Printing Giant Konica Minolta Business Technologies Joins Linux Foundation

SAN FRANCISCO, April 25, 2007 ? The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc., a leader in document imaging innovation, has joined the Foundation and will participate in the OpenPrinting workgroup. Its contributions will help define standard APIs for printing and enable easier integration between desktops and printers for Linux users.

?We are proud to announce that we have become a member of The Linux Foundation to better cope with customer needs in the Linux OS field. We are convinced that we can contribute to the customer through LF by the technology that we have cultivated in the office equipment business for a ling time,? said Atsushi Sekiguchi, Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

More users are demanding Linux on their PCs, resulting in major PC makers considering how to best preload and support the operating system. For Linux to deliver on user expectations, it must work seamlessly with a variety of printers and office equipment, so printing manufacturers are working with the LF and Linux distributions to make sure their equipment works with any Linux-based PC.  The LF?s OpenPrinting workgroup and standardization of cross-distro printing APIs in the Linux Standard Base (LSB) will enable Konica Minolta Business Technologies, and other printing vendors, to target Linux in the most cost effective way possible.

?Konica Minolta Business Technologies is a major printing vendor. Its participation in our OpenPrinting and LSB workgroups will help us standardize and improve printing performance and support for the Linux platform,? said Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation. ?Our goal is to make printing ?just work? on Linux. For us to achieve that we need to work with the community, the distribution vendors and important printer vendors like Konica Minolta Business Technologies.”

Last July, Linuxprinting.org, the de facto standard repository for printer drivers on Linux, combined with the former Free Standards Group (FSG) OpenPrinting workgroup. The combination of these two organizations is making it easier to standardize printing functionality on Linux and improving support for Linux and printing vendors. The OpenPrinting workgroup and the LSB are working with distribution vendors to standardize printing workflow across the Linux platform with activities that include:

?    Standard printing APIs and libraries
?    Hardware manufacturer and ISV support and consulting
?    Legacy driver integration
?    End user support

About Konica Minolta Business Technologies
Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc. (KMBT) is an operational company developing business in the office equipment that is a core business of the Konica Minolta Group, which sets management philosophy as ‘The Creation of New Value.? Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc. will continue to offer the innovative products and professional solution based on the highly integrated technologies to be the best partner of the customers to lead their business successfully.

About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. Founded in 2007 by the merger of the Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group, it sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading Linux and open source companies and developers from around the world. The Linux Foundation promotes, protects and standardizes Linux by providing unified resources and services needed for open source to successfully compete with closed platforms. For more information, please visit www.linux-foundation.org.

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*Trademarks: *The Linux Foundation, OSDL, Free Standards Group, and Linux Standard Base are trademarks of The Linux Foundation. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Third party marks and brands are the property of their respective holders.

The Linux Foundation Announces Linux Standard Base Update and New Testing Tools

New LSB Distribution Testkit is first automated open source testing tool for the Linux platform

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. ? April 9, 2007 ? The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced an update of the Linux Standard Base (LSB) and the release of a new testing toolkit.  The update to LSB 3.1 introduces new automated testing toolkits for distributions and application vendors, linking development more closely to certification. The result will be reduced development costs and tighter integration between upstream developers, distributions, applications and the LSB standard. This continued enhancement of standards, testing and tools for the Linux platform will make it easier and less costly for application developers to support the Linux operating system.

?All the moving parts are coming together to give the Linux ecosystem its first testing framework that will coordinate development of upstream code to standards and downstream implementations,? said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. ?In order for a standard to be effective, it needs to have a powerful ? and usable ? testing infrastructure. Our testing framework will deliver that functionality and allow the Linux ecosystem to collaborate and test code while it?s being developed, improving quality and allowing ISVs to reduce their costs and get their feedback into the Linux ecosystem more effectively.?

Comprehensive Distribution Support for LSB 3.1
The LSB delivers interoperability between applications and the Linux operating system, allowing application developers to target multiple version of Linux with only one software package. This allows Linux to compete effectively against proprietary, monolithic platforms. The LSB has marshaled the various Linux distribution vendors to certify to its standards, including Red Hat, Novell, Debian, Ubuntu, Xandros, Mandriva and more. Details can be found at http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Products.

