The Start of Something

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be there at the beginning of something big. Like when three guys from Seattle decided to open up a new coffee store in 1971. Or when some kid decided to build a new operating system for his PC to do a university project.

It's easy to look at things that are huge now and remember that once upon a time, all of the hubbub was just an idea.

If you're lucky, though, you might just have a chance to be there at the beginning. When something huge begins as somethng small. Today I feel pretty lucky.

The reason for this feeling is that I have been given the great opportunity to help launch the Linux Developer Network, which the Linux Foundation is launching in beta mode today.

At initial glance, the LDN might look like just another web site about Linux development. In some respects, that's what it is... a well-organized location for original and aggregate content focused on application development on the Linux platform. But take a tour of the site and you will quickly see that there's a lot more to LDN than great content.

The LDN is all about giving developers exactly what they need to code more apps for Linux. Quite often in my tenure at Linux Today, I heard software vendors expressing concern about how they could best develop for the Linux platform. Many would cite the Linux Standard Base as a possible path, but that was not always the best option for them to take. What the LDN provides is a set of information and tools that helps developers create the most portable apps they can.

The flagship of these tools is the Linux Application Checker, an application that, when downloaded and run on your computer, will examine any binary you designate and check that application to see just how many of the 30 LSB-certified distributions your application should work with. It does this by matching the interfaces reported by symbol table to the master database of all the known interfaces in those distros. If something does not match, the AppChecker will tell you what and provide more information about the needed interface. It even checks to see if the application is ready for LSB certification.

With forums, testing kits, and detailed documentation, these tools promise to help make LDN something really important in the developer community: a centralized resource for all things development in Linux.

So welcome to the new Linux Developer Network. You can say you knew it when!