The open source standards group is setting up the lab with the authorization of the Chinese government, and the Free Standards Group will work alongside the China Electronics Standardization Institute in certifying Linux distributions and applications to the LSB.
By participating in the LSB, MII expects that the Chinese IT industry will improve competitive advantage through technology innovation and internal collaboration and will expand global market opportunities, said Han Jun, deputy director of the Ministry of Information Industry science and technology department.
As well as increasing global opportunities for Chinese Linux vendors, the promotion of the LSB in China will also ensure that Western vendors are able to compete for opportunities in China on a level playing field, according to the FSG. This certification lab will increase the number of Linux applications and ensure that Linux does not fragment, said Jim Zemlin, FSG executive director.
The LSB provides a base set of APIs, libraries, and interoperability standards as well as test suites, development environments, sample implementations, and documentation, and was approved in November 2005 as an ISO standard by the International Standardization Organization and International Electrotechnical Commission.