The Linux Standard Base 3.1 is available today on the Linux Foundation?s web site at http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/LSB.  The new testing kits can be found at http: http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Downloads.

?Novell is a long-term supporter of the LSB and other open standards. In fact, all of our SUSE Linux Enterprise products are LSB compliant,? said Markus Rex, vice president of services strategy at Novell. ?The LSB is a critical component for new growth in the Linux marketplace. Because The Linux Foundation is in a unique position to marshal all the resources of the growing Linux ecosystem, we are more confident than ever that it will continue to be the standard for portable Linux development.”

?We are supporting The Linux Foundation?s efforts and ISVs by registering Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 to the LSB 3.1,? said Paul Gampe ,vice president of Engineering Services and Operations, Red Hat. ?Red Hat is a firm supporter of open standards. The LSB helps make it easier for distribution vendors to build their business.?

?The LSB provides a common ground across distributions for ISV compatibility,? said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu. ?We are proud to certify to the LSB and to use their enhanced testing tool kit in our testing efforts. The harmonisation efforts of the LSB leave enough room for innovation and differentiation while ensuring that ISV’s can target Ubuntu at low cost if they already work on other LSB-certified platforms.?

The Importance of Testing and Tools
Even though Linux is developed in a highly decentralized manner, in order to be attractive to the ISV community, Linux must provide the same long-term compatibility guarantees and comprehensive compatibility testing as proprietary platforms such as Microsoft Windows. The LSB Test Framework enables cross-distribution interoperability for applications targeted at LSB 3.0 and higher and will provide backward compatibility so that these applications will continue to run correctly on distributions compatible with future versions of the LSB.

In previous releases of the LSB, the testing framework required significant hands-on coordination and interpretation. The results of the tests for both distribution vendors and application developers were often difficult to interpret. The Linux Foundation realized last year that in order for Linux to continue to grow and overtake proprietary software, investment had to be made both in the testing harness (to check software against existing standards) and in the tools needed for software providers to make use of that testing framework. The Linux Foundation initiated a multi-million dollar project to build the first open source testing framework that will link upstream projects and their code to the LSB and downstream providers. The first result of that testing...

Linux Foundation Expands Membership with Marvell, Nokia and VirtualLogix

BEAVERTON, Ore., April 4, 2007 ? The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced three new members who represent the increasing opportunity for Linux as it continues to mature on devices.

New members include MarvellŪ, the leader in storage, communications and consumer silicon solutions; Nokia, a world leader in mobile communications; and VirtualLogix?, the global leader in real-time virtualization? technology for connected devices.

?It?s really important to understand the issues and opportunities for Linux in multiple environments, and the addition of Marvell, Nokia and VirtualLogix will deepen our understanding and help us all push the envelope even further,? said Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation. ?We?re looking forward to rolling up our sleeves with these new members in the coming months, including at our first Member Meeting this June.?

About the New Members
Marvell silicon solutions power a range of consumer electronics and the gateways that form connectivity among us all. Marvell joins The Linux Foundation with a focus on the standardization of mobile and embedded Linux and its adoption on a wide range of devices.

?There has been strong interest in Linux among Marvell?s silicon solutions customers. By joining the Linux Foundation, we feel that we can better support this increasing demand and help bring embedded Linux into the mainstream through the Foundation?s unified resources, services and standards,? said Dr. Paramesh Gopi, vice president and general manager, Embedded and Emerging Business Unit, Communications and Consumer Business Group, Marvell.

In addition to its leadership position in mobile communications, Nokia is recognized for its Linux based Maemo platform, open source mobile web browser and developer portal. It is interested in working with the LF on Linux-based technologies, including its Internet Tablet, in a vendor-neutral environment.

“It is important that Linux will not be controlled by any single company,? said Ari Jaaksi, director, Open Source Software Operation, Nokia. “The Linux Foundation’s protection mission helps provide that assurance. We also believe the Foundation’s collaboration role will provide us a good venue to work with the industry’s leaders in important areas such as desktop architecture and mobile Linux initiatives.”

VirtualLogix joins LF to contribute its real-time virtualization expertise to help device manufacturers incorporate the rich functionality of Linux into mobile handset and network infrastructure applications, while reducing bill of materials.

