The latest Linux provider that joined Microsoft’s pact for Linux is none other than Linpire, previously known as Lindows. The two companies announced a broad interoperability, technical collaboration that also includes intellectual property assurances.

For Linspire it seems a rather odd agreement, because in 2001 the company spend millions of dollars in order to change its name from Lindows, due to Microsoft’s copyright infringement claims.

But the old stories seems to be forgotten, and Microsoft and Linspire will work together on a variety of technical projects designed to enhance interoperability and expand the functionality of Linspire

According to a joint press release Microsoft and Linspire will work together on a variety of technical projects such as document format compatibility, instant messaging, (Linspire will license Microsoft’s RT Audio Codec to promote voice-enabled interoperability between Linspire’s Pidgin instant messaging client and Microsoft’s instant messaging clients),  digital media and TrueType fonts such as Ariel, Georgia, Times New Roman and Verdana.

In return Linspire will select the Live Search service of Windows Live as the Linspire 5.0 default Web search engine

“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 at Linspire. “Over the years, in an effort to expand choice, we have entered into dozens of agreements with commercial software vendors. It certainly made sense to collaborate with Microsoft, one of the most important partners in the PC ecosystem.”

For Microsoft, the agreement is the latest in a series of collaborations with Linux platform and OSS providers. This list of collaborators includes JBoss, LG Electronics, Novell, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Xandros Inc., XenSource Inc. and Zend Technologies Inc.