10 for Linux
Kristiansand, Norway — GUADEC 2004, June 28, 2004 — In an expansion of partners distributing the award-winning RealPlayer® 10, RealNetworks®, Inc. (NASDAQ: RNWK) today announced that users of Novell's next Linux desktop will be able to enjoy popular business, educational and entertainment content on the Internet using RealPlayer. Novell has agreed to make the RealPlayer 10 for Linux the default media player for RealAudio, RealVideo, Ogg Vorbis and Theora codecs. Additionally, Novell is contributing resources to help qualify RealPlayer on its Linux desktop.
These new agreements with Linux development partners, Novell and Red Hat, complement existing agreements with Sun Microsystems and Turbolinux, establish RealPlayer and Helix Player as the new standard for audio and video on the Linux desktop.
"The combination of the growing worldwide demand for the Linux desktop and the standardization of Linux desktop providers on RealPlayer as the application for providing consumers and businesses with a proven media framework for watching Internet content - means the Linux users and industry overall wins," said Martin Plaehn, Executive Vice President, Products and Services, RealNetworks, Inc. "Novell’s selection of the RealPlayer and the Helix Player platform feeds the growing enterprise and government demand for Linux desktops that come complete with robust and secure applications and will ensure that Novell’s Linux desktop users experience all the great audio and video available on the Web."
"Organizations are looking for a secure, complete and affordable enterprise desktop solution," said Chris Stone, Novell vice chairman, Office of the CEO. "RealPlayer for Linux will provide Novell's Linux desktop users with a critical standard media platform application on their desktops, creating yet another reason for organizations to more quickly deploy Linux desktops throughout their organizations."
RealPlayer 10 for Linux is built on top of the open source Helix™ Player being developed within the Helix Community, and includes support for both open source as well as commercial components, ranging from SMIL, MP3 and Flash, to the leading RealAudio® and RealVideo® media formats. Beta versions of RealPlayer 10 for Linux, as well as the free and open source Helix Player, are available today for free download at: https://player.helixcommunity.org/2004/downloads/.
"The GNOME Desktop Environment was created to provide free software users with a friendly, powerful desktop environment," said Tim Ney, Executive Director, GNOME Foundation. "Working together, Real and Novell will enable users of the GNOME Desktop Environment to enjoy premium content on the Web such as corporate, enterprise, educational, governmental content, as well as all the great movies, sports, news, music and content available on the Web through RealPlayer for Linux or the Helix Player."
Also today, RealNetworks announced it has added GNU General Public License (GPL) as a third technology licensing option of the Helix Player. This license enables software developers to build and innovate on RealNetworks’ media player framework using this familiar "free software" license. GPL requires software developers to open source the code of their application under an open source license.
For more information, contact:
Lisa Strong, RealNetworks, (206) 892-6585, lstrong@real.com
ABOUT HELIX
Helix represents a platform, Helix DNA, and a community (www.helixcommunity.org), for the standardization and expansion of digital media. The Helix DNA platform consists of source code for creation, delivery and playback of digital media developed by Real over the past ten years, as well as a set of interfaces for building media-enabled applications. Helix Community members are able to use this source code to build media-capable products with industry-leading technology and commonly used interfaces. The Helix Community offers source code of Helix DNA under commercial community and two open source licenses. Real has also released a family of commercial products built on top of the Helix DNA platform, including the free RealPlayer, RealProducer Plus, and the Helix Universal Server.
ABOUT REALNETWORKS, INC.
RealNetworks, Inc. is the leading creator of digital media services and software including the award-winning Rhapsody® Internet jukebox service and RealPlayer, the first product to integrate finding, organizing, buying, playing and managing digital audio and video in a single product. Consumers can access and experience audio/video programming and download RealNetworks’ consumer software at http://www.real.com. Broadcasters, network operators, media companies and enterprises use RealNetworks’ products and services to create and deliver digital media to PCs, mobile phones and consumer electronics devices. RealNetworks’ systems and corporate information is located at http://www.realnetworks.com.
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