Linux Foundation Formed With Backing From HP, IBM, Intel

The new group, which will employ Linux inventor Linus Torvalds, is being formed from the merger of Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group.
Two groups committed to the business adoption of Linux are merging to streamline operations and represent Linux versus its challengers with one voice.
 
The Open Source Development Labs in Beaverton, Ore., will combine with the Free Standards Group in San Francisco to form The Linux Foundation. The two six-year old groups shared overlapping memberships of corporate sponsors and overlapping goals, said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the new foundation.
 
"We will be a vendor neutral organization capable of responding to competitors' attacks and FUD," said Zemlin in an interview Friday 19 Jan. He is the former executive director of the Free Standards Group.
 
The merger still needs to be ratified by the members of the two groups, which is expected to be completed in early February.