Transfer of FreeBSD Mall

[Robert Bruce]

Wind River announced today that they are transfering their FreeBSD
operations to FreeBSD Mall, Inc., the successor organization to
Walnut Creek CDROM.  An HTMLized version of the press release is
available at http://www.freebsdmall.com/cgi-bin/fm/pr.html

	-bob	

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
	
       Wind River Announces Transfer of FreeBSD Sponsorship
                     to FreeBSD Mall, Inc.

       Sponsorship of Open Source Effort Returns To Roots

  ALAMEDA, Calif., January 14, 2002 - Wind River Systems, Inc.
  (Nasdaq:WIND), a leading provider of software and services for
  connected devices, today announced a definitive agreement to
  transfer its FreeBSD operations to FreeBSD Mall, Inc.

  FreeBSD is an advanced open source UNIX operating system, derived
  from BSD UNIX and developed at the University of California.  Well
  known for its performance and reliability, FreeBSD technology is
  widely used as a server operating system by many large Internet
  sites including Yahoo!, Hotmail, Sony Japan, Apache, Pair Networks,
  and Whistle Communications. Like Linux, the source code for FreeBSD
  is freely available.

  Wind River assumed stewardship for the FreeBSD open source project
  in May 2001 when it acquired assets of Berkeley Software Design,
  Inc. (BSDi), the former sponsor of FreeBSD. In addition to the
  FreeBSD sponsorship, Wind River acquired the proprietary BSD
  UNIX-based OS (BSD/OS). Wind River's interest in the BSDi assets
  continues to focus on BSD/OS. Divesting the FreeBSD business further
  sharpens that focus and provides continuity and increased support
  for FreeBSD.

  FreeBSD Mall Inc. is led by its founder, Bob Bruce. Bruce's
  involvement with FreeBSD dates back to 1993 when his former company,
  Walnut Creek CDROM, was the first and primary distributor of FreeBSD.

  "The FreeBSD community will be well served by this transaction,"
  said Larry Macfarlane, senior director of Wind River's Application
  Platforms product division. "When we decided to divest the FreeBSD
  business, we looked for a successor organization that could meet
  high standards of customer service and maintain a mutually
  beneficial relationship with the FreeBSD community.  After carefully
  evaluating many interested organizations, we decided that the best
  way to ensure the continuity and vitality of FreeBSD was to return it
  to its roots."

  Bob Bruce enthusiastically welcomes FreeBSD back home, and
  commented, "As we go forward, we will be able to build on strong
  relationships and friendships. We have all worked together
  before. FreeBSD has a promising future, and I am committed to
  helping it reach its full potential."

  Jordan Hubbard, co-founder of the open source FreeBSD Project also
  endorses the change.  "I'm happy to see that the FreeBSD Mall will
  be continuing without interruption" said Hubbard. "Through this
  transfer, FreeBSD will be back under the direction of the same people
  who started and know the FreeBSD CD product line perhaps better than
  anyone." Jordan Hubbard is an engineering manager at Apple, where he
  helps develop the highly acclaimed Mac OS X, and works on the open
  source Darwin Project.  Both Mac OS X and Darwin are based on FreeBSD.

  FreeBSD Mall plans to aggressively promote and market FreeBSD. In
  addition to providing the standard FreeBSD distribution on CDROM, they
  will continue to offer a subscription service, snapshots of the current
  development branch, and published hardcopy editions of the FreeBSD
  Handbook. They will also offer several levels of professional support
  and services for FreeBSD.  FreeBSD Mall has placed FreeBSD products in
  many mainstream retail stores, including Best Buy, CompUSA, Borders
  Books, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com. In the near future, they plan
  to expand their retail presence, especially in Europe and Asia.

  Current support obligations and software subscriptions at Wind
  River will be transferred to FreeBSD Mall in this transaction. All
  current Wind River employees working with FreeBSD will be employed
  by FreeBSD Mall.

  Wind River will continue to develop and support BSD/OS, a
  professionally engineered and supported BSD operating system widely
  used in embedded systems. A major upgrade of BSD/OS that will focus
  on meeting the needs of networked embedded devices is scheduled for
  release later this year. Wind River will also continue to support
  the BSD open source community, and plans to cooperate with the
  FreeBSD Mall and other BSD organizations to help promote wide
  adoption of BSD technology.

  The transaction is expected to close at the end of January.

  About Wind River: Wind River Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:WIND) is a
  leading provider of embedded software and services for connected
  devices in the Internet age. Wind River provides software
  development tools, real-time operating systems, and advanced
  connectivity solutions for use in products throughout the Internet,
  telecommunications and data communications, networking, consumer,
  automotive, industrial measurement and control (IMC), and
  aerospace/defense markets.  Founded in 1983, Wind River is
  headquartered in Alameda, California, with operations worldwide.

  About FreeBSD Mall: FreeBSD Mall Inc. is a publisher and distributor
  of FreeBSD software, and a provider of FreeBSD services and support.
  Founded in 1991, FreeBSD Mall is located in Concord, California.

                                # # #

  Wind River Systems and the Wind River Systems logo are registered
  trademarks; BSD/OS and How Smart Things Think are trademarks of Wind
  River Systems, Inc. All other names mentioned are trademarks,
  registered trademarks or service marks of their respective
  companies.

  CONTACT: Jim Barillo
  Wind River
  510-749-2284
  jim.barillo at windriver.com

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