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OSDL and The Free Standards Group to Merge

Posted by Zonk on from the straightforward-names-say-it-all dept.

Andy Updegrove writes "On Sunday afternoon, the Free Standards Group (FSG) signed an agreement to combine forces with Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) to form a new organization — The Linux Foundation. The result of this consolidation will be to dedicate the resources of the combined membership to 'accelerate the growth of Linux by providing a comprehensive set of services to compete effectively with closed platforms.' Jim Zemlin, currently the head of FSG, will lead the new organization as its Executive Director. The new organization will continue to support Linux in a variety of ways, including by providing economic support to Linus Torvalds and other key kernel developers, managing the Linux trademark, and providing legal protection to developers through such initiatives as the Open Source as Prior Art project, the Patent Commons, and the Linux Legal Defense Fund. All in all, a tall order, but eminently possible given its membership: The Linux Foundation's founding members will include every major company in the Linux industry, including Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Intel, NEC, Novell, Oracle and Red Hat, as well as many community groups, universities and industry end users."

7 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Oh fer chrissake by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Insightful
    So rather than two organizations working towards open standards, we get one organization working towards competing against Microsoft. Brilliant. Where ODSL actually had some credibility while forcing Microsoft towards more open document standards, this new "Linux Foundation" just begs to be ignored as a competitor. Efffing brilliant.

    T]he mission of the new organization is [to] help Linux, the leading example of the open-source model of software development, to compete more effectively against Microsoft, the world's largest software company.

    /smacks head on desk
    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    1. Re:Oh fer chrissake by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
      So rather than two organizations working towards open standards, we get one organization working towards competing against Microsoft. Brilliant. Where ODSL actually had some credibility while forcing Microsoft towards more open document standards, this new "Linux Foundation" just begs to be ignored as a competitor. Efffing brilliant.

           
      T]he mission of the new organization is [to] help Linux, the leading example of the open-source model of software development, to compete more effectively against Microsoft, the world's largest software company.

      It's kind of a sad day when promoting your product and defending it's legal rights is seen as a negative. I personally think a high profile organization working toward promoting the development of open source projects in general is desirable and probably needed, but lets face it, Linux is the premier product of open source and it's well recognized by a large number of people worldwide. Other much less recognized open source projects will benefit tremendously from its success.

      It's like when a popular candidate runs for president. All of a sudden, lots of other people of the same party are more electable and ride to office on his coat tails. But it's even better for other open source products than it is for politicians. You don't have to vote the same party down the ticket, and many people don't, so the coat tails effect is limited. But there is very little closed source software for Linux compared to the open source offerings. If Linux wins, by default people will start using lots of open source. It's good for everyone.

      But your main beef is the term "win". Should we compete directly with Microsoft? I know a lot of open source proponents would like to see MS go down in flames. I'm not one of them, and I believe the new Linux foundation doesn't have to be one of them either. It doesn't have to lose credibility as an MS hater. Linux can be promoted as a positive without painting MS as a negative, We certainly won't win over MS, because they hate anything they perceive as a threat, but by promoting Linux as an open, viable alternative, we can win over computer users.

      It's possible for Linux to succeed without an attitude, being overly aggressive in its competition, and without the loss of objectivity that goes with it. A perfect example of this is theOpenCD project. They produce a CD full of very high quality open source products that run on Windows. By showing respect for Windows users, they hope to earn their attention and trust. Similarly, many people hand out "live" CDs to Windows users, and they do it with a smile. How can we possibly be losing our credibility with respectful, positive attitudes like that?
  2. OSD + FS != Linux by Daeron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It keeps amazing me over and over again how "Open Source Development" and "Free Standards" somehow miraculously always seem to transform into "Linux" ...

    All the world's NOT a Linux Box.

    1. Re:OSD + FS != Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree. But you have to admit that free software can appeal to more people when it is united under a common name that is not "FOSS" or "FLOSS" or "OSDL" or whatever. If we need something central to channel the efforts of the OSS community and expose more of the general public to the benefits of OSS, then it may as well be linux.

  3. Re:Bad or good idea by irlkersten · · Score: 2, Insightful
    a) A standards group must be independend. The FSG loses its credibility.
    Yay! It'll be like a Micosoft sponsored survey :-P
  4. Linux: Foundation Software by POds · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is this a step in the direction to making Linux the defacto standard on which to build all future software? Such a platform will be needed one day, as security and reliability become all the more important, reinventing the wheel at this level will be no more.

    Linux is the Foundation Software of the future.

    --


    Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
  5. Good Move by FullMetalAlchemist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is a good move, for the rest of us. Both these organisations where pretty much a Linux-only club; to say the least, at least extremely Linux-biased.

    This new name spells it out in clear text, which is great for all of us that don't use Linux; be it Solaris, BSD or whatever. It also means that OSDL will lose part of its meddling ability because its now in the open that it only exist to promote Linux and not other open source systems.

    I love it, I wish more organisations and companies did the same; no more hidden agendas.