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Microsoft Hires Director of Linux Interoperability

Posted by kdawson on from the over-to-the-dark-side dept.

AlexGr sends us to Todd Bishop's blog in the Seattle PI for news that Microsoft has brought someone aboard to serve as its Director of Linux Interoperability and head up the Microsoft/Novell Interoperability Lab. "...his name will be familiar to people in the open-source community. In an e-mail late Thursday night, a Microsoft representative said the role will be filled by Tom Hanrahan, who was most recently the director of engineering at the Linux Foundation, the group created through the recent combination of the Free Standards Group and the Open Source Development Labs."

24 of 238 comments (clear)

  1. no... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Judas ! Go to the creationist museum where you belong.

  2. Finally by HalAtWork · · Score: 4, Funny

    NOW things will finally start getting better between MS and Linux!

    --
    Twinstiq, game news
    1. Re:Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Now Windows will have 200 distributions with subtle changes between them. They will, change the GUIs between them. Add package repositories. And the OS core will be modifiable.

      All of it, for a "reasonable" amount of money.

    2. Re:Finally by hahiss · · Score: 3, Funny

      Great---*now* I will be able to get MS Office and Windows Media Player! And we can replace the standard *nix shells with cmd.exe.

      I hope they will release .deb files for 'em. . . .

      --
      "Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under." - H.L. Mencken
    3. Re:Finally by ciroknight · · Score: 5, Funny

      In other news, we got our hands on an early version of this press release:
      HELL, Earth. June 8th, 2007. (NASDAQ: HELQ) Hell has Frozen Over.

      In a shocking event, Hell has taken on an icy interior today. Says one demon, "It's actually quite nice, what with the flying bacon and all." Operators of the Infernal Furnace spoke to us briefly: "All the sudden our computers froze", "We were installing a Microsoft Service Pack and all the sudden a penguin came on the screen and the whole environment changed." Hell has scheduled a press conference to happen later this week where we will receive an update on this situation.

      Representatives at Microsoft were not available for comment.

      Contacts:
      Lucifer,
      666-666-1234
      lucifer@inhell.com

      Steve Ballmer,
      666-666-1233
      therealdevil@inhell.com

      --
      "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
    4. Re:Finally by badspyro · · Score: 3, Funny
      I have found the next start-up command for windows...

      apt-get install adware

  3. Wow... by nametaken · · Score: 2, Funny

    Can you imagine how bad that guy gets razzed by his coworkers?!

  4. Are you sure you don't mean... by cmacb · · Score: 1, Funny

    his name will be familiar to people in the open-source community. In an e-mail late Thursday night, a Microsoft representative said the role will be filled by Tom Hanrahan,


    Are you sure you don't mean... SATAN!???
    1. Re:Are you sure you don't mean... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      No, I believe his new designation is Linuxus of Borg. He was chosen because up until now they've been thwarted by Linux users, and have chosen a familiar user to aid the assimilation process. His uniqueness has been added to their own collective. Resistance is futile.

  5. hehe by QuantumG · · Score: 2, Funny

    here's an InternetNews.com interview with him from December 2004. Couldn't get a quote huh? Gee, I wonder why. I bet if you did get a quote out of him it would be all about his best intentions and how he's going to change things at Microsoft, etc. Give him 6 months, the optimism and naivety will fade away and he'll say repeating the company line.

    Evil is insidious.
    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  6. Itsatrap by pembo13 · · Score: 1, Funny

    You never hear stories of angels going down to hell to spruce things up, do you?

    --
    "Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
  7. re by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bill: Tom, I am your father.
    Tom: Really?
    Bill: No, but I hve tons of money for you!
    Tom: Dark side it is!

  8. Typo. by guffe · · Score: 5, Funny

    I believe the title should be: Microsoft Hires Director of Linux Inoperability Slashdot should read through their posts more carefully in the future, so that typos like this doesn't happen.

  9. Chill the still by democrates · · Score: 3, Funny

    Cut the guy some slack, they're probably holding his family hostage. Seriously though, MS issue recruitment staff with MIB memory blanker gizmos. You meet, POOF!, and then believe them when they say "We are your friends! Ak. Akak Ak Ak!"

  10. And Who Did They Hire?? by Black-Man · · Score: 4, Funny

    As director of Linux sue-ability?

  11. mods? by HiggsBison · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... fire ... burn ... smoldering pile of ash ...

    I realize this was meant as "funny", but
    Must ... resist ... modding ... "flamebait" ...

    --
    My other car is a 1984 Nark Avenger.
  12. Razzing doesn't break bones by cyberianpan · · Score: 5, Funny

    And Brad Smith, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Microsoft, is rumoured to have gotten quite concerned about this development. After reading case law on "duty of care" that an employer ought extend to employees he has arranged for Tom Hanrahan to immediately go on advanced "object avoidance course" which will be taught by crack martial arts instructors. Microsoft is refusing to confirm rumours that Hanrahan is currently in a Seattle gymn with 10 instructors & a number of pieces of "office furniture".

  13. "Ministry of Linux Interoperability" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    Why does this remind me of The Ministry of Peace?

    Predicted further Ministries:
    • Ministry of Fair Competition (in charge of creating and maintaining monopolies)

    • Ministry of User Empowerment (in charge of keeping users from mucking around with their own data or applications)

    • Ministry of Community Development (in charge of eradicating the Open Source and Free Software communities)
  14. Worst story ever? by mattgreen · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can't wait to read all sorts of interesting theories on how this will really work from people who have never been inside Microsoft, yet feel the need to 'enlighten' us with their ignorance. In order to help us positively identify people most participating in groupthink, please use one or more of the following memes so we can divvy out moderation points faster:

    * Ballmer throwing chairs
    * Embrace, extend, extinguish
    * Clippy hate
    * Funny BSOD jokes

    In the meantime, I'm curious who took the job, because people will hate them for no reason now. Ah zealotry, without thee, what would I do on this site?

  15. Re:ODF by hxnwix · · Score: 3, Funny

    They'd support ODF -- natively, not through some third-party open source plugin. They'd drop OpenXML. How much more open could the be? OpenXML is an open standard! Look, in order to parse an OpenXML document, you simply open Microsoft word and ...
  16. Re:Once again by milatchi · · Score: 3, Funny

    linuzz rocks
    OMG MS copies Apple again

    --
    Slashdot = -1 Redundant, Asperger, kdawson FUD, Libertarian, and Linux
  17. Re:Once again by nine-times · · Score: 2, Funny

    Microsoft doesn't play with words like that. Just think of all the genuine advantages windows provides to users through WGA.

  18. Re:Quick Question by Tough+Love · · Score: 2, Funny

    Tom, if you happen to read Slashdot, just how many of Novell's 30 pieces of silver do you get? Actually, I'm not unhappy Microsoft got Tom, he was a largely ineffectual paper pusher at OSDL, with little community contact, empathy. I don't doubt that Microsoft's real agenda is to find new ways to inhibit Linux interoperability, and Tom is just the man to fail at that.
    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  19. Microsoft Director of Linux Interoperability(TM) by thegnu · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is like Microsoft Works(tm), isn't it?

    --
    Please stop stalking me, bro.