Datamation: LWE: Quiet LinuxWorld Belies Rapid Acceptance of Linux

“One of the show’s most important announcements was the
release of a new revision of the Linux Standards Base, or LSB,
whose goal is to unify Linux and prevent the type of splintering
that fragmented the Unix market in the 1980s. “Linux is at a
critical juncture in terms of unifying around a single standard,”
said Ransom Love, CEO of Orem, Utah-based Caldera Systems, which
produces the Caldera Linux distribution.

In the works quietly for more than two years, the LSB provides
guidelines for Linux distributions that ensure that software
vendors writing programs for Linux won’t have to create for dozens
of different versions. Red Hat, SuSe, TurboLinux, Mandrake and
other companies producing Linux distributions all lined up to
support the LSB, which is now under the aegis of the non-profit
Free Standards Group.

In a sign of the importance of the new standard to customers,
Evan Bauer, Chief Technology Officer of finance house Credit Suisse
First Boston, announced that beginning next year, his company will
not use any version of Linux that does not meet the Linux Standard
Base standard.”

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