Novell to Help Port Applications to Linux

An anonymous reader writes "eWeek is reporting that: "Novell announced the program at its European BrainShare 2004 tradeshow in Barcelona, Spain." "Under the initiative, leading software and hardware vendors, including Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, Intel Corp., Oracle Corp. and Scali Inc. will work with Novell help their software partners deploy their platforms and solutions on SUSE Linux, according to Novell Inc."

Comments

LSB?

[cpn2000]

I have not read the FA, but I do hope they port applications to the LSB rather than just to their distro.

Re:LSB?

[PhilipPeake]

I don't want to start any sort of flamewar on this, so just take this a my opinion FWIW:

LSB is fine, and a worthwhile effort, BUT (you knew there was but coming, didn't you?) it is FAR from a complete standard for Linux. It just codifies what are prety much already consensus and de-facto opinions on standards already present in most versions of Linux.

This is useful work, but by no means sufficient to develop against. LSB cound be more proactive and push standards where they are needed, but the push-back they would get from "the community" would be intense, and could end up devaluing the good work they currently do.

Most of the Linux distros out there do aim for LSB conformance anyway. If they don't quite make it, its not by much, and if they don't try -- well, maybe you need to give your patronage to those that do.

As far as I kno, SuSe are committed to following the LSB, so applications ported to it will naturally be LSB conformant ports - for as far as that takes them.

Re:Let's stop breaking Linux up.

[jhoffoss]

First, let's correct your previous statement. Novell and SuSE are one, and so there's not as much for a developer to struggle to conform to. Second, as was announced on /., the WSJ, and several other sources a few days ago, IBM, Novell, HP, and several other very major vendors all announced support of LSB-2. Whether they're posting placards and advertising everywhere or not, if I'm a developer for Linux tools, I'm going to code to LSB-2 spec, not to a platform (RH/SuSE/FC/LM/etc.)

Trend?

[HangingChad]

Makes me wonder if Linux is going to stratify into corporate and home user flavors? SUSE and RedHat for the office. And the raft of others for home users.

I don't think it's bad either way, just curious as to how it's going to shake out. Any Linux usage is good in my book. More apps available is very good. More alternatives to the bloated wares of Castle Redmondore, priceless.

Re:saw this coming...

[mrchaotica]

Because of the GPL, it's not possible for there to be a "'Microsoft' of Linux." Microsoft dominates with proprietary and non-standards-compliant software, which can't happen with Linux because anyone can copy it.

Yes, people can be upset when a poor technology <cough>RPM</cough> dominates, but they can't be forced to use it. The only possible issue is software patents as a lock-in mechanism, and I don't think anyone would put up with Novell trying use that -- they'd just switch. They'd have to already be locked in first.

Nothing new

[EmbeddedJanitor]

All OS vendors provide services like this (ie assistance getting your apps going on their offering). MS, IBM, HP,... all do. DEC and all it's long-dead cronies did too. So do middle-ware vendors like Oracle.

This is particularly important for companies like Novell who are targeting corporate customers, most of whom run tailored software for their business purposes (as well as the office stuff for their admin, and other general purpose software).