Greenbelt, Maryland -- September 19, 1995 -- Under a strategic marketing agreement announced today, Empress Software, Inc., names ACC Corp., Inc., as the exclusive catalog distributor of EMPRESS for Linux, the public domain Unix-like operating system for PCs used by thousands of independent developers and programmers worldwide.
To celebrate the immediate availability of the first commercial-grade Linux database in The ACC PC Unix and Linux Catalog, ACC announces a special introductory price of US $89 for Personal EMPRESS for Linux. This standalone Linux development environment published on CD-ROM includes a single-user Version 6.6 of the EMPRESS RDBMS and 4GL application generator; SQL, Dynamic SQL and host language C interface; and the EMPRESS GUI Builder for Motif. ACC will also offer multi-user EMPRESS for Linux. Empress Software will continue to accept direct orders for both versions of EMPRESS for Linux through the company's home page on the Internet World Wide Web (http://www.empress.com/).
Both Empress Software and ACC will be demonstrating EMPRESS for Linux at the UNIX Expo, September 19-21, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. Empress will be located at Booth #930; ACC at Booth #966. UNIX Expo attendees will be able to order EMPRESS for Linux on the exhibit floor. At the Empress Software booth, attendees will be able to enter a contest to win a free copy of Personal EMPRESS for Linux.
Linux is a Unix-like, POSIX-compliant operating system created by principal author Linus Torvalds and other programmers around the world. Programmers use Linux for software development, networking and as an end-user platform. Residing in the public domain, available on the Internet and distributed commercially on CD-ROM, Linux is protected by the GNU Public License which allows anyone to use, modify or resell the system as long as the source code always remains freely available.
The relationship between Empress Software and ACC Corp. developed quickly after the two companies independently learned of each other's activities in the Linux marketplace. ACC, a Westport, Connecticut-based software mail-order retailer and Linux advocate, was looking for a database product to complement its growing retail selection of Linux applications and tools, and had heard reports of EMPRESS for Linux. As a division of Red Hat Software, Inc., of Durham, North Carolina, ACC markets Red Hat, the most technologically advanced commercially available Linux distribution.
Empress Software, having released EMPRESS for Linux and Personal EMPRESS for Linux in April of this year, was looking to further demonstrate its commitment to the rapidly growing Linux development community. Industry sources estimate that Linux is currently running on approximately 1 million machines worldwide, with 50,000 or more copies of the operating system installed each month. The ACC PC Unix and Catalog reaches some 20,000 subscribers several times a year.
“This is clearly a three-way winning combination for everyone involved,” said Empress Software President John Kornatowski. "Endorsement of EMPRESS for Linux by Red Hat Software and the highly trusted ACC PC Unix and Linux Catalog puts us in partnership with one of the leading Linux development teams, it allows ACC to offer its customers professional level software and it provides users an affordable yet rich set of tools for creating high quality applications.”
“We see a lot of good things coming out of this relationship,” said ACC Corp.'s Young. “It fits perfectly with our long-term strategy of increasing our customers' software choices. Before the Linux port of EMPRESS to Linux -- which everyone in the industry recognizes as first-tier software -- there was nothing else in its class available to users.”
“The EMPRESS GUI Builder alone provides a product many of our customers have been waiting for and are excited about,” said Young. “To get tools for creating graphical interfaces together with a fully functional RDBMS and 4GL is a tremendous value.”
Founded three years ago as publishers of specialty computer magazines such as New York Unix, ACC Corp. entered the software mail-order business when a national advertiser withdrew its back-page ad at deadline. Left with a hole to fill, and curious as to what might happen, ACC created its own ad offering copies of the Linux operating system. The response was overwhelming and immediate. Within 90 days we changed from a magazine publisher that sold PC Unix on the side to a PC Unix mail-order company that published magazines on the side, said Young.
ACC eventually sold its interests in the magazines to concentrate entirely on the retail business. At this point, the company recognized selling only Linux operating systems was not a solid long-term strategy, especially with the same product available free on the Internet. Linux applications and development tools, on the other hand, could provide significant opportunities for growth, so ACC actively sought products to offer at retail. The merger with Red Hat Software solidified the company's position in the Linux market. Now the addition of EMPRESS for Linux to ACC's expanding catalog maintains the company's mail-order momentum.
EMPRESS was born out of a similar spirit of experimentation. Kornatowski and Ivor Ladd, now Empress Vice President of Technology, developed the EMPRESS RDBMS and fourth generation language as graduate students at the University of Toronto in 1979. Relational database management systems were still very new in the late 1970s, and the pair's primary objective was to validate the concept by demonstrating a functional system. But when their software outperformed Bell Laboratories' own database system in benchmark tests, Kornatowski and Ladd realized their product held commercial potential. Using pension contributions as seed money and spare rooms at home as offices, Kornatowski and Ladd founded and incorporated Empress Software. With more than 20,000 users around the world, and widespread acceptance for complex scientific, engineering, and medical applications, the EMPRESS is a success by every measure. Yet Empress Software continues to acknowledge its roots in academia by making the EMPRESS RDBMS and 4GL available to university computer science programs. And by creating Personal EMPRESS for Linux, the company has made high-powered software tools easily accessible to developers at all levels.
Applications developed with EMPRESS include mapping, weather forecasting, voice messaging, multimedia, image processing, medical systems and CAD/CAM, as well as traditional RDBMS and 4GL solutions. Empress Sales and Marketing offices are in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Greenbelt, Maryland, and in San Jose, California. Markham, Canada, is the site of the company's Research and Development center, as well as International Sales and Marketing.
For more information, contact Empress Software, 6401 Golden Triangle Drive, Suite 220, Greenbelt, MD 20770. Call 301-220-1919. Fax 301-220-1997. For Canadian and international inquiries, call 905-513-8888. Canadian and international fax 905-513-1668. ACC Corp. is located at 25 Sylvan Road South, Westport, CT 06880. Call 203-454-5500. Fax 203-454-2582.