Red Hat and SuSE Linux Achieve LSB Certification for Second Products; Red Hat Linux 8.0 and SuSE Linux 8.1 meet LSB Certification Requirements

Business Wire, Oct 8, 2002

Business/Technology Editors

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 8, 2002

Just weeks after Red Hat and SuSE Linux first achieved LSB Certification, both companies have certified second products. Red Hat Linux 8.0 and SuSE Linux 8.1 have met the stringent requirements of LSB Certification, bringing the total number of certified Linux distributions to seven.

"Both Red Hat Linux 8.0 and SuSE Linux 8.1 were LSB Certified concurrent with their release, demonstrating that the LSB and LSB Certification are a central part of the release process," said Scott McNeil, Free Standards Group executive director. "Seven Linux products have been LSB Certified in as many weeks, which is good news for developers and end users alike."

LSB, a workgroup under the Free Standards Group, standardizes the core functionality of Linux and the suite of GNU tools, giving Linux-based software the opportunity to reach a wider market and allowing application developers to concentrate on increased functionality. LSB was created through a collaboration of community developers, Linux distribution companies, ISVs and system vendors.

"LSB has reached a level of maturity that allows us to implement the standard in all future Red Hat Linux distributions," said Paul Cormier, executive vice president of Engineering at Red Hat. "Compliance with open standards comes natural to Linux, LSB expands on that by creating a high degree of compatibility between the major Linux distributions in the market."

Certification is not a profit center for the Free Standards Group. It was designed to give users and developers the highest confidence that whatever LSB Certified Linux software they work with meets the highest possible adherence to the standard. Standards for Linux ensure that all LSB Certified applications will work with any LSB certified platform -- making deployment on any system, large or small, much easier. Information on certification can be found at www.freestandards.org/certification.> "Standard compliance is of our outmost interest to avoid the fragmentation of Linux into incompatible derivatives," said Holger Dyroff, General Manager Americas of SuSE Linux Inc. "Certification gives our customers assurance that SuSE Linux 8.1 meets the highest possible adherence to the LSB standard."

The LSB encompasses much more than a written standard. The LSB written specification, test suite, sample implementation and developer tools combine to create an invaluable tool for Linux.

About the Free Standards Group

Supported by industry leaders, the Free Standards Group is an independent, vendor-neutral, non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the use and acceptance of open source technologies through the development, application and promotion of standards. Headquartered in Oakland, Calif., the Free Standards Group fulfills a critical need in the open source development community to have common behavioral specifications, tools and APIs, making development across Linux distributions easier. More information on the Free Standards Group is available at www.freestandards.org.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat is the world's premier open source and Linux provider. Red Hat is headquartered in Raleigh, N.C. and has offices worldwide. Please visit Red Hat on the Web at www.redhat.com.

About SuSE Linux

SuSE Linux is the international technology leader and solutions provider in Open Source operating system software. SuSE's unique expertise in Linux and its largest development team worldwide dedicated to Open Source software has contributed to the recognition of SuSE as the most complete Linux solution available today. SuSE Linux is a privately held company focused entirely on supporting the Linux community and Open Source development. For further information, please check www.suse.com.

Note to Editors: SuSE is a registered trademark of SuSE Linux AG. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.