Microsoft and Linspire have agreed to a deal aiming at improving interoperability between Windows and Linux distribution. The pact will offer consumers greater interoperability and also include intellectual property assurances the two companies announced Wednesday.

Linspire, a Linux vendor aimed at low-price systems sold in major department stores, originally known as "lindows," was once sued by Microsoft for its original name and first Linux operating system.

The collaboration allows Linspire to provide its customers with Microsoft's Windows Media 10 and RT Audio codecs for compatibility with digital media files and voice interoperability between Linspire's Pidgin and Microsoft's Office Communicator and Live Messenger. Linspire can also use popular Microsoft TrueType fonts such as Ariel, Georgia, Times New Roman and Verdana.

"Linspire has always been about choice, and this announcement continues our tradition of offering options for improved interoperability, enhanced functionality and confidence," said Kevin Carmony, chief executive officer of Linspire.

Linspire has also agreed to join the collaboration between Microsoft and other companies to provide open source translators between the Open XML and Open Document formats, used by Office 2007 and OpenOffice (and its derivatives) respectively.

Microsoft will get revenue from the patent licensing but be offered only in paid copies of Linspire, not the free Freespire version. Apart from that, the default web search engine in Linspire will become Windows Live Search. "Delivering interoperable solutions for our customers is an important priority," said Bill Hilf, general manager of Platform Strategy at Microsoft.

Microsoft has already signed patent deals relating to Linux with other companies including Novell, Samsung and Xandros.