Two non-profit organizations devoted to promoting free and open source software standards have made a cooperative agreement. The Free Standards Group (FSG) and the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) will work together to promote version 2.0 of the Linux Standard Base (LSB), among other initiatives.

The LSB 2.0, an FSG initiative, was released on Aug. 30th. It defines standard features and topology for Linux, with the goal of increasing cross-vendor interoperability and preventing fragmentation. OSDL, which operates extensive testing facilities, including the Scalable Test Platform, has agreed to test the new LSB 2.0 standard and help extend it further.

“At OSDL, we realize a standard for Linux is an essential component of Linux's continued success in the enterprise,” said Stuart Cohen, CEO of OSDL.

FSG Executive Director Jim Zemlin said, “[The OSDL's] facilities, staff, and knowledge of enterprise Linux will only make the LSB more powerful and more accessible to Linux software vendors.”

Today's agreement between the FSG and the OSDL focuses on the LSB as it applies to enterprise users. However, the first version of the LSB later became a key component of the Embedded Linux Consortium's Linux Platform Specification. And, says, ELC Executive Director Murry Shohat, LSB 2.0 will follow suit: “ELCPS compliance/conformance with LSB 2.0 will be achieved. When it comes to LSB, the ELCPS is a REFERENCE spec — so it's a matter of voting, not engineering.”

The OSDL and FSG have previously partnered on other joint initiatives, including the OSDL Working Set, which aims to identify and quantify the most commonly-deployed packages with Linux in enterprise production environments. FSG also helped create the conference program for the upcoming January, 2005 OSDL Enterprise Linux Summit in Burlingame, California, where the FSG will conduct a tutorial on developing LSB 2.0 compliant applications.

 
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