PCWorld.com - Linux Apps Learn to Work Together
Free Standards Group announces new standards designed
to help applications run on different versions of Linux.
Joris Evers, IDG News Service
Friday, February 01, 2002
Thanks to two new standards announced on Thursday,
software applications should soon be able to run across different
versions of the open-source Linux operating system, and Linux offerings
will likely be made available for a broader set of international
markets.
The Free Standards Group is announcing Linux Standards
Base 1.1, which will allow applications to interoperate across any
version of Linux that complies, and Li18nux 1.0, for better
international support in the operating system.
LSB 1.1 standardizes the core functionality of Linux
and some components. It includes a set of common application program
interfaces, a development package, and testing capabilities, the Free
Standards Group says in a statement issued at the LinuxWorld Conference
& Expo in New York.
LSB 1.1 ensures "true compatibility and
interoperability," according to the Free Standards Group, which is
backed by industry heavyweights including Compaq Computer, Dell
Computer, Caldera International, Red Hat, SuSE Linux, Oracle, and IBM.
To further expand the reach of Linux, the group
announced Li18nux 1.0, a fruit of its Linux Internationalization
Initiative working group. Li18nux is a guide for platform and
application developers supporting greater localization capabilities for
the software, according to the statement.
Both LSB 1.1 and Li18nux 1.0 are available to
developers from the Free Standards Group Web site. Various Linux
distributors have committed to make their software LSB-compliant or
certified by year end, according to the group.