Linux Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Linux Foundation is a non-profit
technology consortium
chartered to foster the growth of Linux
.
Founded in 2007 by the merger of the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) and the Free Standards Group
(FSG), the Linux Foundation sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds
and is supported by leading Linux and open source companies and developers from around the world.
The Linux Foundation promotes, protects, and standardizes Linux "by providing a comprehensive set of services to compete effectively with closed platforms."
(LSB) and the Linux Developer Network.
The Linux Foundation supports the Linux community by offering technical information and education through its annual events, such as the Linux Collaboration Summit, the Linux Kernel Summit, and the general LinuxCon event inaugurated in September 2009.
The Linux Foundation also provides services to key areas of the Linux community, including an open source developer travel fund and other administrative assistance. Through its workgroups, members and developers can collaborate on key technical areas. There is also a training program that is vendor-neutral, technically advanced, and created with the actual leaders of the Linux development community.
, from its previous owners, SourceForge, Inc.
The site was relaunched on May 13, 2009, shifting away from its previous incarnation as a news site to become a central source for Linux tutorials, information, software, documentation and answers across the server, desktop/netbook, mobile, and embedded areas. It also includes a Linux software and hardware directory.
Much like Linux itself, Linux.com plans to rely on the community to create and drive the content and conversation.
In 2010 when Intel and Nokia
jointly announced that they will be merging their Linux efforts into a new project MeeGo
targeting a broader range of hardware devices, it was revealed that Linux Foundation would be hosting it. MeeGo is a merger of the Moblin (Intel) and Maemo
(Nokia) projects.
The Linux Developer Network's goal is to empower developers to target the Linux platform. One of the ways the Linux Developer Network helps developers accomplish this is to help them build portable Linux applications. The Linux Developer Network also gives developers tools to create the best Linux apps possible, no matter which platform developers want to work with.
Attendees receive Linux training that is vendor-neutral, technically advanced and created with the actual leaders of the Linux development community themselves. The Linux Foundation Linux training courses, both online and in-person, give attendees the broad, foundational knowledge and networking needed to thrive in their careers.
, or LSB, is a joint project by several Linux distribution
s under the organizational structure of the Linux Foundation to standardize the software system structure, or filesystem hierarchy
, used with Linux
operating system
. The LSB is based on the POSIX
specification, the Single UNIX Specification
, and several other open standards, but extends them in certain areas.
According to the LSB:
The LSB compliance may be certified for a product by a certification procedure.
The LSB specifies for example: standard libraries, a number of commands and utilities that extend the POSIX
standard, the layout of the file system hierarchy
, run levels, the printing system, including spoolers
such as CUPS
and tools like Foomatic
and several extensions to the X Window System
.
The OpenPrinting workgroup is a website belonging to the Linux Foundation which provides documentation and software support for printing under Linux. Formed as LinuxPrinting.org, in 2006 it became part of the Free Standards Group
.
They developed a database that lists a wide variety of printers from various manufacturers. The database allows people to give a report on the support and quality of each printer, and they also give a report on the support given to Linux by each printer vendor. They have also created a foomatic
(formerly cupsomatic) script which plugs into the Common Unix Printing System
(CUPS).
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
technology consortium
Consortium
A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....
chartered to foster the growth of Linux
Linux kernel
The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software....
.
Founded in 2007 by the merger of the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) and the Free Standards Group
Free Standards Group
The Free Standards Group was an industry non-profit consortium chartered to primarily specify and drive the adoption of open source standards.All standards developed by the Free Standards Group were released under open terms and test suites, sample implementations and other software were released...
(FSG), the Linux Foundation sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds
Linus Torvalds
Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer and hacker, best known for having initiated the development of the open source Linux kernel. He later became the chief architect of the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator...
and is supported by leading Linux and open source companies and developers from around the world.
The Linux Foundation promotes, protects, and standardizes Linux "by providing a comprehensive set of services to compete effectively with closed platforms."
Promoting Linux
The Linux Foundation serves as a neutral spokesperson for Linux and generates original content that advances the understanding of the Linux platform. It also fosters innovation by hosting collaboration events among the Linux technical community, application developers, industry, and end users to solve pressing issues facing Linux. Through the Linux Foundation's community programs, end users, developers, and industry members collaborate on technical, legal, and promotional issues.Protecting Linux
In order for Linux creator Linus Torvalds and other key kernel developers to remain independent, the Linux Foundation sponsors them so they can work full time on improving Linux. The Linux Foundation also manages the Linux trademark, offers developers legal intellectual property protection, and coordinates industry and community legal collaboration and education.Improving Linux
The Linux Foundation offers application developers standardization services and support that makes Linux an attractive target for their development efforts. These include: the Linux Standard BaseLinux Standard Base
The Linux Standard Base is a joint project by several Linux distributions under the organizational structure of the Linux Foundation to standardize the software system structure, including the filesystem hierarchy, used with Linux operating system...
(LSB) and the Linux Developer Network.
The Linux Foundation supports the Linux community by offering technical information and education through its annual events, such as the Linux Collaboration Summit, the Linux Kernel Summit, and the general LinuxCon event inaugurated in September 2009.
