Jim Zemlin, 'Head Janitor of Open Source,' Makes 20 Years At Linux Foundation

An anonymous reader writes: When I first met Zemlin, he was the head of the Free Standards Group (FSG). The FSG's main project was the Linux Standard Base (LSB) project. The LSB's goal was to get everyone in the Linux desktop world to agree on standards to ensure compatibility among distributions and their applications. Oh well, some struggles are never-ending. Another group, the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), was simultaneously working on standardizing enterprise Linux. The two non-profits had the same goal of making Linux more useful and popular, so they agreed to merge. Zemlin was the natural pick to head this new group, which would be called The Linux Foundation.

At the time, he told me: "The combination of the two groups really enables the Linux platform and all the members of the Linux Foundation to work really effectively. I clearly understand what the organization's charter needs to be: We need to provide services that are useful to the community and industry, as well as protect, promote, and continue to standardize the platform." While initially focused on Linux, the Foundation's scope expanded significantly around 2010. Until then, the organization had hosted about a dozen projects related to the Linux operating system. However, as Linux gained dominance in various sectors, including high-performance computing, automotive, embedded systems, mobile devices, and cloud computing, the Linux Foundation started to broaden its horizons. Twenty years after he started leading the FSB, at the Linux Foundation Members Summit, Zemlin recalled how the Foundation became a "foundation of foundations," supporting developers and communities that wanted to leverage open source.