Is open source finally making sense to Microsoft? Jeremy LaCroix sees a number of reasons to believe so. He notes that within only six months, the company has contributed 20,000 lines of code to the Linux community, given away countless copies of Windows 7, launched its CodePlex foundation, and announced that it is opening up the .PST data format behind Microsoft Outlook. I think it will be a long time before Microsoft fully wakes up to the benefits of open source, but some divisions hear the call, and more will over time.

As we mentioned we would do earlier today, we followed up with Microsoft's senior director of platform strategy, and its effective chief of open source strategy, Sam Ramji, on plans for the CodePlex Foundation. He also weighed in on his own plans. Ramji, whose tenure at Microsoft has been widely followed by and influential toward the open source community, has confirmed that he is leaving the company at the end of September, for a new position in Silicon Valley. He remains the current Interim President of the CodePlex Foundation, though, and told us more about his intentions for it and the foundation's future. 

Microsoft has co-founded and launched its new CodePlex Foundation, which it will supply the initial funding for, and is focused on open source. According to the foundation's site, the non-profit organization will be "providing a forum in which best practices and shared understanding can be established by a broad group of participants, both software companies and open source communities."

Sam Ramji (shown), senior director of platform strategy at Microsoft, and a noted open source advocate, announced the initiative and appears to be currently leading it. However, OStatic has heard reports that Ramji is leaving Microsoft, although there are also reports that he is only moving from Microsoft to preside over the new foundation. At the time of this writing, there is no confirmation from Microsoft on that point, but we have reached out to Sam and company spokespeople, and will update. Here are more details.