How Microsoft Learned to Stop Worrying and (Almost) Love Open Source

Sam Ramji insisted that he wasn’t joking, that he wasn’t crazy, and that he hadn’t joined some sort of dark Microsoft conspiracy. The year was 2006, and Ramji had just been named Microsoft’s head of open source software strategy. Up to then, Redmond’s most famous contribution to the open source community was CEO Steve Ballmer comparing Linux to a malignant cancer. Even Ramji was skeptical — and a little afraid — of his new job...

...But ultimately, Ramji decided he could help change not only Microsoft — but also the general perception that the company is the mortal enemy of open source software. Five years later, it’s clear that Ramji — and others working alongside him — achieved at least part of this rather lofty goal.

Ramji left Microsoft in 2009, but in the wake of his early work, the company is not just paying lip service to the open source community. It’s actually open sourcing code to outside projects. And though many still question the company’s overall approach to the community — pointing to the way it wields patents against Google’s Android mobile operating system and other Linux-based platforms — even hard-core open sourcers are acknowledging that the company has changed...