August 12th, 2005
Microsoft's Linux and open source labs
"At the end of the day, we’re in it for business reasons. I exist for business reasons. I do not exist as a PR stunt or as sort of an olive branch." –Bill Hilf, Microsoft director of platform technology strategy, who heads the company’s Linux and Open Source Software Lab, which studies Linux and open source as both a threat and as a platform with which Windows has to interoperate. Hilf thinks of himself as the non-Microsoft person at Microsoft, and prior to joining the Windows empire worked at IBM devising a Linux technical strategy. Ina Fried’s story, "At Microsoft, the yin and yang of Linux," has some other good soundbytes.
Dan Farber, editor-in-chief of CNET News.com, has more than 20 years of experience as an editor and journalist covering technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
