Related link: http://refspecs.freestandards.org/lsb.shtml

The latest version of the LSB has been released, and already there are some news sites discussing what it brings to the table with major companies giving their “we love standards” quote.

Personally, I applaud the efforts of the LSB, and even though I don’t always agree with some decisions the group makes, I still think it’s better on the whole for everyone to try to stick to the standards when possible.

I say all this to say that even if (and I haven’t pored through LSB 2.0 yet) the LSB has some great new ideas in it, my fear is that it still won’t really matter or be relevant for much of its audience because of many of the same problems that plague other standards.

For a standard to have teeth, people need to not only design their systems based on the standard, but also tout their compliance with the standard. We have seen this problem with HTML. Although HTML compliance is much better now than it has been, for a long time sites all across the Internet were littered with the “Designed for IE” or “Designed for Netscape” gifs.

For the life of the LSB much of the same thing has gone on. Certainly most major distributions now conform to the LSB and to a degree make a point to advertise the fact (especially to us in the Linux community). However, for the LSB to really have teeth, companies who develop their own software for Linux need to be touting LSB compliance, yet many don’t. Why? It’s not the LSB’s fault. I lay most of the blame at the feet of two companies who really should know better–Redhat and SUSE.

Linux use, particularly in the server market, has really taken off in the past few years with Redhat and SUSE leading the pack with many Linux migration stories and lucrative contracts with large businesses. Both distributions do “get it” in terms of the benefits of adopting the LSB and both do comply with the standards, yet when a 3rd party wants to develop software for Linux, and Redhat or SUSE collaborates with them what do you get? A “compatible with Redhat X.Y” or “compatible with SUSE version X” label.

Why do you see this and not “compatible with LSB X.Y?” Branding. Both companies would love to be synonymous with the word “Linux” and for some time, at least in the United States, Redhat achieved that goal in the minds of the corporate market.

This spring I attended a talk with a Novell representative at Penguicon 2.0 and asked whether Novell’s ownership of SUSE now meant that we would see them push for 3rd parties to adopt the LSB as a standard instead of SUSE. The answer was PR-speak for “no” and his tone reminded me of the way a Sun rep might answer when asked if Java will be Open Sourced.

I understand both of these companies need to make money to survive, but their branding not only causes annoyances (such as 3rd party software binding itself to particular kernel versions in particular distributions) but in effect makes the LSB carry little weight.

There seems to be no reason to think this practice is going to change any time soon, and since 3rd parties just don’t have the resources to support every distribution and aren’t being told to conform to the LSB instead of a particular distribution, the LSB will continue to be a great thing for companies to point to when the talk turns to Linux standards while continuing to carry little real weight where it matters.

I receive a lot of email. And, barring the rare inbox disaster (I actually had one last week so don’t feel bad if I didn’t write you back!), I usually manage to reply within a few minutes to a few days, depending upon the overall hecticness of that particular point in time.

My replies, though, often contain questions. Which is to be expected from someone as curious as myself. Curiosity compels me to collect massive amounts of data in order to correlate it into a personalized Grand Unified Theory of Geekdom. It also expresses itself in any of the dozens of projects I always seem to have on the go.

As serendipity would have it, my questions are now starting to focus on the “soft” side of open source computing. And, I’m starting to believe that the answers address the larger question of “what is the future of open source?”.

My experiences with open source have, for the most part, been positive so it’s not surprising that I’ve burrowed a little niche for myself in the FreeBSD community. Would my niche instead have been in closed source operating systems (or not even in computing at all) if my over-all experience had been negative? After all, computing was not my first career. And Unix was not my first operating system–I had already been immersed in the Novell and Microsoft worlds for a few years by the time I discovered FreeBSD.

As I review my own experience, my main obstacle was isolation, partially due to my geographic region. Any tech conversation attempt was guaranteed to evoke a glassy stare. Occasionally I’d stumble upon someone who had heard of Linux, but even they hadn’t heard of BSD. A year after moving to a larger center, I’m still amazed at all of the people and companies who have not only heard of BSD and open source but who actively promote it! I can also appreciate the giant steps taken in documentation and user group support since I’ve joined the open source scene.

As I’ve spoken to other people, I’ve heard a mix of good and bad. Sometimes the bad is geographic or cultural; there are still countries in this world where geeks of any nature aren’t exactly socially acceptable. Sometimes the bad is due to the rudeness and arrogance found on some projects’ mailing lists. Sometimes the bad results from having an obviously feminine name–apparently some people still view asking a technical question in a public forum as a request for dating candidates.

I’ve also seen first-hand the positive steps average users are taking to promote open source in their little neck of the woods. These are the unsung heroes whose efforts often go unseen or underappreciated. I’m talking about those who take the time to pen polite and helpful emails. Those who drive across town to help someone install or troubleshoot a system. Those who donate time and expertise to create open source labs at their local school, volunteer agency, or seniors home. In short, those who provide a welcoming presence for open source.

So, my questions to you are:

-what positive and negative experiences have you had with open source?

-what actions or comments in particular turned you on or off to open source?

-from your experience, how does the future look for open source?

I’d love to hear back from you. Also, if you’d like other readers to see your experience, post a comment to this blog.

I’d like to end this blog with a short example of the positive impact of networking. In the past year, I’ve heard many a comment regarding the Mac community and how many of its “goods” contrast with many of the “bads” people have experienced in other computing communities. This morning, Robert Pritchett of maccompanion emailed me to let me know his review of BSD Hacks was included in the September edition of the ezine.