Free Standards Group

Before the founding of FSG, competing Linux distributions often included incompatible differences in system library implementations, file system hierarchy, and default system behavior, creating heavy redundant work for independent software vendors that wanted their applications to run across multiple distro releases. The common baseline specification defined by the FSG-managed LSB cut down these compatibility barriers significantly, making Linux a far more practical choice for enterprise and commercial software deployments.

Unlike many traditional industry standards bodies that charged steep membership fees, hid specification details behind paywalls, or allowed restrictive patent licensing for required standard elements, the FSG required all its published standards to be fully publicly accessible with no royalty obligations. This model set a widely adopted precedent for collaborative open source ecosystem governance, and its merger with OSDL consolidated all major neutral Linux coordination activities under a single umbrella, laying the foundational governance structure that the Linux Foundation still uses today.