Redmond (WA) - Microsoft wasn’t kidding when it announced a collaboration and Linux distribution agreement with Novell in November of last year : Building on the foundation the company created in November 2006, the company added Xandros its open source partner portfolio as a "preferred" Linux distribution provider.

In yet another "broad collaboration agreement" to more aggressively go after customers who are working in mixed operating system environments, Microsoft and Xandros today announced to work together to provide "system management" solutions and intellectual property assurances to bridge the gap between open source software and Microsoft’s commercial software offering.

Over a five-year period, the two companies agreed to develop interoperable and "heterogeneous management capabilities" in which Xandros will also implementing the WS-Management set of protocols in Xandros’ BridgeWays cross-platform management products and will license Microsoft’s server communications protocols for implementation in its Xandros Server software.

Perhaps most significantly, Microsoft appears to have found an ally in its intent to accelerate the adoption of the Open XML document format in the open source arena. Xandros said it will join Microsoft in developing an open source translator between Open XML and Open Document Format and include it in "upcoming releases" of its Xandros Desktop software.

On a side note, Microsoft also addressed intellectual property rights as part of the agreement : According to a press release, the company guarantees that Xandros technologies "are compliant with Microsoft’s intellectual property."