A single printer driver for all the Linux distributions existing today. Even though this may seem part of a Sci-Fi movie scenario, it is as true as possible thanks to the Linux Foundation. The Linux Foundation has last week announced the availability of a Linux Standard Base Driver Development Kit (LSB DDK).

As Jim Zemlin, Foundation's executive director, was saying in a press release earlier last week, the kit is a tremendous effort brought to the development of the Linux community and it reveals the tight bound among its members.

"The LSB print driver development kit is exactly the kind of work we can expedite as a united community of developers, vendors and users. We all know we have to make it extremely easy for printing manufacturers to target Linux. This kit will reduce the effort it takes for them to take advantage of the tremendous opportunity Linux represents, and will help users 'just print' while using the Linux desktop and printer of their choice ...", stated Mr. Zemlin.

Linux Foundation official also mentioned in the press release that all major distributions plan to incorporate LSB DDK in their printer setup tools from future releases. A positive aspect of the newly released LSB DDK would also be the fact that it incorporates a Web API from the OpenPrinting database that allows Linux printer setup tools to automatically find and download printer driver packages when there is no local driver available in the distribution.

"We all know we have to make it extremely easy for printing manufacturers to target Linux. This kit will reduce the effort it takes for them to take advantage of the tremendous opportunity Linux represents, and will help users 'just print' while using the Linux desktop and printer of their choice," stated Jim Zemlin over the DDK.