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China signs up for Linux standards

Martin LaMonica CNET News

Published: 17 Jan 2006 16:25 GMT

The Free Standards Group, a non-profit group promoting Linux standards, said that a Chinese government agency has opened a lab that will use the Free Standards Group's Linux Standards Base certification process.

The Linux Standards Base (LSB) is a specification designed to allow software companies to verify that Linux distributions and applications can run on different versions of Linux. It standardises several software interfaces and includes test suites and documentation.

Jim Zemlin, the executive director of the Free Standards Group, said that the Chinese government's endorsement of LSB will help prevent a fragmentation of Linux which could lead to incompatibilities among different versions.

Large ISVs, including Linux distributors Red Hat and Novell, have voiced support for the LSB.

The China Electronics Standardisation Institute (CESI) will establish a lab and use LSB to certify Chinese Linux software products.

"LSB certification will help ensure that Linux systems in the PRC conform to the ISO/IEC standard. The LSB lab provides an environment where Chinese companies can study and master the core technologies in the global standards system," said Mo Wei, executive director of CESI, in a statement.