MS-Linspire partner for Interoperability

REDMOND and SAN DIEGO, USA: In an initiative to promote customer choice and strengthen the bridge between the Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems, Microsoft and Linux desktop provider Linspire have announced a tie-up. The agreement is expected to ensure a broad interoperability and technical collaboration that also includes intellectual property assurances. 

With this collaboration, the companies will work to advance office document compatibility, enhance instant messaging interoperability and reinforce existing collaboration on digital media. In addition, Linspire will provide its customers, the option to acquire a patent covenant from Microsoft for customers operating the Linspire desktop. 

“Linspire's announcement continues our tradition of offering options for improved interoperability, enhanced functionality and confidence," said Kevin Carmony, chief executive officer at Linspire. "Over the years, in an effort to expand choice, we have entered into dozens of agreements with 

commercial software vendors. It certainly made sense to collaborate with Microsoft, one of the most 

important partners in the PC ecosystem," he added. 

“Delivering interoperable solutions to our customers is an important priority,” said Bill Hilf, general manager of  Platform Strategy at Microsoft. “Through our ongoing collaborative relationships with commercial open source companies, we are demonstrating our commitment to delivering the value and increased interoperability customers want. Covering features from document formats to instant messaging and digital media, our announcement today with Linspire is an important step for our mutual customers.” 

Enhanced Functionality and Interoperability:

Microsoft and Linspire will jointly work on a variety of technical projects designed to enhance interoperability and expand the functionality of Linspire. These include efforts focused on the following:

• Document format compatibility: 
  
  Linspire will join with Novell, Microsoft and other companies to develop and distribute open source-licensed translators that allow OpenOffice and Microsoft Office users to share documents better. This will enhance customer choice by enabling effective translation between Ecma Open XML and OpenDocument Format documents. 
• Instant messaging: 
  
  Linspire will license Microsoft’s RT Audio Codec to promote voice-enabled interoperability between Linspire’s Pidgin instant messaging client and Microsoft’s instant messaging clients for business, Microsoft Office Communicator and for Windows Live Messenger consumers.
• Digital media:
  
  Future releases of Linspire will be compatible with the latest Windows Media 10 audio and video codecs, allowing Linspire and Microsoft Windows users a better sharing of the digital media files.
• TrueType fonts:
  
  Linspire will license popular Microsoft TrueType fonts, including Arial, Georgia, Times New Roman and Verdana, so that Linspire users have an improved experience in creating, editing and viewing files and documents. The Linspire customers will receive instant messaging, digital media and TrueType fonts technologies only if they purchase a patent SKU. The technologies are not shipped with all Linspire 5.0 distributions. 
• Web search:
  
  Linspire will select the Live Search service of Windows Live as the Linspire 5.0 default Web search engine, allowing Microsoft to bring Live Search to a broader set of users and provide leading search capabilities to Linspire customers. 

  Intellectual Property Assurance:
  
  Through the agreement, Microsoft and Linspire have developed a framework to provide patent covenants for Linspire customers. The patent covenants provide customers with confidence that the Linspire technologies they use come with rights to relevant Microsoft patents. This apart, Linspire now joins a growing group of open source software (OSS) distributors collaborating with Microsoft in an effort to establish rich interoperability, deliver IP assurance to customers and bridge open source and proprietary software. 

  For Microsoft, the agreement is the latest in a series of collaborations with Linux platform and OSS  providers. This list of collaborators includes JBoss, LG Electronics, Novell, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Xandros Inc., XenSource Inc. and Zend Technologies Inc.