Portland Project Ships First Peek at a New GNOME KDE World

LINUXWORLD CONFERENCE, BOSTON, April 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Two of the open source movement's largest backers today announced the first set of common interfaces for GNOME and KDE to help overcome one of the most significant barriers to Linux adoption on the desktop. The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a global consortium dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux(R) and open source software and home to the Desktop Linux (DTL) initiative, and freedesktop.org, the open source project focused on interoperability and shared technology for X Window System desktops, today announced the technology preview availability of the first set of common interfaces for GNOME and KDE versions of desktop Linux.

The software, developed by the so-called "Portland Project" named for its roots in the city where leaders in open source desktop Linux gathered last year, aims to dramatically simplify the process of porting and integrating applications on GNOME and KDE Linux desktops. The protocols are being released to Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) for testing and the first beta is expected next month. The final set of the interfaces are slated for inclusion in the Linux Standard Base, the Linux industry's standard of record for interoperability between applications and the Linux platform. The Portland Project technology preview is available at http://portland.freedesktop.org .

"The Portland Project protocols are a godsend for ISVs like CodeWeavers," said Jeremy White, CodeWeavers. "It makes basic desktop integration tasks much simpler, slashing development time and reducing development hassle. Further, as it becomes commonly adopted, it will allow ISVs to ship a single product that will nicely integrate with whatever environment the user chooses."

The initiative also stands to give PC makers and enterprise application companies, such as Dell and SAP, added incentive to increase the development and general availability of Linux-based products.

"The Portland Project is moving fast to deliver common interfaces that will give PC makers the nudge they need to make Linux a serious element of their business strategy," said Stuart Cohen, CEO of OSDL. "OSDL is happy to play a role in this important and promising effort that exemplifies the power of collaboration and which will have a large impact on the advancement of Linux on the desktop and the emergence of the open source application suite."

The Portland Project's technology preview is focused on two sets of interfaces: a suite of command line tools and a set of library Application Program Interfaces (APIs) known as DAPI. The DAPI APIs are part of a service-oriented architecture that Linux vendors can use to provide customized services while maintaining a common set of interfaces across desktops.

"We are confident that the Portland interfaces will increase the use of Linux on the desktop and will drive both demand for, and contributions to our software," said Jeff Waugh, a director of the GNOME Foundation board. "Portland will further encourage third party development for enterprise and small business applications on the Linux desktop platform."

"Ultimately, the common set of interfaces allows ISVs to write applications that integrate with any operating environment the user chooses," said Thiago Macieira, one of KDE's technical directors. "Our developers have worked together with ISVs to make this possible and we think this effort adds real value throughout the Linux desktop ecosystem."

The Portland Project was established in December 2005 to improve interoperability issues for ISVs whose applications must work regardless of Linux distributor or desktop environment. This effort is expected to give way to increasing adoption of Linux on the desktop and open source applications for the office. The first Portland beta will be released in May 2006 with final release of Portland 1.0 expected in June 2006.

"The Portland Project's release schedule is dependent on continued input and collaboration from the community, Linux vendors and ISVs," said Waldo Bastian, Linux client architect at Intel. "We expect that with the level of involvement we've seen in just the last three months that we will closely meet our schedule and that the additional feedback from ISVs on this technology preview will make the 1.0 release rock solid." About freedesktop.org

freedesktop.org was formed in March 2000 to encourage cooperation among open source desktops for the X Window System. An X desktop is a graphical environment designed to give a technologically advanced, user-friendly face to the X Window System running on UNIX-like operating systems. Most X desktops also provide a development infrastructure for writing applications that integrate well with the desktop. About Open Source Development Labs (OSDL)

OSDL -- sponsor of Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel -- is dedicated to accelerating the growth and adoption of Linux-based operating systems in the enterprise. Founded in 2000 and supported by a global consortium of major Linux customers and IT industry leaders, OSDL is a nonprofit organization that provides state-of-the-art computing and test facilities available to developers around the world. With offices in China, Europe, Japan and the United States, OSDL sponsors legal and development projects to advance open source software as well as initiatives for Linux systems in telecommunications, in the data center and on enterprise desktops. Visit OSDL on the Web at http://www.osdl.org/ . NOTE: OSDL is a trademark of Open Source Development Labs, Inc. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Third party marks and brands are the property of their respective holders.