direct/ VA Software: SourceForge Enterprise Edition Delivers Powerful New Collaborative Development Capabilities

Version 4.3 Enables Collaborative Project Documentation, Enhanced Process Control and Expanded Project Visibility

FREMONT, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 01/17/06 -- VA Software Corporation (NASDAQ: LNUX), a leading provider of software, information and community support for IT and development professionals, today announced the latest release of the SourceForge(R) collaborative software development platform. SourceForge Enterprise Edition version 4.3 enables more rapid development and higher quality software through improved project documentation, development process controls, and enhanced visibility into project status.

This new version provides several significant enhancements to the popular SourceForge Enterprise Edition product suite:

-- Wiki application -- Wiki pages enable efficient capture and management of documentation (e.g., administrators can create customized pages to collaborate on project-related content, such as documents)
-- Tracker workflow -- Managers can create rules for artifact state transitions, enabling controls to ensure adherence to development processes
-- Viewer monitoring -- Users can now view who is monitoring SourceForge held materials and can add users to the monitor list
-- Tracker e-mail integration -- Tracker artifacts can be created and updated via e-mail
-- Site-wide linked applications -- Allows administrators to easily create links on the SourceForge tool bar that trigger external applications bound to SourceForge via single-sign on

"With hundreds of globally distributed engineers, streamlining development operations and managing it effectively is a priority. With SourceForge Enterprise Edition, we have a consolidated development platform that links to a variety of existing tools and new technologies and automates processes, enabling more efficient use and development of resources," said Kathleen Wilson, director of engineering, VeriSign Security Services. "The new Wiki integration is a natural complement to collaboration tools like document manager and discussion forums. We look forward to utilizing the Wiki capability in SourceForge version 4.3 to enable even more effective collaboration."

According to a report published by Forrester Research, Wikis are growing in popularity in corporate environments. "Corporate IT shops must strive to capture and store various team communications... to improve team coordination," writes Liz Barnett in the report titled, "Applying Open Source Processes In Corporate Development Organizations." "Scalable collaborative development environments like VA Software´s SourceForge Enterprise Edition can help." *

Despite this growth in popularity, Wikis have not yet become an integral part of enterprise-wide collaborative software development environments. For many development teams, the use of disparate Wikis has created information silos that have reduced the visibility of critical project information; development organizations will now have a centralized platform for collaborative content publication, enabling the efficient capture of project information. The Wiki features enable collaborative editing, commenting and threaded discussions by developers and other stakeholders. Project workspaces include an independent project Wiki that can be edited by users. An available API enables Wiki page content to be customized with dynamically updated data including build and test results and customized statistical graphs.

SourceForge Enterprise Edition version 4.3 also gives organizations control and flexibility over significant aspects of their development workflow. The new Tracker Workflow capabilities enable project managers to define the flow of ownership and responsibility, which ensure that issues, feature requests and defects are resolved swiftly and accurately and with complete visibility and audit trails.

"We are reaping the benefits from the significant investment VA Software made in developing the architecture of the SourceForge Enterprise Edition 4.x platform. The product´s modular and extensible architecture allows us to swiftly add new applications to the integrated framework as we have done with Wikis and Workflow in version 4.3," said Colin Bodell, chief technical officer, VA Software. "Unlike other providers that force companies to follow rigid processes that don´t support the requirements of distributed development teams, our flexible framework allows us to continue to add additional functionality so that users have the tools that fit their business needs."

"We´re very pleased with the results from the SourceForge Enterprise Edition 4.x platform. For us SourceForge has proven to be reliable, secure and easy to use, helping us to efficiently manage complex projects," said Bruce Trumbo, manager of software engineering in General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Division. "It provides us with an integrated toolset for more effective collaboration, management and visibility of project data across geographically distributed teams. SourceForge has allowed us to scale-out our team beyond physical boundaries. Also, because SourceForge provides a level of controlled access through fully-encrypted channels, our staff, contractors and partner companies are better able to collaborate on mission-critical projects from outside the firewall, resulting in improved efficiency." Trumbo continues, "We find the 4.x platform to be extremely intuitive and easy to use. We don´t spend a lot of time on training, compared to other Web-based tools."

SourceForge Enterprise Edition version 4.3 is available immediately for end-users and is offered as a behind-the-corporate-firewall or VA Software-hosted solution. Version 4.3 is also available at ondemand.sourceforge.com as a Software as a Services (SaaS) solution for small to medium-sized organizations. For more information, please visit www.vasoftware.com.

About VA Software Corporation

VA Software Corporation (NASDAQ: LNUX) is at the center of today´s technology revolution and incites innovation by empowering the IT and developer communities with information, community support and software. VA Software is the parent company of OSTG, Inc. (Open Source Technology Group), and the creator of SourceForge. SourceForge.net(R) is the global nexus for the Open Source community with more than 110,000 Open Source projects and over 1.2 million registered users. SourceForge Enterprise Edition is an enterprise-grade version of SourceForge for optimizing and managing distributed development within the enterprise. A hosted version of SourceForge Enterprise Edition is available on a project-basis for development teams or workgroups in any size organization.

For more information about VA Software, visit www.vasoftware.com. For more information about OSTG, visit www.ostg.com.

* Source: Forrester, Inc. Copyright 2004.

Note to editors: VA Software, OSTG and SourceForge are trademarks or registered trademarks of VA Software Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. SourceForge.net is a trademark or registered trademark of OSTG, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management´s current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from the expectations contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this release include without limitation, statements regarding the utilization of SourceForge Enterprise Edition v.4.3 features to enable more effective collaboration, VA Software´s commitment to improving the SourceForge product family, the benefits derived from VA Software´s products. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results could differ materially from VA Software´s current expectations. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: inability of VA Software to commit to improving the SourceForge product family, inability of VA Software clients to derive benefits from VA Software´s products, and other risks detailed in VA Software´s registration statement and periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, actual results may vary, perhaps materially, from those contained in the forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based upon information available to VA Software as of the date hereof, and VA Software does not assume any obligation to update such statements or the reasons why actual results could differ materially from those projected in such statements.


Contact:
Kristi Kilpatrick
Page One PR for VA Software
925.964.0671
kristi@pageonepr.com




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