Microsoft has appointed Tom Hanrahan as director of Linux interoperability. 

Hanrahan will head up the new Microsoft-Novell Interoperability Lab, a development facility to let the two vendors test their software products to ensure interoperability, a Microsoft spokesperson told vnunet.com. 

The lab was first announced in October as part of the intellectual property, marketing and interoperability partnership signed between the two vendors.

Hanrahan previously worked as a director of engineering with the Open Source Development Labs and its successor organisation The Linux Foundation, which employs Linux inventor Linus Torvalds.

Prior to that, Hanrahan was a programme manager at IBM's Linux Technology Center.

Hanrahan joins Bill Hilf, who heads up Microsoft's Linux and open source lab as general manager for platform strategy.  

The group comprises Linux and Unix programmers and acts as an internal advocate for interoperability.

It has flagged and repaired bugs in both Microsoft and open source software that prevented tools from working well with Microsoft technologies.

But it also helps to develop technologies that allow firms to migrate from Unix or Linux to Windows.

Windows Powershell, for instance, offers Unix users a familiar command prompt to interact with the normally GUI-centric Windows software.