FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Shannon Jackson
(800) 684-5197
(804) 343-3608

Microstate Corporation Offers First
Open-Source Web Application Server
Based On Java Technology

Adds Further Momentum To Free Software Movement

FAIRFAX, VA., November 30, 1998 Microstate Corporation today announced
that its thin-client, cross-platform Web application server based on Java
technology is now available as open-source software, freely accessible over
the Internet (http://microstate.com/tech.htm). Named Hamilton, Microstates
server technology is integrated software that already includes most of the
infrastructure required by any thin-client application, thus reducing
development time and expense, and accelerating time to market. Developers
and users need nothing more than Internet connectivity and a Web browser to
access applications developed on Hamilton. With Hamilton, companies can
easily deploy and maintain large scale applications over networks
regardless of the desktop platform.

Web application servers, arguably the most vital component of enterprise
computing, have been the missing link in the open-source software
movement, said Eric Lalande, chief executive officer of Microstate. The
success of Linux and Apache is proof that the best product is not always
developed as proprietary source code. Open-source software will allow us,
and our clients, to benefit from the ideas of thousands of developers who
will download and experiment with Hamilton. Even Microsoft acknowledges
that open-source developers are producing commercial quality offerings.

Hamilton is ideal for software development organizations that need a Web
application
server for rapid application development of easy to use, thin-client,
Web-based business applications. Unlike many other application servers,
Hamilton makes it easy for knowledge workers to maintain content once the
application is deployed.

Microstates Hamilton technology helped the Bermuda Stock Exchange become
the first offshore stock exchange on the Internet, said William Woods,
chief executive officer, the Bermuda Stock Exchange. The Hamilton Web
applications allowed us to quickly create an online presence for all of our
listed issuers and members, and to concentrate on building the Exchange
versus building the Web site. (www.bsx.com)

We believe that developers will be eager to download Hamilton because the
technology allows managers to maintain content faster and more efficiently
and because it is free, Lalande said. Application servers typically cost
anywhere from $10,000 to $70,000.

Hamilton is an application server and development environment that is
ideally suited to developing online services that pool data from diverse,
heterogeneous information sources, including databases and wire feeds.
Clients currently deploying applications built on Hamilton include Morgan
Stanley Asset Management, Cable & Wireless Bermuda, LaSalle Re, Bermuda
Telephone Company, BIDS Limited, Catastrophe Risk Exchange (CATEX), and
X.L. Mid Ocean Reinsurance Company, Ltd.

Early Hamilton developers include In Mind, Lynchburg, Va., Logic
Communications, Hamilton, Bermuda, and WIRE Limited, Brighton, United
Kingdom.

Based in Fairfax, Va., Microstate is an Internet professional services and
software development company. The company provides integrated Web-based
network solutions to clients worldwide through its Hamilton Web application
server technology. Microstate is on the Internet at http://microstate.com.