The Mobile Linux market became a slightly more intimate group last week, as the parallel-path LiMo Foundation and LiPS Forum — that's Linux Phone Standards, you know — announced their merger into a single, powerhouse producer.

Both groups had long been on similar tracks, both seeking to provide cell phone companies with a standard software platform for running Linux on mobile phones. Each had its own approach, with LiPS focused on creating a fixed, documented standard, while LiMo pushed ahead with producing a working platform that could become the defacto standard for Mobile Linux. With overlapping membership and the same goal in mind — not to mention LiPS's recent sag in sponsorship — it was only a matter of time before the two linked up.