The Free Standards Group (FSG) last week created a Linux Standard Base Developer Network, a move to promote the interoperability of Linux applications across various distributions and flavors of the open source operating system.

The LSB Developer Network, or LDN, will be a community and resource link - similar to what Windows programmers have with the Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN).

“Microsoft has done a great job with the Microsoft Developer Network; we aim to do the same for the Linux Standard Base,” FSG Chief Technologist Ian Murdock, who founded the Debian Linux project, said in a statement. The LDN’s focus will be on steering programmers to write code that conforms to the Linux Standards Base - a set of parameters, specifications and specific requirements outlined by the FSG for how applications should be written to run on Linux systems. (The LSB was introduced in 2000 to help ensure that applications written for Linux systems would not be targeted at specific distributions or modified versions of Linux, and could run across a broader number of Linux versions.)

The LDN will feature specially selected content from open source publishers O’Reilly and Pearson Technology Group. Other tools will be available online for sharing information and code samples, and for testing code against the LSB specifications. LSB software development kits and LSB coding tutorials are among the resources that will be on tap. Throwing their weight behind the LDN effort are HP, IBM, Intel, Novell, Red Hat, Red Flag and other IT vendors and Linux distribution companies.