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How the LSB Keeps Linux One Big Happy Family
blackbearnh writes "The Linux Standard Base is the grand attempt to create a binary-level interface that application developers can use to create software which will run on any distribution of Linux. Theodore Tso, who helps maintain the LSB, talked recently with O'Reilly News about what the LSB does behind the scenes, how it benefits ISVs and end users, and what the greatest challenges left on the plate are. 'One of the most vexing problems has been on the desktop where the Open Source community has been developing new desktop libraries faster than we can standardize them. And also ISVs want to use those latest desktop libraries even though they may not be stable yet and in some ways that's sort of us being a victim of our own success. The LSB desktop has been getting better and better and despite all the jokes that for every year since I don't know probably five years ago, every year has been promoted as the year of the Linux desktop. The fact of the matter is the Linux desktop has been making gains very, very quickly but sometimes as a result of that some of the bleeding edge interfaces for the Linux desktop haven't been as stable as say the C library. And so it's been challenging for ISVs because they want to actually ship products that will work across a wide range of Linux distributions and this is one of the places where the Linux upstream sources haven't stabilized themselves.'"
Proust on a poodle!
Yeah. Doesn't the this have the nostalgic ring of soft, chewy, John "Maddog" Hall on the Slashdot front page, and crunchy goatse.cx on the inside?
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
But they really mean it this time. Honest. In fact, Duke Nukem Forever will be ported to Linux.
LSB brings the distros all together--it gives them something in common to ignore.
Have no fear, good sir! Red Hat 6.0, with the GNOME 1.0 desktop, will solve all your problems. In the meantime, would you like to read an essay by Eric S. Raymond where he brags about how rich his LNUX stock has made him?
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Nope, it would be -1 Redundant. No need to state the obvious.
Bender: Blackjack and hookers?
(On second thought, forget the Blackjack!)
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Ask not if LSB supports your Linux - ask if your Linux supports LSB.
Ported?
Dear sir, I am pleased to inform you that Duke Nukem Forever is being developed on Linux and will be available as a free download in both RPM and .deb formats as soon as Linux gains a majority share on the desktop.
Ignore this signature. By order.
If you want your software to run on multiple Linxen, you need to make it open and let the distros compile it and build the packages. That's it.
Or use Java :-)
*ducks*
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment