Free Standards Group Reaches Major Milestone for Linux

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Today, the Free Standards Group, an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the use and acceptance of free and open source software, announced that it has reached a significant milestone in its efforts to advance internationally recognized standards for Linux. The Joint Technical Committee of ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission) has voted to recognize the Free Standards Group as a submitter of Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) for Linux.

The Free Standards Group was officially designated as a PAS submitter by ISO/IEC JTC 1 members in light of its efforts to develop and promote the Linux Standard Base (LSB). The LSB -- the standard base for Linux now recognized by every major Linux distribution vendor worldwide -- enables binary compatibility across different Linux systems. Software applications written to the LSB specification will run "out of the box" on any Linux system that is LSB compliant.

"This is excellent news for the LSB and for Linux," said Scott McNeil, executive director of the Free Standards Group. "While some work remains before we attain ISO certification for the Linux operating system, the designation of the Free Standards Group as a PAS submitter is a critical first step toward that goal."

In the coming months, the Free Standards Group and the LSB Workgroup will work to submit the LSB 2.0 to ISO/IEC JTC 1 for official recognition as a PAS. A technical specification is called a Publicly Available Specification by ISO/IEC JTC 1 if it meets strict criteria that make it suitable for possible processing as an international standard.

The Free Standards Group first released an early version of the LSB specification in 2001. Since January 2003, every major Linux distribution vendor has applied for, and achieved, LSB Certification. As industry and community support behind the LSB has gained momentum, leading IT organizations have started to incorporate LSB Certification in their acquisition policies for Linux-based products.

Linux distribution vendors that have applied for and achieved LSB Certification include Red Hat, SuSE, Conectiva, Mandrake, Progeny Debian, Sun Wah Linux, ThizLinux (Hong Kong) and Turbolinux.

Further information on the LSB is available at http://www.linuxbase.org/. Additional information on the Free Standards Group is available at http://www.freestandards.org/.

About the Free Standards Group

The Free Standards Group is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the use and acceptance of free and open source software by developing and promoting standards. Key Free Standards Group projects include the Linux Standard Base (LSB), OpenI18N, LANANA and the new Accessibility Workgroup. Supported by leaders in the IT industry as well as the open source development community, the Free Standards Group fulfills a critical need to have common behavioral specifications, tools and ABIs across Linux platforms. More information on the Free Standards Group is available at www.freestandards.org.