Linux Standard Base 3.2 Released
The Linux Foundation has released version 3.2 of Linux Standard Base (LSB) which promise improved support for Perl, Python, printers and multimedia.
The non-profit organization did not actually intend to tackle multimedia capabilities until version 4.0 of LSB. Due to the significance of multimedia for the desktop, the Linux Foundation now has at least trial use support for the ALSA sound system, and for the Portland project’s xdg-utils. The other changes in LSB 3.2 are more or less on schedule: as agreed at the conference in November, the LSB team has improved printer support in collaboration with the OpenPrinting workgroup. LSB 3.2 now has complete support for the Perl and Python programming languages. This means that Perl and Python applications will run on most Linux platforms in the future, no matter whether they were specially coded for the operating system or for cross-platform deployment.
Another feature of LSB is trial use modules which replace the previous "optional" modules. The LSB team hopes to accelerate certification in future without forcing stakeholders to support module in the test phase. Various Freedesktop.org working group standards have been implemented in menu and icon design. The FreeType and Xrender font libraries are now supported.
LSB provides a common platform for application developers, giving them the ability to cater to multiple distributions of the Linux operating system with a single software package. Several Linux distributions certify their developments with LSB, including Debian, Novell, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Mandriva, and Xandros.
Linux Standard Base 3.2 specifications with test applications and developer tools are available now from the Linux Foundation website.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Dash to Panel Maintainer Quits
Charles Gagnon has stepped away as maintainer of the popular Dash to Panel Gnome extension.
-
CIQ Releases Security-Hardened Version of Rocky Linux
If you're looking for an enterprise-grade Linux distribution that is hardened for business use, there's a new version of Rocky Linux that's sure to make you and your company happy.
-
Gnome’s Dash to Panel Extension Gets a Massive Update
If you're a fan of the Gnome Dash to Panel extension, you'll be thrilled to hear that a new version has been released with a dock mode.
-
Blender App Makes it to the Big Screen
The animated film "Flow" won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards held on March 2, 2025 and Blender was a part of it.
-
Linux Mint Retools the Cinnamon App Launcher
The developers of Linux Mint are working on an improved Cinnamon App Launcher with a better, more accessible UI.
-
New Linux Tool for Security Issues
Seal Security is launching a new solution to automate fixing Linux vulnerabilities.
-
Ubuntu 25.04 Coming Soon
Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin) has been given an April release date with many notable updates.
-
Gnome Developers Consider Dropping RPM Support
In a move that might shock a lot of users, the Gnome development team has proposed the idea of going straight up Flatpak.
-
openSUSE Tumbleweed Ditches AppArmor for SELinux
If you're an openSUSE Tumbleweed user, you can expect a major change to the distribution.
-
Plasma 6.3 Now Available
Plasma desktop v6.3 has a couple of pretty nifty tricks up its sleeve.