Linux, the free operating system, has gone from an intriguing experiment to a mainstream technology in corporate data centers, helped by the backing of major technology companies like I.B.M., Intel and Hewlett-Packard, which sponsored industry consortiums to promote its adoption.
Those same companies have decided that the time has come to consolidate their collaborative support into a new group, the Linux Foundation, which is being announced today. And the mission of the new organization is help Linux, the leading example of the open-source model of software development, to compete more effectively against Microsoft, the world’s largest software company.
“It’s really a two-horse race now, with computing dominated by two operating-system platforms, Linux and Windows,” said James Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. “There are things that Microsoft does well in terms of promoting Windows, providing legal protection and standardizing Windows.”
He added that “the things that Microsoft does well are things we need to do well — to promote, protect and standardize Linux.”
That shift to industry-standard hardware has helped makers of personal computer chips like Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, and makers of PC-technology machines including Hewlett-Packard, I.B.M., Dell, NEC and Fujitsu.
Traditional rivals of Microsoft in the software business, including Oracle and I.B.M., have championed Linux to undermine an adversary and have tweaked their database and other software programs to run on Linux. Companies like Red Hat and Novell distribute Linux and charge companies for technical support and maintenance.
So while Linux is distributed free, a sizable market has grown up around it. The yearly sales of Linux-related hardware, software and services is more than $14.5 billion, according to estimates by IDC, a research firm.
The new Linux organization is “a clear sign that we are going to continue to work together,” said Daniel D. Frye, vice president for open systems development at I.B.M.
The work of two other groups — the Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group — will be folded into the Linux Foundation, and those organizations will no longer exist. Mr. Zemlin had been the head of the Free Standards Group.
Stuart F. Cohen, the chief executive of the Open Source Development Labs, said he was starting a new venture that would use the open-source development model to build software applications tailored for individual industries like financial services.
In an e-mail message, Mr. Torvalds noted that some of the original reasons for forming the Open Source Development Labs six years ago, like “helping companies come to grips with Linux and open source in general,” had in large part been addressed.
Referring to the new organization, he said, “The technical, legal and standards issues do seem to be part of a bigger whole.”
Mr. Torvalds said his role would not change. “I work on the technology itself, not any of the other issues,” he wrote. “I literally just sit in my basement and do technical management. Nothing else.”
