Q&A: Linux/Open Source Software Lab on Microsoft’s Redmond Campus

In addition to providing a center for open-source analysis, testing and benchmarking, Microsoft Platform Technology Strategy Director Bill Hilf says that the research lab functions as “an experiment in interoperability.”

Microsoft is not a name normally associated with the open source community, much less the community’s signature gathering, but attendees at the 2005 LinuxWorld Conference & Expo today heard Bill Hilf, open source industry veteran and former IBM Linux deployment specialist, talk about his experience running Microsoft’s Linux/OSS Lab.

While Microsoft’s presence at the conference may raise some eyebrows in the open source community — the last Microsoft executive to speak at the event jokingly wore a flack jacket — Hilf’s focus is on building bridges. Today, he led a session at the conference titled “Managing Linux in a Mixed Environment … at Microsoft?” To learn more about Microsoft’s position on OSS and the purpose of the company’s Linux/OSS Lab, PressPass spoke with Hilf, who is Microsoft’s director of platform technology strategy

Full article @ Microsoft