The agreement also highlights a degree of development in the Linux camp, showing that the system is starting to mature in its fight against Microsoft's Windows.
The Free Standards Group -- a U.S.-based non-profit trade organization -- is expected to announce widespread industry support for Linux Standard Base 2.0, an effort to develop a standard version of the open-source operating system.
A range of vendors are expected to back the initiative, including IBM, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and AMD, while a number of the larger Linux developers like Red Hat and Novell are also likely to back the plan, bolstering its uptake in the market.