Specifications of the Linux Standards Base 2.0 open for review

The Free Standards Group last week announced that Version 2.0 of the Linux Standards Base will be available for open review on the organization’s Web site for the next 30 days.

The Free Standards Group is a vendor-neutral organization that is developing the LSB – a uniform standard for all Linux distributions to abide by. The goal of the group is to produce a set of commonly agreed upon standards for Linux, in order to improve interoperability of software across distributions. The goal is also to keep Linux from fragmenting into offshoot systems.

Among the new features in LSB 2.0 is the introduction of a new application binary interface (ABI) for C++, which LSB backers say will improve code interoperability. Also, LSB support has been added for new hardware architectures including the IBM PowerPC 64, S390 and S390X platforms, and Advanced Micro Device’s 64-bit Opteron chip. Intel 32-bit and 64-bit architectures are also supported by LSB.

Besides the written specifications for code, LSB 2.0 will also include test suites and a development environment, a sample implementation of a complete LSB-based distribution and developer documentation. The Free Standards Group expects the LSB to be accepted by the International Standards Organization by around mid-2005.

Members of the Free Standards Group include AMD, Dell, IBM, Intel, HP, Conectiva, MandrakeSoft, MontaVista Red Hat, Sun, SuSE Linux, Turbolinux and VA Software.