The Linux Foundation also provides services to key areas of the Linux community, including an open source developer travel fund and other administrative assistance. Through its workgroups, members and developers can collaborate on key technical areas. There is also a training program that is vendor-neutral, technically advanced, and created with the actual leaders of the Linux development community.
Linux.com
On March 3, 2009, the Linux Foundation announced that they would take over management of Linux.comLinux.com
Linux.com is the name of a website owned by the Linux Foundation. The site is currently a central source for Linux information, software, documentation and answers across the server, desktop/netbook, mobile, and embedded areas. Linux.com offers free Linux tutorials, news and blogs, discussion...
, from its previous owners, SourceForge, Inc.
The site was relaunched on May 13, 2009, shifting away from its previous incarnation as a news site to become a central source for Linux tutorials, information, software, documentation and answers across the server, desktop/netbook, mobile, and embedded areas. It also includes a Linux software and hardware directory.
Much like Linux itself, Linux.com plans to rely on the community to create and drive the content and conversation.
Linux Videos
The Linux Foundation hosts an important Linux video forum where users, developers and vendors can create and share Linux video tutorials. It also includes videos from recent http://events.linuxfoundation.org Linux Foundation events, as well as other industry forums. It is the home for the annual http://video.linux.com/20th-anniversary-video-contest Linux Foundation Video Contest. The Linux Foundation plans to add commissioned series of Linux video tutorials on Linux.com in the months ahead.MeeGo
As of September 2011, the Linux Foundation manages and governs only one open-source mobile platform, MeeGo.In 2010 when Intel and Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
jointly announced that they will be merging their Linux efforts into a new project MeeGo
MeeGo
MeeGo is a Linux-based open source mobile operating system project. Primarily targeted at mobile devices and information appliances in the consumer electronics market, MeeGo is designed to act as an operating system for hardware platforms such as netbooks, entry-level desktops, nettops, tablet...
targeting a broader range of hardware devices, it was revealed that Linux Foundation would be hosting it. MeeGo is a merger of the Moblin (Intel) and Maemo
Maemo
Maemo is a software platform developed by the Maemo community for smartphones and Internet tablets. It is based on the Debian Linux distribution, but has no relation to it...
(Nokia) projects.
Corporate Members
By the end of July 2011, there are more than 100 corporate members who identify with the ideals & mission of the Linux Foundation:- Platinum Members (7), who each donate US$500,000 annually, incl. (listed alphabetically) Fujitsu LtdFujitsuis a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's third-largest IT services provider measured by revenues....
, Hitachi LtdHitachiHitachi is a multinational corporation specializing in high-technology.Hitachi may also refer to:*Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan*Hitachi province, former province of Japan*Prince Hitachi and Princess Hitachi, members of the Japanese imperial family...
, Intel Corp., IBM Corp.IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, NEC Corp.NEC, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
, Oracle Corp.Oracle CorporationOracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
, and Qualcomm Innovation Center Inc.QualcommQualcomm is an American global telecommunication corporation that designs, manufactures and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services based on its code division multiple access technology and other technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, USA... - Gold Members (12), who each donate US$100,000 annually, incl. (listed alphabetically) Advanced Micro Devices Inc.Advanced Micro DevicesAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc. or AMD is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for commercial and consumer markets...
, China Mobile LtdChina MobileChina Mobile Limited is a Chinese state-owned telecommunication company that provides mobile voice and multimedia services through its nationwide mobile telecommunications network, the largest of its kind in the world...
, Cisco Systems Inc.Cisco SystemsCisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Inst., Google Inc.GoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, Hewlett-Packard Development Co. LPHewlett-PackardHewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
, Motorola Solutions Inc., NetApp Inc., Nokia Oyj.NokiaNokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
, Novell Inc.NovellNovell, Inc. is a multinational software and services company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group. It specializes in network operating systems, such as Novell NetWare; systems management solutions, such as Novell ZENworks; and collaboration solutions, such as Novell Groupwise...
, Panasonic Corp.PanasonicPanasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...
, and Toyota Motor Corp. - Silver Members (78), who each donate US$5,000-20,000 (scaling with number of employees) annually, e.g. (listed alphabetically) Adobe Systems Inc.Adobe SystemsAdobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
, ARM Holdings PLCARM HoldingsARM Holdings plc is a British multinational semiconductor and software company headquartered in Cambridge. Its largest business is in processors, although it also designs, licenses and sells software development tools under the RealView and KEIL brands, systems and platforms, system-on-a-chip...
, Broadcom Corp.BroadcomBroadcom Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company in the wireless and broadband communication business. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California, USA. Broadcom was founded by a professor-student pair Henry Samueli and Henry T. Nicholas III from the University of California, Los...
, Canonical Ltd, Dell Inc.DellDell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
, DreamWorks Animation LLCDreamWorksDreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...
, EMC Corp.EMC CorporationEMC Corporation , a Financial Times Global 500, Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, develops, delivers and supports information infrastructure and virtual infrastructure hardware, software, and services. EMC is headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA.Former Intel executive Richard Egan and his...
