LWCE's Journal: MS' Bill Hilf: We've Been in Open Source for Years

Microsoft's Bill Hilf, for those who don't know, will deliver a keynote address at LinuxWorld Boston on Thursday, April 6, at 9 am. It's interesting to see the following in a Computerworld (New Zealand) article about Mr. Hilf:

"We've been in open source software for years"
"We draw a barrier between cooperating with the [open source] process and competing with the products."

Further down the article, we get this snippet:

Hilf emphasised the "open standards/ interoperability" message, citing web services and a welter of links between Microsoft and open source products in the identity, management and networking spaces, and (with Unix systems) through the architecture of Windows Server 2003 R2.

I've predicted for some time that it would be in Microsoft's interests sooner rather than later to openly support interoperability with open source software, although not necessarily adopt open source as a development process. Microsoft is a company full of intelligent people. Ergo, they're going this direction. It's really not a surprise.

It will be interesting to hear Bill Hilf's keynote and see what, if any, wrinkles he adds to this message.