Is the current rapid proliferation of Linux in danger of being diminished due to forking of the OS? A thoughtful editorial by Matt Michie, recently published at Linux.com, reviews the current state of the Linux Standards Base (LSB) project, its implications, and its potential significance . . .

“What ever happened to the Linux Standard Base project? It was originally announced two years ago by Bruce Perens on comp.os.linux.announce. Even after initial backing by every major Linux company and the Linux community, there still isn't an available Linux standard. Does Linux even need one anymore?”

” . . . In '98 the industry rags would laugh at Linux's lack of standards. The Linux community responded with a couple of standards projects. After much flaming, the Linux Standard Base emerged as the leader.”

” . . . Initially, the community was vocal and active in the decision-making process. There was an excellent series of Freshmeat editorials with dueling opinions. The President of a company called VA Research, Larry Augustin opined, 'the most serious threat facing Linux today is Linux.' He went on to say that binary compatibility across distributions was crucial to the success of Linux. Two years ago, that seemed true.”

” . . . The fears of forking never really materialized. As long as the source is available, the minor incompatibilities between distributions can easily be worked with. Some open source advocates could argue that lack of a standard has helped free software at the expense of binary software, which is usually a good thing for Linux as a whole.”

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