More Vendors Join The LSB

It's definately been a hot topic lately, no doubt about it. But Daniel Quinlan wrote in to send us a press release from the LSB stating that the Debian/Red Hat standards project (LCS) will be working with the LSB. Daniel has also been named as Bruce Perens replacement as the head of LSB. Besides having an @transmeta.com email address, Daniel has been the head of the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. I'm really glad to see this come together. Anyway, I've attached the announcement- click below if you want to read it.

Additional Vendors Participate in Growing LSB Effort

LCS founders join the LSB project

We are happy to announce that the founders of the Linux Compatibility Standards (LCS) Project, a collaboration of Debian and Red Hat, will work on Linux standards as part of the LSB effort. Now that the LSB Project combines the original focus of the LSB with the goals of the LCS, the LCS founders see no need for any separate standardization effort.

LSB elects new chair and forms 3 technical sub-projects

After Bruce Perens departed on August 10th, it was necessary to find a new chair for the LSB organization. It was felt by several vendors that such a chair should be impartial and thus not from any Linux vendor. The new chair of the LSB Steering Committee is Daniel Quinlan (head of the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard).

Originally, the focus of the LSB project was to produce a Linux reference platform that would define a standard Linux. Any program that ran successfully on the reference platform could be expected to run on all compliant Linux systems. An LSB written standard and test suite were secondary goals.

As discussion of how to develop the reference platform continued, it became obvious that without active work on a written standard and a test suite, that the LSB project wouldn't be successful in achieving its goals. Therefore, the LSB project has now reorganized into three technical sub-committee projects of equal importance, each with a prominent technical lead.

• LSB written standard Technical lead: Stuart Anderson (Metro Link, Inc.)
• LSB test suite Technical lead: Dale Scheetz (Debian)
• LSB sample implementation Technical lead: Ralf Flaxa (Caldera)

These three groups will work together to develop a base standard for the Linux operating system as follows:

• The test suite must match the written standard.
• A conformant distribution (such as the sample implementation) must pass the test suite and follow the written standard.
• Conformant applications should run on the any distribution that passes the test suite.

And when the above is not true, then something needs to be fixed. If it can't be figured out by the technical groups, then the steering committee will arbitrate.

Finally, the sample implementation will be composed entirely of free software and the test suite will be as free as the LSB can make it without rendering the test suite meaningless.

New LSB web site

There is now a web site for the LSB project: http://www.linuxbase.org/

About the Linux Standard Base

The Linux Standard Base (LSB) is developing a set of standards that will increase compatibility among Linux distributions and enable software applications to run on any compliant Linux system. The LSB will also help coordinate efforts to recruit software vendors to port and write products for Linux.

We have also created several open mailing lists (for more information, please see the LSB web site). The public "at large" are encouraged to subscribe to these lists, with a request that non-committee members "lurk" quietly.

The list of individuals and organizations participating in the LSB effort or endorsing the LSB includes:

• Alan Cox, Building Number Three
• Caldera, Inc.
• Enhanced Software Technologies, Inc.
• Eric S. Raymond, open-source evangelist, and author of "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"
• Evan Leibovitch, Chair of 86open Project
• Jon A. Hall, Executive Director, Linux International
• Linux Hardware Solutions, Inc.
• Metro Link, Inc.
• Pacific HiTech (TurboLinux)
• Phil Hughes, Director Linux International, Publisher of Linux Journal
• Red Hat Software, Inc.
• S.u.S.E. GmbH
• Software in the Public Interest
• The Debian Project
• VA Research

(For the growing list of participants, please check www.linuxbase.org.)

Contact Information

For further information, please send email to [e-mail] or visit the Linux Standard Base home page at Linuxbase.org.