Microsoft has appointed Tom Hanrahan, former director of engineering at the Linux Foundation, to head up the Interoperability Lab and take the job title of director of Linux interoperability. Hanrahan is a Linux veteran, having overseen a large team of kernel developers in a former role at IBM"s Linux Technology Center. Microsoft"s appointed director will lead interoperability efforts with Novell, which appointed Susan Heystee in December to manage its relationship with Microsoft.
The two companies have been trying to sell a combined proprietary and open-source software package to businesses since they announced a deal in November. Through a jointly run Interoperability Lab, they intend to make Novell"s Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10 run on Microsoft Virtual Server 2005. The companies will also market each other"s products.