Microsoft Hires Noted Linux Engineer

Microsoft quietly hired a former senior Linux engineer last week who will be tasked with running the company's joint research lab with partner Novell. Tom Hanrahan was formerly director of engineering with the Linux Foundation and also a former senior program manager at IBM's Linux Technology Center.

According to a statement from Microsoft, Hanrahan's work will primilarly center around "interoperable virtualization" between SUSE Linux Server and Windows. However, the lab will also would work on Office Open XML and ODF interoperability, WS-Management interoperability, and directory federation. Hanrahan will report to Sam Ramji, the head of Platform Technology Strategy at Microsoft.