>To Whom It May Concern, >I have a question about becoming LSB certified. >My group, which is working on a LSB-compliant >distro would like it to be LSB certified, but we >do NOT have that kind of money -- actually we >have no money at all -- to pay for >certification...so how can we become certified >if you want the little guys to comply with the >LSB, when only companies can seem to pay your >price for certification. This is a valid point >I am making and would like to see this question >answered?!
The certification program costs money because it is quite formal and incurs costs to operate. The FSG does not have the expertise to operate such a program, so the administration of the program is outsourced to a company experienced in conducting robust certification programs. To quote from the press release of yesterday: "Certification is not a profit center for the Free Standards Group," said George Kraft IV, LSB Workgroup Chair. "It was designed to give users and developers the highest confidence that whatever LSB Certified Linux distribution or program they work with meets the highest possible adherence to the standard." There is nothing to stop you from claiming LSB conformance and providing the test results to back up that claim, and we fully expect that there are people who will wish to do this. This should provide all of the technical benefits, as you would be LSB conforming and can run LSB applications. However in this scenario you would not be able to use the FSG's "LSB Certified" brand. In the end you will have to weight the benefits of being able to disply the certification brand vs. the costs of obtaining it.
