The Linux Foundation


The Linux Foundation is a non-profit technology consortium whose primary role is to standardize, promote, and protect Linux. Nowadays it extended its work far beyond Linux and brings its expertise to some other important open-source projects to help them establish, build and sustain.

In 2000 Linux Foundation began under Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) whose goal was to be recognized as the center of gravity for the Linux industry. It becomes the organization when OSDL was merged with the Free Standard Group (FSG) on January 22, 2007.

Objectives of Linux Foundation

The objectives of Linux Foundations are given below –

  • Its primary objective is to promote Linux and accelerate its deployment for enterprise computing
  • It sponsors the work of Linus Torvalds
  • To build a sustainable ecosystem around the opensource projects
  • Linux Foundation enables technical project communities to build open standards, open hardware, open data, and open specifications.
  • To support opensource communities with financial and intellectual resources
  • Providing training and certification to people on opensource and other technologies

What do you mean by standardization of Linux?

Standardization of Linux is the process of implementing and developing the technical standards for Linux with the consensus of users, developers, governing bodies, standard organizations, and other interest groups. Standardizing Linux can maximize compatibility, interoperability, safety, and quality.

For instance, FHS or Filesystem Hierarchy Standard defines the directory structure and directory content in Linux. Each distribution has to follow these standards to maintain compatibility and quality. Some of the distributions follow the standard but deviate in some areas for the purpose of experimentation.

Linux Foundation is the organization that maintains the set of standards that Linux distributions have to comply with.

Some important projects hosted by Linux Foundation

These projects hosted by Linux Foundation are backed by the 1000+ active corporate members. Some of the well-known projects are given below-

Automotive Grade Linux – This is a Linux-based open-source platform for connected cars that can serve as the defacto standard for the automobile industry.

Hyperledger – The Hyperledger project is for advancing business blockchain adoption through global open-source collaboration. It is one of the fastest-growing projects of the Linux foundation.

Linux Standard Base (LSB) –  It is based on the POSIX specification, Its goal is to develop and promote a set of open standards that will increase the application compatibility among the Linux distributions.

Kubernetes – Also known as K8s is an open-source system for automating, deployment, scaling, and management of the containerized applications. Originally it was developed by Google and is now maintained by Cloud Native Computing Foundation which is a Linux Foundation project.

Xen project – The Xen project is developed and maintained by the global open-source community of developers. The project includes the development of Xen hypervisor, Xen cloud platform, Xen ARM, etc.

OpenJS Foundation – It was founded with the merger of JS foundation and node.js foundation with a mission to foster the healthy growth of javascript and the web ecosystem.

You can find a detailed list of hosted projects on Linux foundation’s official website.

What does the project mean to the developers, community, or society?

A project is a set of interrelated tasks that need to be completed within a certain period of time in order to reach a specific outcome.

Linux Foundation hosts some of the world’s most important projects such as Linux, Hyperledger, Kubernetes, etc. Linux has a huge acceptance in almost every field including financial, government, education, film making, etc.

You can see some statistics on the usage of Linux given on the official website of the Linux Foundation.

If you want to host an open-source community project on Linux Foundation you could read a comprehensive guide given on its official website. It gives details on how the Linux Foundation will assist you and provide various types of supports.

What events do they organize and what are the objectives of these events

Linux Foundation organizes events where developers, maintainers, practitioners of the most important open-source projects, and other professionals of industry meet. They meet to share ideas, learn, and collaborate. Opensource communities are generally virtual and distributed so when they meet face to face they can quickly address the issues they are facing.

You can see the list of upcoming and closed Linux Foundation Events.

Training and certification courses offered by Linux Foundation

Linux Foundation offers training and certification courses on various open-source technologies. This includes areas like Linux kernel development, AI & machine learning, blockchain, system administration, web & application development, etc.

You can find and explore the full catalog on their official website.

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