I think that any time a group working with Linux decides on tackling the standards issue, only good things can come from it. Just my thinking, however I strongly believe in that statement.

Six months ago, architects from two dozen desktop-oriented Linux projects gathered in Portland, Ore., to work together on creating the best possible Linux desktop. Thus was born the Portland Project.

The expanded group met again on May 8 and 9 in Mainz, Germany, to see how far it’s come and to look at what’s ahead.

Unlike many such collaborative efforts, such as the tangle of conflicts that are bedeviling the 802.11n wireless standard, the Portland Project is moving smoothly forward with its goal of creating a common set of standards that allow applications and desktop interfaces to easily integrate into an easy-to-use Linux desktop.

In his status report to the OSDL (Open Source Development Labs)-sponsored group, Waldo Bastian, Linux client architect at Intel, opened by covering the four areas that the developer felt needed the most improvement: increased binary compatibility between distributions; increased compatibility between the two major desktop environments (GNOME and KDE); making cross-distribution packaging easier for third-party developers; and improving documentation.

See more articles on DesktopLinux.com

Bastain said, “There exists a perception that developers need to choose between targeting GNOME or KDE, [but] in reality, 95 percent of desktop application functionality is independent from window manager and desktop environment.” It’s that remaining 5 percent that Portland is addressing. Source: eWeek

[tags]linux,desktop,portland,portland project[/tags]