“I’m pleased to share some news that I expect you’ll be reading
about in lots of other places today: Open Source Development Labs
(OSDL) and the Free Standards Group (FSG) signed an agreement
yesterday providing for the two groups to combine forces to form a
new organization–The Linux Foundation. The result of this
consolidation will be to dedicate the resources of the combined
membership to ‘accelerate the growth of Linux by providing a
comprehensive set of services to compete effectively with closed
platforms…’“Jim Zemlin, currently the Executive Director of FSG, will lead
the new organization, which will include as members every major
company in the Linux industry, including Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM,
Intel, NEC, Novell, Oracle and Red Hat, as well as many community
groups, universities and industry end users. The necessary member
votes are currently being taken by OSDL and FSG, and the
transaction is expected to be finalized on or about February 2,
2007. (Disclosure: I am a director of, and my firm is legal counsel
to, FSG…)”