Linux's future lies in its community's hands
By: Kevin Lynch
Issue date: 10/8/04 Section: Sci-Tech
Originally published: 10/8/04 at 1:11 AM EST
Last update: 1/7/05 at 1:23 PM EST
Originally published: 10/8/04 at 1:11 AM EST
Last update: 1/7/05 at 1:23 PM EST
However, like everything in the open source world as well as the rest of the world, standards face criticism. Most of the controversy surrounding the LSB is over the chosen installation package method, the Red Hat's Package Manager format. Zealous Debian GNU/Linux developers and users believe that the Debian package system is far superior. Likewise, Gentoo Linux must redesign its entire package system to conform to the LSB standards. Fortunately, both organizations have vowed to change and remain LSB compliant to help further the progress of Linux.
While some of the standards of Linux are still being hammered out, others have already proven success. One of the markets which Linux has always been pitched to was the developing market. These markets, not large enough to afford the high costs of proprietary software, can be anything ranging from small companies to large countries. This is where the internationalization of Linux comes into play. Linux, and computing in general, has always been written in English, and anyone who wants it in a different language has to do it themselves. Fortunately, the Free Standards Group realized the inefficiencies in this system early on and proposed the OpenI18N Linux internationalization standards (the 18 refers to the number of letters replaced in "internationalization").
The internationalization effort allows the input of complex languages, such as Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and more with the help of Unicode, an international character set containing characters from all languages. Internationalization allows for a much simpler translation process. With the help of OpenI18N, now a subset of the LSB, the Linux userbase of developing countries such as Africa has been growing rapidly. The internationalization efforts can be considered a Linux success story since Red Hat Enterprise Linux became the first vendor to achieve LSB Internationalization Runtime Environment certification.
One of the more important forefronts for Linux is actually one that is the least noticeable or even important to the average Linux user, but is either at the top of the list or very near it for corporate users. Security is of utmost importance to corporations and those of the tinfoil hat variety. Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux), primarily developed by the National Security Agency, is a recent project which extends the basic access controls currently seen in Linux and any Unix based operating system. With SELinux, there is no longer the simple system of trusted administrators and untrusted users. Instead, SELinux uses a type of user and process hierarchy, only allowing the specific user or process to access information, other processes, or devices in the same level. This allows users and processes the minimum amount of access required for operation and no more, helping to prevent rogue applications from destroying critical systems or users from looking at the wrong information.
While some of the standards of Linux are still being hammered out, others have already proven success. One of the markets which Linux has always been pitched to was the developing market. These markets, not large enough to afford the high costs of proprietary software, can be anything ranging from small companies to large countries. This is where the internationalization of Linux comes into play. Linux, and computing in general, has always been written in English, and anyone who wants it in a different language has to do it themselves. Fortunately, the Free Standards Group realized the inefficiencies in this system early on and proposed the OpenI18N Linux internationalization standards (the 18 refers to the number of letters replaced in "internationalization").
The internationalization effort allows the input of complex languages, such as Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and more with the help of Unicode, an international character set containing characters from all languages. Internationalization allows for a much simpler translation process. With the help of OpenI18N, now a subset of the LSB, the Linux userbase of developing countries such as Africa has been growing rapidly. The internationalization efforts can be considered a Linux success story since Red Hat Enterprise Linux became the first vendor to achieve LSB Internationalization Runtime Environment certification.
One of the more important forefronts for Linux is actually one that is the least noticeable or even important to the average Linux user, but is either at the top of the list or very near it for corporate users. Security is of utmost importance to corporations and those of the tinfoil hat variety. Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux), primarily developed by the National Security Agency, is a recent project which extends the basic access controls currently seen in Linux and any Unix based operating system. With SELinux, there is no longer the simple system of trusted administrators and untrusted users. Instead, SELinux uses a type of user and process hierarchy, only allowing the specific user or process to access information, other processes, or devices in the same level. This allows users and processes the minimum amount of access required for operation and no more, helping to prevent rogue applications from destroying critical systems or users from looking at the wrong information.
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