The LSB is designed to provide a core set of specifications for Linux vendors and developers to work towards to ensure that there is a high level of compatibility between distributions. The specification is developed and maintained by the Free Standards Group, a non-profit organization that is now aiming for International Standards Organization approval.
Earlier this week it announced that the Joint Technical Committee of ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission had voted to recognize the Free Standards Group as a submitter of Publicly Available Specifications for Linux.
That is the first step towards the LSB becoming an ISO standard, according to Scott McNeil, executive director of the Free Standards Group. Once the LSB 2.0 has been through the public review process, it will be submitted to become an international standard.
Version 2.0 of the LSB is a revision of the core specification and builds on, rather than replaces, the original. Among the new features in 2.0 is support for new architectures, such as 64-bit IBM Corp PowerPC and 64-bit Advanced Micro Devices Inc processor machines. LSB already supported 32- and 64-bit Intel processors as well as 32-bit PowerPC and S/390 mainframe machines.
LSB 2.0 also includes test suites, a development environment, a sample implementation, and developer documentation, making it easier for developers to create Linux applications to the specification.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
