The Open Group says it’s been having frank, informal negotiations with leading open source advocates regarding the conformance of the Linux operating system to the Group’s recently announced Unix 98 specifications (CI No 3,415). Discussions apparently began at the Uniforum Association’s 1998 Spring Conference in Ocean City, Maryland recently. Eric Raymond asked the Open Group’s director of branding, Graham Bird, what it would take to have Linux conform to Unix 98. Bird said the Group very much wants to see Linux get the Unix 98 brand. Raymond is a Linix advocate whose paper The Cathedral and the Bazaar was said to have helped spur Netscape Communications Corp into opening up the source code of its Communicator product line to developers earlier this year. Due to the increasing penetration of Linux into the low-end of the Unix market, it would be in the interests of other Unix vendors to see Linux conform to the standard, making it easier to port commercial applications between the two and providing a more attractive installed base for applications developers to target. But there are hurdles. Unix 98 branding requires extensive testing, and the Open Group charges licensing and royalty fees for the brand – something unlikely to appeal to the community of volunteer developers who maintain and update the freely available Linux system. Linux has no vendor owner, and although a number of companies package and commercialize Linux, none are large enough to shoulder the fees required. Linux OS is not even technically a Unix operating system, and is usually described as A Unix-like operating system. But with its low-end base dwindling in the face of Windows NT, the increasingly popular Linix could represent something of a lifeline for the Open Group and the Unix community. And the Group is indicating that it might be flexible with its rules in this case. It’s going to take some creativity to pull this off, it said in a statement. Dialog is apparently continuing.