?VirtualLogix looks forward to working with the LF and the LF virtualization workgroup to help speed the adoption of Linux into embedded devices at a lower cost,? said Michel Gien, executive vice president of corporate strategy, VirtualLogix. ?With virtualization technology, manufacturers will be able to reduce bill of materials, manage multiple operating systems within a single hardware environment and increase product performance.?

About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. Founded in 2007 by the merger of the Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group, it sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading Linux and open source companies and developers from around the world. The Linux Foundation promotes, protects and standardizes Linux by providing unified resources and services needed for open source to successfully compete with closed platforms. For more information, please visit www.linux-foundation.org <http://www.linux-foundation.org/>.

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*Trademarks: *The Linux Foundation, OSDL, Free Standards Group, and Linux Standard Base are trademarks of The Linux Foundation. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Third party marks and brands are the property of their respective holders.

Marvell and the Marvell logo are registered trademarks of Marvell or its affiliates.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Linux Foundation Announces a Diverse Board of Directors to Represent the Linux Ecosystem

New LF board includes Linux kernel community, vendors, distributions, users, and open source leaders

BEAVERTON, Ore., March 27, 2007 ? The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced its new board of directors, a diverse group that represents the key stakeholders from every corner of the Linux ecosystem: the Linux kernel community, Linux vendors, distributions and users, as well as individual open source leaders.

The management team and founding members of the LF carefully structured the board so that the multiple voices of the Linux ecosystem are included in its governance structure. That means that all LF membership classes are represented as well as individual affiliates.

“It is essential that the Linux Foundation’s board bring every Linux constituency’s issues and opportunities to the table,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation. “With leadership from the kernel, legal, user, distro and vendor communities, the Linux Foundation synthesizes the top priorities of its diverse constituencies to provide services that move Linux even further ahead in today’s competitive market. We have ensured that a diversity of interests is represented on our board.”

The Linux Foundation board of directors includes:

James Bottomley, Linux subsystem maintainer and vice president and chief technology officer at SteelEye. Bottomley is an active member of the open source community and maintains the SCSI subsystem, the MCA subsystem, the Linux Voyager port and the 53c700 driver. Bottomley is the LF’s Technical Advisory Board representative.

Wim Coekaerts, Linux VM tester and director of Linux engineering at Oracle. Coekaerts manages Oracle’s Unbreakable Linux strategy. His group is working on and contributing to the first Cluster File System to be accepted into the Linux mainline kernel in 2006.

Masahiro Date, general manager, Fujitsu. Masahiro Date is the general manager of Fujitsu and has been involved in operating systems at Fujitsu including development and development management of Fujitsu proprietary operating systems and Solaris and Linux. Mr. Date has been active in the Linux community for many years, including serving as director of OSDL and FSG.

Doug Fisher, vice president, Intel’s Software and Solutions Group (SSG) and general manager of SSG’s Systems Software Division. Fisher is a veteran IT executive with a rich history at HP and today at Intel. He leads a worldwide organization responsible for a wide range of software development, including Intel’s Linux and open source initiatives, and is the Intel corporate owner for virtualization.

Dan Frye, vice president, Open Systems Development, IBM. Frye is responsible for overseeing IBM’s Linux technical strategy and IBM’s participation in the open source Linux development community. He has also led IBM’s Emerging Technologies and Business Opportunities team and co-authored the original IBM corporate strategies for Linux and open source.

Tim Golden, senior vice president, Bank of America. For the past five years, Golden has worked exclusively with Linux and open source software and has led several enterprise-level solution architecture, risk management, and infrastructure lifecycle management initiatives. He is also affiliated with several community-based organizations, provides consultation to industry financial analysts and occasionally works for select clients as an Olliance Group senior consultant.

Hisashi Hashimoto, section manager, Hitachi. Hashimoto is responsible at Hitachi for both workstations and mainframes. He also works with the Open Source Software Technology Center and is responsible for collaboration with other vendors and the OSS community, including the work with the Open Source Software Promotion Forum in Japan.

Christine Martino, vice president of the Open Source & Linux Organization (OSLO), at HP. Martino is responsible for HP engineering, marketing, open source community participation and linkage, as well as HP’s Open Source and Linux indemnity and IP protection programs.

Marc Miller, open source software expert in the AMD Developer Outreach program. Miller is currently entering the seventh year of his tenure with AMD and is bridging a critical gap between industry-leading software development and cutting-edge microprocessor technology.

Brian Pawlowski, vice president and chief technology officer of Product Operations, NetApp. Pawlowski has been working on open protocols for storage since his earlier position at Sun Microsystems and was co-author of the NFS Version 3 specification.

Markus Rex, chief technology officer for the Linux and Open Source Group, Novell....

Linux Foundation Releases New Carrier Grade Linux 4.0 Specification

New Requirements Specification focuses on cooperation with SCOPE Alliance and tighter compliance

SAN DIEGO, Calif. ? February 27, 2007 ? At the Communications Ecosystem Conference today The Linux Foundation, the new organization formed last month from the merger of the Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group, today announced availability of its Carrier Grade Linux 4.0 Specification. In existence since 2002 and now in its fourth version, the Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) Specification consists of over 250 individual requirements that cover seven categories of Performance, Hardware, Standards, Serviceability, Availability, Security and Clustering. The primary changes to the new CGL 4.0 Specification are alignment with the SCOPE Alliance?s Carrier Grade Profile and tighter requirements around compliance.

An indication of the growing importance of the CGL Specification is the fact that the Scope Alliance, an industry association made up of the top Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturers (TEMs), has created a profile of the Carrier Grade Specification that specifies priorities for the individual requirements based on their own equipment requirements. A major part of the new CGL 4.0 specification is the alignment of the specification with the SCOPE Alliance profile. This has the benefit of helping to ensure that the Specification is meeting the needs of its primary users, the TEMs.

?SCOPE and the Linux Foundation are both committed to accelerating the deployment of carrier-grade base platforms based on open industry specifications,? said Leslie Guth, SCOPE Alliance marketing co-chair and board member. ?With the cooperation of OSDL prior to the merger and the Linux Foundation since, we’ve worked to align the CGL Specification with our released Carrier Grade profile and we look forward to benefits such as faster time to market that interoperable commercial off-the-shelf building blocks bring.?

The new CGL 4.0 specification assigned priorities to the requirements with key input from the SCOPE Alliance profile to ensure that any company registering their Linux software as CGL compliant implemented all of the mandatory requirements. The CGL 4.0 categories of requirements are Mandatory, Desired and Roadmap items. Previously any Linux distribution that met even a few of the requirements could claim compliance. But the new Specification requires inclusion of all Priority 1, or Mandatory, requirements (there are 135 specific Mandatory requirements) before a distribution can claim its product is CGL compliant. Full details of the CGL 4.0 registration process will be released in the near future.

?This release of the Specification has a significant effect on the viability of the specification and ensures that when an equipment provider specifies Carrier Grade Linux there is a consistent standard for what that means. The inclusion of mandatory requirements is a major step and will have an impact in the growth and continued adoption of the CGL specification,? said Glenn Seiler, Steering Committee chairperson for the Carrier Grade Workgroup.

?I?d like to congratulate the CGL for the enormous effort they?ve contributed to enable publishing this specification,? said Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation. ?With the publication of CGL 4.0, The Linux Foundation has re-chartered the CGL as a Linux Standard Base workgroup. We look forward to working with CGL members as well as the rest of LF members and the larger Linux community in integrating carrier-grade requirements into the LSB process.?

The Linux Standard Base (LSB) delivers interoperability between applications and the Linux operating system. Currently all major distributions comply with the LSB and many major application vendors, like MySQL, RealNetworks and SAP, are certifying. The LSB offers a cost-effective way for application vendors to target multiple Linux distributions while building only one software package. For end users, the LSB and its mark of interoperability preserves choice by allowing them to select the applications and distributions they want while avoiding vendor lock-in. LSB certification of distributions results in more applications being ported to Linux and ensures that distribution vendors are compatible with those applications. In short, the LSB ensures Linux does not fragment.

The new CGL workgroup of the LSB will focus on defining the necessary interfaces and modules to enable the testing and certification of carrier grade features in Linux distributions.

The Free Standards Group and the Open Source Development Labs recently merged to create the Linux Foundation. Both organizations have been very active in defining important standards and specifications for the Linux community. The Free Standards Group?s LSB is the de facto standard used for application portability on...