Enterprise applications Toolkit

Linux Foundation tackles power concerns

David Meyer ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 19 Jun 2007 11:29 BST

Linux developers are gearing up for a summit next week in Canada to discuss the issue of power management in the open-source framework.

The Green Linux initiative is being organised by the Linux Foundation, which was formed earlier this year by a merger of the Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group.

Last week the Foundation held a "collaboration summit" at Google's Mountain View Campus, with the Green Linux initiative being one result of that meeting.

"Making Linux 'green' is becoming ever more important in all aspects of Linux adoption: mobile, desktop and server," read a statement from the organisation, released on Tuesday. "The Linux Foundation will work with its workgroups, identify key projects and co-ordinate resources among its members to improve this functionality in the Linux platform. Power management developers will meet next week in Ottawa to continue work in this area."

Other highlights from last week's summit include a working group on establishing new accessibility standards, a problem-solving session on device drivers and a new Linux Standard Base (LSB) device driver kit to improve printing functionality. The LSB workgroup also presented a new test framework and testing tools to aid the development process.

Many of the Linux Foundation's members — including names such as IBM, Novell, Intel, Sun, AMD and Dell — are also involved in the Green Grid, a consortium of companies dedicated to reducing power consumption in corporate data centres.