No, it's not a joke. Microsoft has hired one of the key figures behind a popular distribution of Linux in order to educate its in-house developers about open source.

Gentoo founder and former Gentoo Chief Architect Daniel Robbins began a new position at Microsoft on 23 May 2005.

"I'm helping Microsoft to understand Open Source and community-based projects," Robbins said.

Microsoft confirmed Wednesday that Robbins will have an educational role at the company.

"Daniel Robbins will be working under Bill Hilf who heads the Platform Value team's research lab in Redmond. Bill's team educates internal Microsoft product teams about open-source development, testing, and deployment issues," said a Microsoft representative.

Gentoo is a distribution of Linux that its developers claim is fully customizable for any application or need. According to a recent Netcraft survey, the number of Web sites running Gentoo increased by almost 50 percent over the previous six months.