Microsoft is expected to unveil a new partnership with Novell that aims to bolster the interoperability of Windows and the SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Microsoft on Thursday morning sent out invitations for a press conference in San Francisco later that day that will feature the company's chief executive Steve Ballmer but didn't list any details. A company spokesperson declined to comment.

A Novell spokesperson confirmed to vnunet.com that the company would be a the press conference, but declined any further comment.

A partnership between the two companies would make Novell's Linux distribution more attractive to enterprises that run both Linux and Windows systems internally or that have to connect to outside partners. 

The option would give Novell a leg up in the competition with Red Hat, which is the world's largest provider of commericial Linux support.

Microsoft over the past years has been making peace with some of its long time adversaries such as Novell and Sun Microsystems.

The software behemoth in 2004 settled anti-trust lawsuits with both companies for $536m and $1.6bn respectively. 

Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have since started working on improving the interoperability between their applications and in May 2005 released specifications that enable single sign-on between systems that use the WS-* and Liberty Alliance standards for web services.

Microsoft so far hasn't worked with any Linux vendor and instead opted to work with the larger Linux community.

The company for instance has a Linux and open source interoperability lab where it test its own software, and earlier this year launched the Port25 website where it solicits feedback from open source developers.