Microsoft Open Source

I was surprised to discover today that Microsoft has a hosting site for Open Source projects (analogous to, say, SourceForge.net or GNU Savannah): witness Codeplex. To my further surprise, there's also an Open Source community site at Microsoft, named Port 25. I haven't got time to investigate either of them more deeply yet, but plan to do so in future. This is intriguing.

(Found them both following Microsoft's Open Source Interoperability Initiative FAQ.)

Mind you, I was aware earlier that Microsoft has software released under OSI-approved licenses; there are more than few Microsoft-backed projects hosted on SourceForge.net (or did they move to Codeplex since? Hm...). What I was not aware of, and what I believe is a big deal is that Microsoft is now providing its own hosted infrastructure for Open Source project hosting and community discussion.