Sun's Project Mad Hatter has received the endorsement of RealNetworks, with the recent conclusion of a distribution agreement in terms of which Sun will redistribute RealPlayer.
Project Mad Hatter is designed to deliver a secure, complete and highly affordable enterprise desktop solution, while RealPlayer is a multimedia application that supports a variety of popular file formats. The agreement will enable Mad Hatter users to enjoy the most varied and popular business, education and entertainment content on their desktops.
"Today's market dictates that CIOs develop a desktop computing strategy that addresses total cost-of-ownership issues, the mobilisation of the workforce through effective communication, as well as the ever-present requirements for increased security," observes Dumisani Mtoba, senior systems engineer at Sun Microsystems SA.
These imperatives must be achieved without giving up the complete functionality that desktop professionals expect, he adds.
Sun's Mad Hatter project address these issues by providing enterprise customers with a secure and cost-effective desktop alternative based on open standards.
"Mad Hatter will provide enterprises with a secure and cost-effective desktop alternative to today's expensive, proprietary PC desktops. The integrated platform is based entirely on open standards and includes the key desktop applications necessary to provide users with a more secure and stable environment," says Mtoba.
"Bundling RealPlayer with Mad Hatter is a step towards delivering familiar functionality to desktop users; in addition to this, Sun is working with other application vendors in its drive to ease the pain of viruses and open the industry to neutral file formats," he adds.
The formal launch of Project Mad Hatter is taking place this month at SunNetwork 2003 in San Francisco.
The solution includes the StarOffice personal productivity suite, which reads and writes Microsoft file formats; Sun's Java technology platform; the GNOME desktop environment; messaging, calendaring and instant messaging.
For more information about Project Mad Hatter, visit www.sun.com/madhatterinterest.com.
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Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision - "The Network Is The Computer" - has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.
RealNetworks
RealNetworks, Inc is the leading global provider of network-delivered digital audio and video services and the creator of the technology that enables digital media creation, distribution and consumption. Consumers use RealNetworks' RealOne Player and RealNetworks' content subscription service, RealOne SuperPass, to play free and premium digital content. Broadcasters, network operators, media companies and enterprises use RealNetworks' products and services to deliver digital media to PCs, mobile phones and consumer electronics devices. Consumers can access and experience audio/video programming and download RealNetworks' consumer software at http://www.real.com. RealNetworks' systems and corporate information is located at http://www.realnetworks.com.
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