Question About Becoming LSB Certified..?!

Matt Taggart taggart at debian.org
Fri Aug 16 20:18:03 PDT 2002


Glenn McGrath writes...

> Conformance,  Compliance and Certification should be testing for the same
> thing, the only difference should be who runs the test and where the
> results are sent.

Correct.

> I assume the tests are automated, so anyone can verify that someone elses
> system is in compliance by running the test themselves, they dont HAVE to
> trust a 3rd party company, any in possesion of there work can run the test
> themselves, if its not upto scratch they can report it.

You assume correctly.

> The Free software movement wouldnt exist if people wernt prepared to work
> without financial gain, you seem to be implying that although the free
> software community is capable of producing huge amounts of Free code, we
> arent capable, or trustworthy enough to run an automated test to test our
> (other each others) software.

Stop.

You're trying to turn this into a conspiracy when none exists. Many members 
of the Free Software movement have been involved in the LSB and the
Certification program from the very start. The fees for the branding
certification are about covering the cost of the engineering and legal
paperwork efforts involved and ensuring that the Free Standards Group can
protect the brand. Without legal agreements with the licensees of the brand
it's much harder for the FSG to protect what it stands for. IANAL but I
think this is one of thoses cases where if you fail to defend the brand
you lose all future rights to go after those who are abusing it.

There is a plan for self-certification. I'm not sure of the details but
I'm sure someone can jump in and point them out.

There is also a plan for licensing test results so that non-commercial
groups like Debian can allow others to apply for licensing without having
to go to the effort/expense of running the tests for a product that's
already compliant. For example: Cheapbytes might want to ship LSB branded
Debian CDs.

All of this has been publically discussed at great length. The result is
a process that is worthy of the Linux and Free Software names. I'm sorry
that you weren't there for the discussions, please read the mail archive
for more details. 

OK?

-- 
Matt Taggart
taggart at debian.org




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