Note:

 All major Linux enterprise distributions are Linux Standard Base (LSB) 

1.3 certified. Also, the LSB 2.0 specification has been approved and 

published. Enterprise distribution compliance with the 2.0 standard should 

then soon follow.

Most of these standardization efforts were focused on low level functionality and 

standardization of the file system layout, a new printing architecture, stabilization 

or creation of APIs for clustering and high availability, and to make sure that 

programs from independent software vendors (ISVs) are binary compatible 

between different Linux distributions.

With Linux entering the desktop market, one has to go up much higher in the 

solution stack and consider user interfaces, multimedia (video, audio), mobile 

computing, security (data encryption, key management), calendaring, directory 

services, and also hardware issues. For example, the following HW/device 

standardization issues are currently presenting challenges:

ACPI

Bluetooth

Infrared

USB

IEEE1394

Wireless

TV cards

Smartcards 

It can be quite difficult in some areas to accomplish this, since many hardware 

vendors do not publish their specifications or make Open Source drivers 

available (for example, for wireless or 3D graphics cards). 

From a standardization point of view, the Linux desktop is currently a very fast 

moving target. A lot of development is occurring that can change the desktop 

 landscape . For example:

New X server extensions and modularization

NoMachine (X protocol compression technology)

Cairo (vector graphics system)

  With X, OpenGL, Postscript/PDF output

HAL (hardware abstraction layer)

GStreamer (streaming media framework)

D BUS (message bus system)

GNOME/KDE (component based desktop environments)

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Linux Client Migration Cookbook   A Practical Planning and Implementation Guide for Migrating to Desktop Linux