Storm Linux 2000 Makes European Debut

Linux vendor Stormix Technologies, Inc. has announced that it will stage the European debut of its Debian-based Storm Linux 2000 OS package at the CeBit trade show in Hannover, Germany today.

After debuts in North America and Japan, the Vancouver, Canada-based fledgling software maker plans to bring its Linux distribution to European consumers who are increasingly looking to the open-source OS for personal and business uses.

CeBit has been called the world’s largest IT-related trade show. Stormix will be sharing its CeBit booth with Debian GNU/Linux, the distribution that Storm Linux is based on.

Distro Agreement

Stormix recently announced that it has struck a distribution agreement with Frank Kasper and Associates, Inc. According to the terms of the agreement, Frank Kasper will deliver the Storm Linux 2000 Standard Edition to retailers, including Borders Books, Fry’s Electronics, MEI MicroCenter, along with resellers and distributors in Europe, Asia, and Latin and South America.

The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Frank Kasper & Associates, Inc. is a distributor of Linux and open-source software and computer-related books. The company currently handles vendors such as Cybernet Systems Corp., the producer of the NetMAX FileServer, FireWall and WebServer products.

Storm Linux 2000

The Storm Linux 2000 standard edition product, which debuted in December 1999, features a graphical and text-based installation component and system tools including modules for installing and removing software, maintaining users and groups, and setting up networks. Additionally, users can access community support by way of subscribing to the Stormix mailing lists.

According to the company’s Web site, their “goal is to make Linux easier to use.”

Storm Linux 2000 also includes Sun Microsystems, Inc.’s StarOffice 5.1a, a demo version of the Applixware Office 4.4.2 for Linux, PowerQuest’s PartitionMagic, and Vmware, Inc.’s VMware 1.1 for Linux, among others.

About Stormix

Stormix was established in February 1999 with an initial investment from Joseph Kilbur and David Talmor, the founders of Web hosting and e-commerce solutions provider NetNation Communications.

“After using the Linux operating system to build a Web-site hosting service, we were convinced that Linux has huge potential,” commented Talmor. “We decided to establish a new company that focused on the creation of a powerful and user-friendly distribution of the operating system.”

International Data Corp. (IDC) recently released figures indicating that Linux has grabbed the number two spot in world OS sales behind Windows NT, with 5.4 million copies sold in 1999.