The Hindu Business Line : Free Standards Group plans Linux testing centre

IN a move that could provide a big push to Linux in India, Free Standards Group, which develops and promotes standards for open source software, is planning to establish a testing centre in the country by the middle of this year.

"The centre would enable formal testing of applications. Companies, as part of process of development of applications, can test for compliance. We are in the process of finalising a location and Chennai and Bangalore are amongst the places on our radar," Mr Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of Free Standards Group, told Business Line, on the sidelines of LinuxAsia 2006.

The centre would also assist in providing developers with the knowledge tools, and educate application developers on how to write applications on Linux Operating System.

Mr Zemlin said that the non-profit organisation planned to tie up with a local partner for the testing centre. "The partner would bring not only the local language capabilities but also an in-depth knowledge of Indian market," he said, adding that the organisation has testing centres in the UK, China and North America.

In India, Free Standards Group now has an engineering centre located in Pune.

Linux Standard Base

At present, the key Free Standards Group projects include the Linux Standard Base (LSB), and OpenI18N, an internationalisation initiative. The organisation believes that a well-supported standard is a necessary component for Linux's success.

"Without a commonly adopted standard, Linux will fragment, thus proving costly for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to port their applications to the operating system and making it difficult for end-users and Linux vendors alike," he said.

At present, FSG is supported by major vendors, including Red Hat, Novell, MandrakeSoft, Conectiva, Progeny, TurboLinux, Red Flag Linux, Miracle Linux, Beijing Co-Create Software Company, Sun Wah Linux, Thiz Linux, IBM, Intel, HP, AMD, Dell, Sun Microsystems, Veritas, BakBone, Google, Trolltech, MySQL, Levanta, UGS, amongst others.