August 14, 2006 14:17 ET

MySQL and RealPlayer Certify to the Linux Standard Base

Two of the Most Widely Used Applications on Linux Will Achieve Application Portability and Be Represented on the LSB Steering Committee

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- August 14, 2006 --At the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo, the Free Standards Group (FSG), a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing and promoting open source software standards, today announced that two of the most important and widely-used applications on Linux -- RealPlayer and the MySQL database -- are certifying to the Linux Standard Base. The result will be decreased build, porting and support efforts for the software developers and increased choice for end users. For the first time, a single RealPlayer or a MySQL package will run on the many LSB-certified Linux distributions including Red Hat, Novell, Ubuntu, Red Flag and many others. Both vendors plan on making the next versions of their products LSB-compliant.

MySQL AB and RealNetworks are members of the FSG's pilot certification program and will represent server and desktop application developers on the LSB Steering Committee. These certifications represent an important milestone of ISV adoption and support, making the Free Standards Group a central resource for application developers targeting the Linux platform.

"LSB certification will ultimately simplify and improve choice for our end users," said Kaj Arnö, vice president of Community Relations for MySQL AB. "It will also reduce package build work for us -- a significant help for us as an ISV supporting many different platforms. We look forward to joining the LSB Steering Committee, and working with the community on improving application portability for Linux."

"As an ISV the LSB improves the reliability of our product by giving us a consistent platform to write to and test against," said Jeff Ayars, vice president of product engineering at RealNetworks, Inc. "As a member of the community, we are pleased to join the LSB Steering Committee and give our perspective on application development for the Linux desktop."

The Free Standards Group has now united all needed services for developers writing portable Linux applications:

--  The LSB: a binary specification delivering application portability
    among all major Linux distributions
--  The Free Standards Group certification tests and services: for
    applications and runtime environments looking to achieve binary portability
--  The Free Standards Group application directory: a marketplace for
    certified Linux applications for end users looking for portable, standards-
    compliant solutions.
    

"Certifications from such prominent applications as these prove that Linux has not fragmented," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Free Standards Group. "The LSB delivers choice for end users. The LSB also reduces costs and increases market adoption for compliant applications. Milestones like this demonstrate the Linux community can counter any barrier erected by competing operating systems."

Bringing the ISV Viewpoint to the Steering Committee

The LSB Steering Committee is the technical "board of directors" of the LSB workgroup. It is comprised of Ian Murdock, workgroup chair, and chairs of subprojects of the LSB. In order to better represent the primary benefactor and a key stakeholder of the LSB, Ian Murdock has created two seats for ISVs.

Jeff Ayars will be joining the LSB Steering Committee and representing desktop viewpoints. Mr. Ayars leads Real's Server, SDS and Tools teams as well as technology development of the Helix DNA Client and Helix DRM. He sets product and technology directions across the broad range of RealNetworks' consumer services and business products. In 1996 Mr. Ayars joined RealNetworks as a software engineer working on the development of video technologies known today as RealVideo. He has contributed to RealNetworks standards efforts as an editor on multiple modules of the SMIL 2.0 W3C standard and holds three US patents for streaming media technology he helped invent at RealNetworks. Prior to RealNetworks, he was at Asymetrix Learning Systems where he worked on multimedia authoring systems for CD-ROM and CBT applications. Mr. Ayars has a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Puget Sound and a Masters in Software Engineering from Seattle University.

MySQL AB's director of Architecture, Brian Aker, will represent server-side ISV concerns. For MySQL AB, he creates direction for the design of MySQL products and somehow finds time to write code. He currently works on the MySQL Server and spends the rest of his time working on Apache, MySQL and Perl modules, which include mod_layout, MySQL's Archive engine, and the Apache streaming services module, mod_mp3. He also works on hacks for the Asterisk Telephony System. In the past, he has been involved with projects for the Army Engineer Corps, The Virtual Hospital, Splunk, and Slashdot.

"I couldn't be more pleased to bring these two individuals into the steering committee for the LSB," said Ian Murdock, chief technology officer for the Free Standards Group and chair for the LSB workgroup. "Software developers should focus on adding value to their software, not worry about porting and verification efforts. The LSB -- and the other services we provide -- enable ISVs like Real and MySQL to target Linux effectively. Their representation on the steering committee is very important to ensure the LSB continues to meet the needs of software developers."

Real and MySQL are the first participants in the FSG Pilot Certification Program. The certified applications will be available from their respective sites and will also be featured in the Free Standards Group application directory available on http://www.freestandards.org/en/Products. ISVs interested in certifying to the LSB can do so at http://www.freestandards.org/en/Certification.

About the Free Standards Group

The Free Standards Group is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the use and acceptance of free and open source software by developing and promoting standards. Key Free Standards Group projects include the Linux Standard Base (LSB), Linuxprinting.org, OpenPrinting, OpenI18N, and the FSG Accessibility Workgroup. Supported by leaders in the IT industry as well as the open source development community, the Free Standards Group fulfills a critical need to have common behavioral specifications, tools and ABIs across Linux platforms. More information on the Free Standards Group is available at www.freestandards.org.

MySQL is a registered trademark of MySQL AB in the United States and other countries. Linux Standard Base is a registered trademark of the Free Standards Group. Other product names may be trademarks of their respective companies.