WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Oct. 19, 1999 – Clickshare Service Corp. today announced availability of a groundbreaking new platform for Internet purchase of text, sound, music and other digital objects. The product, Clickshare 2.0, has been optimized to work on websites running Red Hat Linux 6.1 and the Apache web server.

Clickshare enables content providers' sites for i-commerce transactions. A vending website need only acquire the free webserver software from Clickshare, register as a Clickshare provider and establish pricing for its digital products to be open for business and get paid as a content wholesaler. Clickshare also enables personalization and sharing of privacy-protected demographics.

Clickshare's version 2.0 release, available for free public download from the www.clickshare.com website on Oct. 22, and will install in minutes as a plug-in to the Apache web server also shipping with Red Hat 6.1.

James B. Shaffer, Clickshare CEO, said, "We've worked hard to make the Clickshare Service available alongside the retail release this week of Red Hat Linux 6.1. We chose the Red Hat Linux distribution as our first operating environment because of its open-source, flexibility and stability. We think content-vending websites will want to choose it too." Red Hat, Inc., based in Durham, N.C., is the market-leading Linux distributor and service provider.

"We've created a simple installation that allows content sites to add in minutes the ability to sell information per-click or by subscription to Clickshare-enabled users worldwide," said Shaffer. "And with the added features of wholesale-retail pricing and sharing of privacy-protected demographics, Clickshare takes a leadership position as the first Internet distributed-user payment aggregation service."

Clickshare is a member of the Red Hat Developer Partners Program, which extends the power of the open-source Linux operating system through a collective of software-publishing alliances.

Clickshare's unique platform for i-commerce relies upon a network of partner websites whose users want to purchase digital content. Rather than amassing its own customer base, Clickshare represents a new breed of "info-mediary," protecting the identity of its customers while serving as both an application platform and a clearinghouse for transactions.

"Like Red Hat, our business is based upon providing service support to our partners," said Shaffer. "Our mission is to provide a tool for managing customers, readers, viewers and listeners. And by not amassing a consumer customer base, we preempt the privacy concerns that are presented by some other approaches."

About Clickshare Founded in 1997, Clickshare Service Corp. develops and markets the Clickshare operating platform for Internet purchasing of, and payment for, digital content. Clickshare enables digital-payments aggregation across multiple websites, one-ID, one-bill access to digital content across the Clickshare service, privacy-protected demographics management for users, audience-measurement for advertisers, and web-site personalization and access control. The company is based in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

About Red Hat Software Inc. Founded in 1994, Red Hat®, Inc., based in Durham, N.C., is a leader in the development of open source operating system solutions. Through the Linux Development model, Red Hat development works to build the most accessible and advanced operating system available anywhere with technical innovations such as the RPM Package Manager, the disk druid installation tool and the GNOME user interface. Red Hat Linux is available for Intel®, Compaq Alpha®, and Sun SPARC® platforms.