At this week's LinuxWorld conference, Microsoft officials are planning to play up the Windows-Unix interoperability and cross-platform application-portability strategies that will be enabled Microsoft's pending Windows Server 2003 R2 operating system release.

Bill Hilf, the head of Microsoft's Linux lab, is planning to talk up during his LinuxWorld session on Wednesday the elements of Microsoft's Services for Unix subsystem that the company is integrating into R2. Hilf tipped his hand during a Q&A with Slashdot readers posted to the Slashdot Web site on Monday.

"I can confirm that the next-generation of several components of Services for Unix are being integrated into Windows Server 2003 R2. The Network File System (NFS) client, NFS Server, User/Name Mapping, Telnet Server & Client, Password Sync and NIS Server components of Services for Unix are all present in the Windows Server 2003 R2 builds," said Hilf, in response to one of the Slashdot questioners. "In addition, a revamped POSIX subsystem, the 'Subsystem for Unix-based Applications' or 'SUA' is also available as an optional install in R2.

"Integrating this functionality in Windows Server 2003 R2 provides native support of cross-platform management tools, Windows/Unix interoperability and Unix to Windows application portability. This is a big help for many of the customers I talk to and something I will demonstrate at my LinuxWorld session this week."

R2 is a fairly minor version of Windows Server, built on the recently released Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) code base. R2 integrates a number of the myriad Windows Server 2003 feature packs that Microsoft has shipped since April 2003, plus adds a few new features. Among the new features slated for inclusion in R2: a new file migration toolkit; simple-SAN management tools; a new storage-resource-management subsystem (code-named "Corral") and centralized file and print management facilities.

The R2 release is slated to ship by the end of calendar 2005.

Microsoft officials have said to expect R2 to ship with three UNIX interoperability components, specifically, Microsoft Services for NFS, the SUA subsystem, and Identity Management for Unix subsystem.

According to Microsoft, Microsoft Services for NFS component requires no software other than what will ship as part of Windows Server 2003 R2. The SUA subsystem requires additional components to be installed on Windows Server 2003 R2 and on the Unix servers and clients respectively, the company has said.