From the "standardization prevents fragmentation" files:

The first Beta of LSB 4.0 (Linux Standards Base) is now out, so get ready to start standardizing your Linux apps/distros!
I first wrote about LSB 4.0 in July when Linux Foundation exec Jim Zemlin told me he had 50 people in Russia working on it. 

My former Jupitermedia colleague and now LInux Foundation community manager Brian Proffit wrote about the LSB 4 beta today. One of the key things that is part of LSB 4 is the Application Checker which is supposed to help devs target Linux accurately.

"The Application Checker draws on the extensive testing framework developed by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Linux Foundation to examine the binary files of an application to determine how it will run on all LSB-certified distributions. Not only does this assist application developers work towards LSB certification, it also greatly enhances the general portability of any application that's tested."

The overall goal of the LSB is all about portability - write once for LInux and have your app run on any distro. It's a worthy goal for sure though a difficult one. That said, the Linux Foundation is already claiming a degree of early success with the LSB 4.0 beta. They claim that there are already some 234 applications that are at or nearly ready for LSB 4.0 certification..not too shabby.

The final LSB 4.0 release is expected by the Linux Foundation to be out in the fall of this year (so that means soon!).