, Huawei Technologies Co. LtdHuaweiHuawei is a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China...
, LG Electronics Inc.LG ElectronicsLG Electronics is a global electronics and telecommunications company headquartered in Yeouido, Seoul, South Korea. The company operates its business through five divisions: mobile communications, home entertainment, home appliance, air conditioning and business solution...
, MIPS Technologies Inc.MIPS TechnologiesMIPS Technologies, Inc. , formerly MIPS Computer Systems, Inc., is most widely known for developing the MIPS architecture and a series of pioneering RISC chips. MIPS provides processor architectures and cores for digital home, networking and mobile applications.MIPS Computer Systems Inc. was...
, Protecode Inc.ProtecodeProtecode is a private company based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Protecode is a provider of open source license management solutions that can be used throughout the software development lifecycle to ensure license compliance. Protecode System 4 is a suite of tools for managing open source...
, Red Hat Inc.Red HatRed Hat, Inc. is an S&P 500 company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide....
, Renesas Electronics Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. LtdSamsung ElectronicsSamsung Electronics is a South Korean multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul...
, Siemens AGSiemensSiemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
, Sony Corp.Sony, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, Texas Instruments Inc., Toshiba Corp.Toshibais a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
, VMware Inc., et al. - Affiliates (5).
Linux Developer Network
The Linux Developer Network is an online community for Linux application developers and independent software vendors who want to start or continue to develop applications for the Linux platform.The Linux Developer Network's goal is to empower developers to target the Linux platform. One of the ways the Linux Developer Network helps developers accomplish this is to help them build portable Linux applications. The Linux Developer Network also gives developers tools to create the best Linux apps possible, no matter which platform developers want to work with.
Linux Training
The Linux Foundation Training Program features instructors and content straight from the leaders of the Linux developer community.Attendees receive Linux training that is vendor-neutral, technically advanced and created with the actual leaders of the Linux development community themselves. The Linux Foundation Linux training courses, both online and in-person, give attendees the broad, foundational knowledge and networking needed to thrive in their careers.
Linux Standard Base
The Linux Standard BaseLinux Standard Base
The Linux Standard Base is a joint project by several Linux distributions under the organizational structure of the Linux Foundation to standardize the software system structure, including the filesystem hierarchy, used with Linux operating system...
, or LSB, is a joint project by several Linux distribution
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...
s under the organizational structure of the Linux Foundation to standardize the software system structure, or filesystem hierarchy
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard defines the main directories and their contents in Linux operating systems. For the most part, it is a formalization and extension of the traditional BSD filesystem hierarchy....
, used with Linux
Linux kernel
The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software....
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
. The LSB is based on the POSIX
POSIX
POSIX , an acronym for "Portable Operating System Interface", is a family of standards specified by the IEEE for maintaining compatibility between operating systems...
specification, the Single UNIX Specification
Single UNIX Specification
The Single UNIX Specification is the collective name of a family of standards for computer operating systems to qualify for the name "Unix"...
, and several other open standards, but extends them in certain areas.
According to the LSB:
The LSB compliance may be certified for a product by a certification procedure.
The LSB specifies for example: standard libraries, a number of commands and utilities that extend the POSIX
POSIX
POSIX , an acronym for "Portable Operating System Interface", is a family of standards specified by the IEEE for maintaining compatibility between operating systems...
standard, the layout of the file system hierarchy
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard defines the main directories and their contents in Linux operating systems. For the most part, it is a formalization and extension of the traditional BSD filesystem hierarchy....
, run levels, the printing system, including spoolers
Spooling
In computer science, spool refers to the process of placing data in a temporary working area for another program to process. The most common use is in writing files on a magnetic tape or disk and entering them in the work queue for another process. Spooling is useful because devices access data at...
such as CUPS
Common Unix Printing System
CUPS is a modular printing system for Unix-like computer operating systems which allows a computer to act as a print server...
and tools like Foomatic
Foomatic
Foomatic is a configurable printing filter. It uses PPD files as configuration to generate appropriate output for a given printer. It is intended to be used with the Common Unix Printing System . It uses ghostscript in the background, using options according to the PPD file of the printer...
and several extensions to the X Window System
X Window System
The X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...
.
OpenPrinting
Free Standards Group
The Free Standards Group was an industry non-profit consortium chartered to primarily specify and drive the adoption of open source standards.All standards developed by the Free Standards Group were released under open terms and test suites, sample implementations and other software were released...
.
They developed a database that lists a wide variety of printers from various manufacturers. The database allows people to give a report on the support and quality of each printer, and they also give a report on the support given to Linux by each printer vendor. They have also created a foomatic
Foomatic
Foomatic is a configurable printing filter. It uses PPD files as configuration to generate appropriate output for a given printer. It is intended to be used with the Common Unix Printing System . It uses ghostscript in the background, using options according to the PPD file of the printer...
(formerly cupsomatic) script which plugs into the Common Unix Printing System
Common Unix Printing System
CUPS is a modular printing system for Unix-like computer operating systems which allows a computer to act as a print server...
(CUPS).