Fighting Linux Fragmentation

Personally, I have mixed feeling about this. While I too don’t want to see Linux fall victim to any misfortunes, is this really the best approach for us?

Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Free Standards Group, is on a mission. He wants to prevent Linux from falling prey to the fragmentation fate that befell Unix.

Zemlin was among those talking at the LinuxWorld Canada show here about the Free Standards Group and its latest Linux Standard Base (LSB) certification version 3.1.

The LSB specification is intended to provide interoperability standards via a base set of APIs and libraries so ISVs can develop and port applications that will work on LSB-certified Linux distributions.

Its last major release, version 3.0, came out in September. The 3.1 specification adds components that extend the standard to the Linux desktop.

Open Source in and of itself is not a standard, Zemlin argued, and does not necessarily prevent vendor lock-in either.

“Open source is a development methodology, and choice is not guaranteed by a development methodology,” Zemlin told the LinuxWorld Canada audience…. Source: Internet News

[tags]linux,fragmentation,linux standard base,lsb-certified,development methodology[/tags]