SuSE partners with Acronis to solve multibooting and partitioning problems, bringing SuSE Linux Deeper onto the desktop

South San Francisco, CA, January 22, 2003 — Acronis, Inc. www.acronis.com the leading system software publisher, today announced a partnership with SuSE Linux AG (Nürnberg, Germany) to ship Acronis OS Selector 8.0 Special Edition with each SuSE Linux Office Desktop sold in a retail environment. Acronis OS Selector, the premiere multibooting application that also incorporates partitioning technology, allows users greater security, stability and the unique ability to install and manage SuSE Linux on any existing Windows-based PC.

In the past it was difficult to set up Linux and Windows on the same system; Acronis OS Selector solves those problems. Any user who wants to multiboot their PC will use Acronis OS Selector 8.0 Special Edition-enabled SuSE Linux Office Desktop to repartition their Windows hard disk and manage their multibooting. The partnership with SuSE further demonstrates a commitment to the Linux community, as Acronis is the only system software publisher today that supports ReiserFS, SuSE Linux default file system, as well as Ext2 and Ext3.

"Acronis OS Selector 8.0 Special Edition uses advanced multibooting and partitioning technologies to allow SuSE users — from corporate to home users — the freedom to run SuSE Linux alongside Windows and other OSes in the same system," said Maxim Tsypliaev, president of Acronis, Inc. "We are giving Linux users freedom of choice by supporting multiple operating systems and file systems on the same PC."

"Acronis OS Selector 8.0 Special Edition will greatly benefit our users by providing commercial multibooting and partitioning software that will allow them to resize NTFS partitions and free up hard disk drive space to install SuSE Office Linux on their desktop," said Petra Heinrich, Vice President of Qualified User at SuSE Linux AG. "Acronis OS Selector 8.0 Special Edition provides great value, as it's the only product of its kind to fully support ReiserFS, our SuSE Linux default file system."

Individuals, small companies and large organizations can all use Acronis OS Selector 8.0 Special Edition-enabled SuSE Linux Office Desktop to run Linux securely on their desktop. In addition, the product will allow users to multi-boot their PCs and continue running existing Windows data and applications, such as Microsoft Office.

The SuSE Linux Office Desktop will ship with Acronis OS Selector 8.0 Special Edition in both German and English, beginning in January 2003. This product will carry a suggested retail price of $129 USD per workstation, which includes detailed documentation as well as 90 days of installation support.

Users of SuSE Linux Office Desktop with Acronis OS Selector 8.0 Special Edition can also upgrade to the latest full version of Acronis OS Selector 8.0 that allows users to install Linux on any Windows FAT or NTFS partition, as well as multi-boot other additional operating systems. Users of SuSE Linux Office Desktop with Acronis OS Selector 8.0 Special Edition are offered this full version upgrade for 40% off the suggested retail price of Acronis OS Selector 8.0 at www.acronis.com/sales/upgrade/.