Three Cheers for the Linux Foundation

We were happy to hear of the recent merger between the Free Standards Group and OSDL. The newly minted organization, the Linux Foundation, was a necessary development, as there was duplication of effort among both groups. As they say, two heads are better than one… but not when they’re setting out to accomplish the same thing.

The challenge will be putting forward the message about standards-compliant Linux such that ISV’s, Linux distributions, and OEM’s take heed. As an open source company, we certainly look forward to helping out with that initiative. It is helpful to release software that adheres to an industry standard and know that users of any Linux distribution – even those we may not have heard of, let alone support – can install, configure, and fully deploy our software. This will be good for Linux as well as Open Source in general.

This gets to a larger point: if proponents of Linux want it to gain a larger share of data center deployments and remain the default platform for open source development, something will need to change. A few somethings, in fact. As long as more and more open source projects have native Windows, OpenSolaris, and (insert platform here) versions, the pressure will be on Linux distributions to make life easier for developers. Here’s a brief list of things preventing Linux from world domination:

1. Manageability. Of course we would say that, being the open source systems management company :) At this time, there is simply no simple way of getting system and application-level information out of a running Linux system. I’ll try to provide more detail on this subject later, but I’ll ask this – ever tried to get data out of a threaded application on Linux? That’s hard enough. Now try correlating that data to system-level events. Linux developers could learn a thing or two from Java with its JMX hooks.
2. Differences in library versions from Linux distro to distro. Ever tried to install an RPM on Fedora that was designed for SUSE? Try developing an app and automating your build process to accommodate that.
3. Differences in package managers. There are currently 2 primary flavors of Linux package managers, although there are multiple efforts to create an overarching package management solution. That day cannot come too soon.
4. Lack of a cohesive effort around the “Linux brand”. Hopefully, with the founding of the Linux Foundation, they will spearhead an effort around this. Without stronger brand recognition, there’s little incentive for Linux distributions to piggy-back on the name “Linux”.

The Linux Foundation certainly has its work cut out, but these are not insurmountable problems. We look forward to doing our part as an
interested ISV.

As an aside, on behalf of all of us at Hyperic, we would like to personally congratulate Jim Zemlin, the Executive Director of the Linux Foundation and former head of the Free Standards Group. Jim and the founding members of Hyperic are all Covalent alums and have been friends personally and professionally for a long time. We are extremely happy to see him rewarded for all of his hard work at the FSG. Kudos to you, Jim!

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