Microsoft (MSFT) and Turbolinux have announced a business agreement that expands on their recent collaborations in Japan and China.

This collaboration features the development of a single sign-on solution enabling customers to use one set of credentials to log onto Windows-based and Turbolinux devices. This solution is intended to improve computing efficiencies and cut down on internal IT costs.

"This agreement represents a business and technical collaboration that will benefit customers," said David Kaefer, general manager for intellectual property licensing at Microsoft. "Through this collaboration Microsoft and Turbolinux are reinforcing our combined commitment to providing real solutions for our customers such as the single sign-on solution. Turbolinux is now one of Microsoft's preferred Linux partners, and we are looking forward to continue building bridges between open source and commercial technologies."

Expanding on earlier agreements that involved Turbolinux collaboration with the Open XML document format and the use of Microsoft Windows Media Format, Turbolinux desktops will now also feature Live Search.

"Together, we can do much to reduce the cost and complexity of running mixed Windows and Linux IT environments, and we believe this agreement gives our company a significant edge in the marketplace," said Yano Koichi, CEO of Turbolinux. "Delivering value requires a vision for how to design mixed-source solutions that tackle clear customer priorities and a framework for sharing intellectual property. When strong Microsoft customers are evaluating Linux, we want them to see Turbolinux as the distribution that works best with their existing Microsoft investments."

This agreement is the first between Microsoft and a leading Linux server and desktop platform distributor in Asia.