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Press Releases
San Francisco, CA - September 14, 2004
-- The Free Standards Group, a nonprofit organization
dedicated to developing and promoting open source software
standards, and The Open Group, a vendor-neutral and technology-neutral
consortium that operates the industry's premier certification
service, today announced the readiness of certification efforts
for the newly announced Linux Standard Base 2.0 Specification
(LSB 2.0). Developers can work with The Open Group starting
today on certifying their applications to the global standard
for Linux.
LSB Certification is essential for Linux-based runtime environments
(distributions), Linux-based application developers and vendors.
It provides an assurance to users and customers that the certified
software product has the highest possible runtime adherence
to the LSB specifications. It provides a foundation that ensures
that a certified application will work with any LSB certified
runtime environments.
Free Standards Group certification to LSB 2.0 is now available
for the following types of products:
- LSB Application certification is for application software
conforming to the LSB Written Specifications. LSB applications
are the consumers of the services provided by LSB Runtime
Environments.
- LSB Runtime Environment certification is for Linux-based
operating system distributions and emulation environments.
Certification is achieved through an innovative automated
web certification system developed and administered by The
Open Group that allows applicants to upload their submission
over the internet. Fees are kept to a minimum, starting from
just $500, to encourage developers, ISVs and Linux distributions
to become LSB Certified. "The Open Group is ready to
certify applications to the Linux Standard Base 2.0,' said
Allen Brown, President and CEO of The Open Group. "The
LSB is crucial for the ongoing success of Linux. We're pleased
to work with the Free Standards Group on certifying products
to this important specification."
Certification is available today from The Open Group. Details
can be found at http://www.opengroup.org/lsb/cert/.
The LSB specification and test suites provide developers and
vendors with the information, guidelines and tools they need
to work toward LSB compliance. Developers and vendors are
granted a license to use the "LSB Certified" trademark
in connection with a particular software product once that
product has passed the applicable certification test suites
and the required agreements have been signed by both the developer
or vendor and the Free Standards Group. The LSB Certification
process is managed by The Open Group to ensure neutrality
and confidentiality.
The LSB has garnered pledges of support from the majority
of the Linux Community including AMD, Conectiva, Dell, HP,
IBM, Intel, Mandrakesoft, Miracle Linux, Novell's SUSE LINUX,
Progeny, Red Flag, Red Hat, Sun Wah Linux, Thizlinux, and
Turbolinux. This groundswell of support is significant as
it promises to keep Linux from forking and going the way of
proprietary systems in the past. Because of the reduced costs
for software vendors writing to the Linux, adoption of the
LSB will also result in an increase in the number of applications
written to the operating system.
The Linux Standard Base is developed and maintained by the
Free Standards Group (FSG), a nonprofit organization dedicated
to developing and promoting open source software standards.
The LSB specification offers an answer to the most pressing
issue facing Linux today: fragmentation. Industry leaders
have rallied behind the standard and pledged their support
to prevent this from happening. FSG has developed LSB along
with a number of tools and test suites to facilitate the creation
of a standard Linux.
Distributions that comply with the LSB achieve interoperability
with application software written to the standard. This is
crucial for the on-going success for Linux as it simplifies
the development and porting of applications by ISVs and guarantees
end users will not get forced behind proprietary distributions
of Linux. Most importantly, support for the LSB standard ensures
Linux will not fork and will continue to be the fastest growing
operating system in the industry. Application vendors will
save millions of dollars by basing their applications on a
clear set of standards.
The Open Group is a vendor-neutral and technology-neutral
consortium, which drives the creation of Boundaryless Information
Flow™ that will enable access to integrated information
within and between enterprises based on open standards and
global interoperability. The Open Group works with customers,
suppliers, consortia and other standard bodies. Its role is
to capture, understand and address current and emerging requirements,
establish policies and share best practices; to facilitate
interoperability, develop consensus, and evolve and integrate
specifications and open source technologies; to offer a comprehensive
set of services to enhance the operational efficiency of consortia;
and to operate the industry's premier certification service.
Note to Editors: Boundaryless Information
Flow is a trademark of The Open Group.
The Free Standards Group is an independent nonprofit organization
dedicated to accelerating the use and acceptance of free and
open source software by developing and promoting standards.
Key Free Standards Group projects include the Linux Standard
Base (LSB), OpenI18N, LANANA and the new Accessibility Workgroup.
Supported by leaders in the IT industry as well as the open
source development community, the Free Standards Group fulfills
a critical need to have common behavioral specifications, tools
and ABIs across Linux platforms. More information on the Free
Standards Group is available at www.freestandards.org.
Media contact: |
Amanda McPherson
Free Standards Group
415-531-0483 |
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Eva
Kostelkova
The Open Group
+1 415 374-8280
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