The Linux Standard Base 4.1 has been released by the LSB Workgroup at the Linux Foundation. Version 4.1 comes complete with an updated specification, a new version of the SDK, and updated Linux Application Checker and Linux Distribution Checkers.

Previously included in LSB 4.0 in a "Trial Use" status, Java has now been removed from LSB 4.1. The release notes point out that licensing issues for the compliance test suite "make it impossible to include Java as a language". The workgroup is looking into creating an LSB compliant Java runtime environment which could become part of a later version of the LSB.

Other "Trial Use" modules from LSB 4.0, covering multimedia (ALSA), security (NSS) and desktop miscellaneous (xdg-utils) have been promoted to part of LSB 4.1 and are now required submodules. The GTK+, Cairo and CUPS libraries have also been updated and three new test suites added. Further details are available in the release notes but generally, the workgroup expects "broad compatibility between 4.0 and 4.1". The updated tools and binary components for LSB 4.1 are available to download.

The Linux Standard Base is a joint project from several Linux distribution creators and hosted by the Linux Foundation to manage a specification that standardises the system environment used by Linux operating systems. The aim it to create a binary compatible and stable ABI (Application Binary Interface) for third party developers so they can make their applications portable between compliant Linux distributions.

(djwm)