press release

HP, Red Hat Provide Selected Universities Worldwide with Grants of Red Hat Linux Software

PALO ALTO, Calif. and RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Nov. 6, 2001

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HWP) and Red Hat, Inc. (Nasdaq:RHAT) today announced that Red Hat Linux software will be donated to selected universities as part of HP and Intel® Corporation's Itanium™-based Systems Grants program.

Red Hat Linux 7.1 operating system will be provided to the 40 universities that received grants from the program. Red Hat also will provide those universities with a one-year subscription to Red Hat Network, an open source information and software service.

"HP is pleased to work with Red Hat to provide grant recipients with key enabling technology for Linux research, which will also extend the deployment of open systems," said Martin Fink, general manager, HP Linux Systems Operation. "This research should significantly advance Linux on the Itanium architecture -- unlocking the potential of this technology and ultimately benefiting HP customers."

Announced in September, the HP and Intel Itanium-based Systems Grant Program is a $2.5 million joint effort between HP and Intel in which HP servers and workstations based on the Itanium processor are donated to selected universities. The universities plan to use the systems in research areas ranging from bio-informatics and neural networks to compilers and cluster computing to computational science and scientific data mining.

HP and Red Hat are augmenting the program with donations of Red Hat Linux software to support the deployment of open source software in educational environments. By making the grant resources available to university researchers, HP and Red Hat hope to accelerate the development of next-generation Linux applications for Itanium-based systems.

"Open source software demonstrates another dimension of its flexibility when used in an educational environment," said Michael Tiemann, chief technology officer, Red Hat. "Along with cost-of-ownership and IT security advantages for the universities, open source software provides a tremendous platform for academic research that can further advance the applications of Linux."

"Illinois is honored to have the opportunity to take part in the Itanium-based Systems Grants Program. HP, Intel and Red Hat are providing an ideal technological engine for our planned research," said Professor Wen-Mei Hwu of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. "This grant will enable us to accelerate our research in code optimizations and operating system performance and, in turn, make Itanium-based systems and Linux even more powerful solutions in the research community."

About Red Hat

Red Hat is the leader in developing, deploying and managing solutions built on the benefits of an open source platform. The open source platform includes the Red Hat Linux operating system for mainframes, servers, workstations and embedded devices, GNUPro tools for developers, database, e-Commerce, secure Web server, high availability server and run-time solutions like eCos and RedBoot. For this platform, Red Hat provides end-to-end professional services including Professional Consulting, Engineering services, Technical Support services, and Global Learning services. Red Hat Network is the premier Internet-based service that simplifies and integrates the deployment and management of these offers. More information about Red Hat is available at www.redhat.com. Red Hat is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, N.C. and has offices worldwide. For investor inquiries, contact Gabriel Szulik at Red Hat, +1 919 547 0012 ext. 439.

About HP

Hewlett-Packard Company -- a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services -- is focused on making technology and its benefits accessible to all. HP had total revenue from continuing operations of $48.8 billion in its 2000 fiscal year. Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

Intel and Itanium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries.

LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds.

RED HAT is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc.