Linux Foundation Announces Highlights from its First Ever Collaboration Summit

Linux Foundation Announces Highlights from its First Ever Collaboration Summit

Key kernel developers and more than 230 Linux leaders meet to discuss most pressing issues for Linux

SAN FRANCISCO, June 19, 2007 – The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced highlights from its first Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit. The over-subscribed Summit took place June 13 – 15, 2007 at the Google Mountain View Campus and included more than 230 leaders from the Linux community, representing kernel developers, distribution and system vendors, ISVs, end users and community project leaders.

This was the first event of its kind where a true cross-section of leaders from the Linux and open source communities met face-to-face to tackle today’s most pressing issues facing Linux, including technical development, legal issues, ISV porting and end user requirements. The Collaboration Summit was designed to accelerate collaboration and problem solving in the Linux community by bringing key stake holders together in a neutral setting.

“We are extremely pleased with the results so far of our Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit. We have seen a tremendous response for the Summit based on all the right people being in one place to drive meaningful change and improvement in the Linux platform,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation. “Linux is a result of thousands of individuals working together to improve the platform for everyone’s use. Because of that, collaboration events like this are crucial. The Linux Foundation was thrilled to see kernel developers, end users, ISVs, distribution and system vendors truly listening to each other and working together to advance the platform. When we work together, the community is unstoppable.”

Key highlights from the Summit include:

• Accessibility. Representatives from the LF’s Accessibility workgroup explained the Linux model for writing accessible applications to key ISVs, end users, kernel developers and LSB workgroup participants and how this is delivering greater accessibility results than proprietary models. The workgroup and its current iAccessible2 standard are dedicated to establishing standards that make software applications accessible to persons with disabilities across multiple platforms, not just Linux.

• Device Drivers: A collaborative and problem solving session on device drivers was held with key representatives from the kernel community, vendors and end users. The session explained the Linux device driver development model and why it’s crucial for vendors to offer open drivers. The session also explained the newly formed program available for vendors where the Linux kernel community is offering all companies free Linux driver development. Linux currently supports more devices than any other OS in history. More information can be found at www.linuxdriverproject.org.

• Power Management: Throughout the Summit, Linux developers, including the Linux Desktop Architects, met to discuss the increasing need for efficient power management in Linux. As a result of these meetings, Linux Foundation is organizing a “Green Linux” initiative to improve power management functionality in Linux. Making Linux “green” is becoming ever more important in all aspects of Linux adoption: mobile, desktop and server. The Linux Foundation will work with its workgroups, identify key projects and coordinate 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.

• Printing. The Linux Foundation Open Printing workgroup announced the LSB Device Driver Kit to improve printing functionality in Linux. At the Summit, key representatives from major printing vendors met with Linux community leaders to discuss the new improvements in printer driver support and work on improvements in the future. The new Device Driver Kit provides the tools and resources for printing manufacturers to easily support all Linux distributions with one driver package, greatly reducing the time and effort needed to support Linux. This release also streamlines printer support and functionality for end users through the addition of a web API from the OpenPrinting database. This API will be supported by all major Linux distributions and will allow Linux printer setup tools to automatically find and download printer driver packages, even when there is no local driver available in the distribution.

• Testing: The Linux Standard Base workgroup presented their newly created LSB Test Framework and Testing tools to a packed session of kernel developers, ISVs, upstream maintainers and system vendors. Because Linux is developed in a de-centralized manner, testing is crucial to improve code quality. The LSB testing framework includes new automated testing toolkits for distributions and application vendors, linking development more closely to certification. The result is 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.

Other sessions included collaborative work on the LSB, mobile Linux, legal issues, IPv6 compliance, kernel messaging and many more topics. At the conference, the LF also led sessions combing the LF’s user, vendor and developer advisory councils to drive collaboration and information sharing among these key constituents. The Linux Foundation provides the neutral collaboration setting where these groups can work together and jointly improve the Linux platform.

While there are a variety of industry and developer conferences, the LF Collaboration Summit is the only one to combine participation from all Linux industry constituents: developers, users, vendors, ISVs, attorneys and C-level executives. The Summit is open to LF members and to key senior participants in the Linux ecosystem and will be presented twice a year. The next one is currently scheduled for March of 2008.

More information on results from this summit and future ones can be found at www.linux-summit.org.

About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. Founded in 2007, the Linux Foundation 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 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.