Solving Microsoft's Linux problem

As Microsoft's director of platform technology strategy, Bill Hilf spends half his time trying to figure out ways Windows can work better with Linux and the other half trying to outflank the open source rival.

Of course, he doesn't describe it quite that starkly.

"My life is like a yin and a yang," he said in an interview at the recent LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco. "There is just as much time thinking about the competitive... as there is about the cooperation/interoperability/opportunity. It's equal time."

Microsoft's Linux and Open Source Software Lab serves as both a place to examine the threat posed to Microsoft products by open source offerings and a venue for testing software from Microsoft and others that's designed to span that divide. The lab is home to hundreds of servers and desktops that run dozens of different types of Linux and Unix.

The lab's dual purpose reflects an evolution in Microsoft's mindset when it comes to Linux and other open source software.

Linux is still seen as a competitor that needs to be addressed head-on. The company spends plenty of time and money on its anti-Linux "Get the Facts" campaign, for example.

At the same time, though, Microsoft seems to have accepted that Linux is not going away, and the company wants to make sure it's not turning off customers — or leaving dollars on the table — by ignoring its very real rival.

It's been almost two years since Hilf joined Microsoft after a career managing Linux and Unix for corporations, a tour of duty that included a stint at IBM and the building of a Linux-based data centre for dot-com retailer eToys.

Hilf said his conversations with Microsoft developers have evolved since he first joined the company.

"Originally there was a lot of 'tell me how this works versus my thing,'" he recalled. Until Hilf arrived and set up shop...

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