Open Source Development Labs

Template:Infobox organization Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) was a non-profit organization supported by a consortium to promote Linux for enterprise computing.<ref>Template:Webarchive - January 20, 2007, version was last one archived prior to the merger.</ref> Founded in 2000, OSDL positioned itself as an independent, non-profit lab for developers who are adding enterprise capabilities to Linux.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}"</ref> The headquarters was first incorporated in San Francisco but later relocated to Beaverton in Oregon with second facility in Yokohama, Japan.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On January 22, 2007, OSDL and the Free Standards Group merged to form the Linux Foundation, narrowing their respective focuses to that of promoting Linux.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>

Activities

OSDL sponsored projects, including industry initiatives to enhance Linux for use in corporate data centres, in telecommunications networks, and on desktop computers. It also:

• provided hardware resources to the free software community and the open source community
• tested and reported on open source software
• employed a number of Linux developers.

Its employees included Linus Torvalds, the first OSDL fellow, and Bryce Harrington. In 2005, Andrew "Tridge" Tridgell was the second OSDL fellow for a year.

It had data centers in Beaverton (Oregon, United States) and Yokohama (Japan).

OSDL had investment backers that included: 7 funders of Computer Associates, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Ltd., Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel Corporation, Nippon Electric Corporation, as well as a large collection of independent software vendors, end-user companies and educational institutions. A steering committee composed of representatives from the investment backers directed OSDL, which also had a significant staff of its own.

Working groups

OSDL had established five Working Groups since 2002:

• Mobile Linux Initiative
• Carrier Grade Linux
• Data Center Linux
• Desktop Linux
• User Advisory Council

See also

• Patent Commons, a project launched in November 2005 by the OSDL