Microsoft hired Bill Hilf, an open source industry veteran, to help chart its strategy in the choppy open source waters. Hilf, director for Microsoft's platform technology strategy organization, led a technical session at LinuxWorld - a first for Microsoft - that focused on managing Linux in a mixed environment. Network World Senior Editor Jennifer Mears sat down with Hilf to hear about Microsoft's Linux/open source plans. What follows is an edited transcript of the conversation.

Did you have an internal conflict about going to work for Microsoft, considered by many in the open source community to be the evil empire?

Sure. But a lot of people look at Microsoft from a 10,000-foot view and see a company that makes a ton of money and sells proprietary software. Microsoft is really a technical company, full of technologists and led by technologists. As a technologist, it is to me a very interesting place to work. I love IBM. It's a great company. But it's a sales company, run by salespeople. And as someone who has a raw instinct for technology, Microsoft was a perfect place for me.

How have your friends in the open source community responded to your move to Microsoft?

I just did an interview with Slashdot. I gave my e-mail address and said if you're having problems, write to me. I've already gotten about 1,200 e-mails and I will answer every one. About 99% of the e-mails have been positive, saying thanks for being open and honest. Thank you for just having a dialogue. People were saying that it was refreshing to have someone who is from the open source community at Microsoft who understands open source issues and how to communicate with the community. I spend time with a lot of people in the open source development community all the time. I talk to a lot of the leaders in the open source community on an engineering level about what we can do to work better together. You'd be amazed at how many of those people have been receptive to the point of saying, "You know what, thank God that I have someone I can actually contact, because I've been working in this space for years, and I didn't know anyone in that company called Microsoft."

What about in Redmond? How has the reception been there?

That was really my big concern, more than about how the open source community would respond. Many of the people in that community are good friends. My bigger concern was that I would just be the loneliest guy in Redmond. But one of the biggest surprises to me was how many people, particularly engineers at Microsoft, really understand open source and the open source phenomenon.