Indiana University and Progeny announce license agreement

As part of Indiana University's ongoing effort to provide popular software to its faculty, staff, and students, University Information Technology Services has negotiated a University-wide site license agreement with Indianapolis-based Progeny. Beginning January 1, 2004, Progeny Transition Service will offer software updates for users of Red Hat® Linux® 7.2, 7.3, and 8.0. Updates for version 9 will be available as of May 1, 2004.

This license agreement provides the following features to all Indiana University faculty, staff, students, and departments:

• Timely access to a software repository containing software and security updates
• Updates accessible via the Web, with servers located at IUB and IUPUI
• Eligibility to download and install updates on both personal and University-owned computers

The software updates provided by Progeny will enable systems using the above Red Hat Linux versions to keep up to date with security patches for the next year, allowing for a flexible migration path as the University considers various options regarding Linux distributions during the coming year.

IU is the first university to take advantage of Progeny Transition Service. "Our agreement with Progeny reflects IU's strategy to be at the forefront of development and support of open source tools from operating systems to applications," said Brad Wheeler, associate vice president for Research and Academic Computing and dean for Information Technology. Wheeler recently published an EDUCAUSE research bulletin examining the current state of open source initiatives in higher education. "Additionally, University Information Technology Services' Unix Systems Support Group has long been involved in supporting open source software through providing local copies of software for the university and participating in open source community projects," said Wheeler.

"We've seen demand from all over the world to help organizations extend the life of these legacy versions of Red Hat Linux, giving them time to transition to a new platform. It is nice to find a customer in our own neighborhood. We are very pleased to partner with Indiana University to provide these security updates for the IU community," commented Garth Dickey, Progeny CEO. "Progeny employs many IU information technology graduates and has benefited from the strength of IU's programs."

This announcement reflects the growing importance and strength of the Indiana high-tech economy. The presence of Progeny and other high-tech companies in Indiana has benefited Indiana University and its efforts. In turn, Indiana University has helped expand the Indiana high-tech community, in this case by establishing a partnership and contract to keep monies in state.

For more information about Progeny Transition Service, see: http://transition.progeny.com/.

About Indiana University

Indiana University is one of the oldest state universities in the Midwest and also one of the largest universities in the United States, with more than 110,000 students, faculty, and staff on eight campuses. IU has a growing national and international reputation in the areas of information technology and advanced networking. IU's extensive information technology environment is made up of high performance computing resources, facilities for massive data storage, and advanced visualization laboratories that enable leading scientists to visualize, analyze and store vast amounts of data and information.

About Progeny

Progeny is the leading independent provider of Linux platform technology. With more than a decade of experience building Linux solutions, Progeny's Linux experts pioneered a number of the technologies and best practices that shape the Linux landscape today. Progeny was founded by Debian Linux creator Ian Murdock.

Progeny is a trademark of Progeny Linux Systems, Inc. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the USA and other countries. Red Hat Linux is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc.

Progeny and Progeny Transition Service are not affiliated with Red Hat, Inc. or Red Hat Linux.

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Posted 17 December 2003
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