[logan5]

Seeking to be more competitive with Microsoft Corp., Linux backers have agreed on a standard version of the operating system so that programs written for one Linux distribution will work with others.

Full (short) story on sfgate.com this afternoon.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...423EDT0141.DTL

The article says that it will officially announced tomorrow.

I for one am happy to see something like this. To me this quote sums it up pretty good.

"Without this, we are no better than the proprietary Unix systems of old," said Jon Hall, executive director of Linux International, another nonprofit Linux organization.

[sarumont]

Good decision, IMHO. It'll be interesting to see what they put in this "Standard Base 2.0."

[zba78]

Potentially a very positive step forward for Linux. Perhaps 3rd party software vendors/device driver developers will tend to look to provide more support for linux if it had a common standard in place.

I'd like to see that MS advert though

The ads show the Linux penguin mascot with frog feet and elephant trunks.

[sarumont]

Yes...that would be a funny ad.

And it would definately be a positive thing for manufacturers to take note of this and begin to build drivers for Linux. With the Linux-using population growing every day, they can't ignore us forever. Intel may finally release some Centrino drivers for Linux.

Also, major game development companies will have a standard to work with. They can start porting their games over and writing new games for both Linux and Windows with more ease. If they keep a forum (as most do--bioware, most notably) for support, any finicky things that come with some distros or whatnot can be solved by the userbase.

[Anigel]

Originally Posted by zba78

I'd like to see that MS advert though

Here you go => http://www.sjbaker.org/tux/msad.jpg

[jeremy1701]

Dang, that's a nasty add!

Jeremy

[zba78]

Thank for the link Anigel.

That is quite a disturbing pic. Who does MS employ as their marketing epople? First that X-Box advert on tv that got banned here in the UK (the one with the woman giving birth and the baby flying through his entire life then hitting the grave) and now this.

Twisted stuff

[sarumont]

That's not as comical as I thought it would be.

/me starts prepping gear for a M$ world demolition tour.

[Anigel]

Originally Posted by sarumont

That's not as comical as I thought it would be.

I have to agree

I saw the advert mentioned above and thought I would go and find it for a laugh.

There is something strangely disturbing about it rather than funny.

[zba78]

Back to the topic in hand though. If standards would means more support from games developers that would certainly be a real plus